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Tuesday, 16 September 2014

Silent Things-Representation-Gemma


An establishing shot is used to open the short film where we see an extreme long shot of two people on an empty beach, a two shot is used in the following scene to show both characters standing beside each other watching the male character flying a kite. Both characters are standing silent and not interacting at all which would suggest they are not sure on what to say to each other or if they even know each other at all. These two shots help the audience build a picture as stereotypically disabled people tend to have poor social skills and feel nervous as well as are more likely to be isolated. This is further then implemented to the audience when a medium close up is used to show the female characters body language awkwardly playing with her hands near her face.

 

The pair are distant from each other not physically as they are besides each other but in their mind-sets. Focus pulling shows the audience the two characters facial expressions which show them appearing to be in a world of their own, this conveys a sense of loneliness and being isolated. This is stereotypically a feature of a disabled person keeping themselves to themselves. The isolation of the scene is reinforced by the empty beach where they are standing with a few birds flying above them and by the soft diegetic ambient sound of waves and birds.

 

A Binary opposition is then shown via the setting of the beach being dark and gloomy to in the following scene the setting of the beach being sunny with blue skies. The costumes between the male character and the new female character also shows a binary opposition as the male is wearing darker items of clothing whereas the female is wearing a pop of colour.

 

The first female character walks down the beach and stops in her track which finishes in a  medium close up where we see her facial expressions looking angry at the fact the male character and new female character are together. She looks very uncomfortable and doesn’t look sure on what to do.  Once the three characters are into the shot the first female characters dialogue asks who the female is and talks over her head being rude about her, this again conveys the females disability as she doesn’t have good social skills knowing when to talk about someone and when to not. Her body language throughout the scene is uncomfortable pulling at her sleeves and shuffling which is reinforced by her facial expressions where she is looking at the ground avoiding eye contact with the female character.

 

Once on the ferry cuts are used to transition between the man and other passengers starting showing the differences in their behaviour with ambient diegetic sounds of people talking and the environment making natural noises opens the scene but this then changes to non-diegetic sounds of echoes and whispery dialogue fills the space, this conveys the man’s disability his facial expressions in a close up show a sense of pain him closing his eyes and trying to breathe through the sounds match on actions are used to show him moving his head in different directions where the camera picks up expressions.

 

At the end the initial characters are again seen on the beach via a two shot fixing the kite together giving a sense to the audience on this is how this is meant to be with the two characters silently being together, the setting has gone back to a foggy dark lighting.

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