(Video can be viewed here)

One Minute Film (Alerik Wang, Jacob Angelozzi, Nick Tang)-A Teacher’s Rewards

In our video we detailed the events leading up to what transpires in the short story “A Teacher’s Reward” by Robert Phillips. The short story is about a retired teacher, Ms. Scoffield, who gets a mysterious visit from one of her former students, Raybe Simpson. Their visit does not unfold as she thought it would, as it is revealed that Raybe blames her for all the misfortunes that have befallen him in life, with him being there to exact his revenge. The film starts off with Raybe exiting prison and trying to find a new place in the world. As he is walking down the street, he is plagued by flashbacks, shown in black and white on film, detailing his past failures. The final flashback shows once again his knuckles being rapped, but this time with the assailant’s, Ms. Scoffield’s, face being visible. A predominant symbol in the story was the rapping of Raybe’s knuckles as a child, therefore having Ms. Scoffield in the final flashback explains that Raybe has come to the conclusion that she is to blame for everything bad that has happened to him. The film then finishes with the first scene of the story, when Ms. Scoffield opens the door to Raybe. It then fades to black because since we are solely detailing the events prior to the story, someone who has already read the short story should be capable of filling in the blanks leading up to the scream and bone crushing audio played at the very end of the film.