Chosen product - Synopsis

Synopsis

The film opens with the appearance of a girl, Faye Edwards, of about the age of 16/17. We see her room, quite messy, filled with dancewear, dance shoes and screwed up pieces of paper scattered all over the floor. Faye is sat at her desk and plastered all over it are loads of application forms that she is filling out. She screws up yet another one and narrowly misses the bin. Having then completed them we see them sealed and follow her to get them posted. In her head we can hear the voices of her parents: ‘we want you to have a real career’, ‘we have bigger hopes for you’, and ‘you’re very bright, you should think about university, not wasting your time at dance college’... she pauses briefly, but she doesn’t care – she has made up her mind, this is what she wants to do, with or without support.
She is at college with her group of friends and they are talking about what happened at the weekend but Faye can’t join in as she wasn’t there. She is never able to go out with her friends because she has to train. They begin to talk about how great the party will be next Friday night but she knows she can’t go. We see her leave them giving the same excuse she always does ‘I have to practice’. We can hear a sound bridge of the music of a ballet class and the teacher counting as the girls dance. The image changes to show the feet of ballet girls doing exercises at the bar.
We see flashbacks from when she was small. She remembers her mum put her into ballet classes since she could walk. We then flash through her dancing by herself; it starts gently as she practices a dance over and over to the point of collapse of the floor. Throughout there is a narration – a dance teacher’s voice – a constant reminder of the hardships of this life: ‘you have to dance until you feel physically sick’, ‘there is a lot of competition out there so you have to make yourself look like an advanced dancer’, ‘you have to have the right look’. As this is heard, the scene changes to Faye sitting in front of a mirror, putting on a full face of makeup. She is in dance wear and is preparing to go to her audition.
Faye is at the audition. She is in a queue nervously waiting her turn. In the hall we see glimpses of other people dancing in front of a panel of judges. Faye’s number is finally called and she enters, nervously approaches the judges and prepares to begin. After the audition it is necessary for a physio examination to be done but there is a problem as Faye has a curve in her spine.
When she arrives home, she breaks the news to her mum. She is upset that this problem could stunt her chances of getting into college. She is quite clearly worried, but her mum is no help at all. She is happy at the thought that she may not attend after all and her idea of ‘helping’ is to suggest that she help her look into universities telling her that ‘it’s not too late’. She goes to the computer to search UCAS.
The film ends with the letter arriving, having been posted through the letter box. Faye notices its arrival. It takes her a while but she eventually gets up the courage to open it. We can hear a heavy heart beat... but has she got in?