A film director has a very difficult job. He is to find some way to combine a multitude of elements like image, sound and the passage of time to create a story and he must do it in such a way that, when it is presented to a large group of different people, it can elicit a common emotional response through them all. If a director hopes to succeed at his art, he must learn what is needed when in a scene and what kinds of response his choice with get from an audience. Scott Hicks understands this perfectly and his 1996 film, Shine, is a brilliant demonstration of his skill. The places where his emotional manipulation is especially apparent are during the three high emotion scenes; the encounter between David and his father in the bathtub, David's performance of Rachmaninov's Concerto No. 3, and when David is playing on the trampoline at Sylvia's.…
