Silent Things Disability ED

Silent Things

The opening scenes to the short film silent things is an open beach with what appears to be a couple flying a kite, they are silent the hole way through the scene and continue to be silent until the kite is packed away, the women appears to have a disability the audience can tell this from her arm movements and facial expression however the man shares the same facial expression this is not enough for the audience to make that assumption yet. A non-diegetic ringing noise is played throughout the scene representing the noise heard in a disabled persons head, this helps to represent how the two people feel in day to day situations, lonely and scared. Following Todorovs narrative theory in this short film this is classed as the equilibrium as both characters we know so far are content, as they are both enjoying there day to day kite flying, the audience can tell this is a daily act from how easily and in time they are when packing away the kite. The disruption stage of the theory is met when another character, a second girl is introduced to the man while he is flying a kite, the first interaction that is made is her lying to hecklers on the beach, the man says ‘I don’t lie….  I cant’ this is where the audience first sees the girls naivety and how young she is as she says ‘youre strange’. This shows she is naive as she has little to no care of his feelings to this even after she has found out he has aspergus syndrome. When she reveals her father is dead and doesn’t see her mother because she sleeps a lot, inside of this mans little bubble and what he knows this is a completely alien to him and shows the same child like naivety back to the girl and responds with ‘your strange’ .  the use of a very overexposed in places, and light camera setting represents how the man sees the world in its white innocence. Much like how we saw things from a young age everything seemed bright and bold.

 

The audience first get a glimpse at the original girls interest in the man when, she see the girl helping him pack away the kite, her normal job, the actors body movements increase to an almost nervous twitch and the character is forced to speak to get answers, the choice of lines used really helps to represent to the audience how hard it is to communicate with a disability like aspergus, the simple conversation is dragged out, to barriers of communication and the 2^nd girl not being very appreciative or tolerant of the original girls disability. All of this stigma is caused because of the lack of the mans communication to both party's, to the disabled and non disabled party he says nothing.

the 2^nd girl and man are having a conversation on ferry's when they compare passports in a childish manner but the man goes in depth detail when describing ferry's, this shows the audience that this is a much older man than the 2^nd girl as she I naturally child like for her age and even though the man acts very child like, playing with a kite shying away from confrontation and comparing passports physically he is much older than her, he has facial hair and is wearing sensible clothing. After his detailed talk on ferry's he finishes it with ‘i-I understand…   ferries’ really linking his two personalty's childlike and innocent however older and more knowledgeable, but these two will never exist in perfect harmony due to his syndrome. Throughout these scenes the noise isn’t heard as the mans short attention span has been taken off his syndrome and his normal day to day life.

The lighting used in the ferry scene is that of sunset however is very red and has lots of glare representing how light appears to him when there is a lot going on not only movement but noise, the people and the ferry and ferry port become abit too much for the man and his disability and the ringing noise is reintroduced, and is sound bridged by a flaring bit of light the sound runs parallel as things become more and more hectic for the man, the girl and people begin to touch him and the noise grows even louder, he is having a breakdown and this is shown to audience as well as we are blocked from hearing anything much like the man is blocking himself away from the rest of the world. In Todorrovs narrative theory this is the peak of the disruption, he has met the girl and she has disrupted his temporary zen.

In this scene the light and mood has changed the lighting is dim a gloomy and the actual environment is a lot less spacious almost claustrophobic. The man is being guided away as he is not communicating what is wrong and therefore the security is assuming the worst. The naive young girl then miscommunicates the situation. He mans facial expression is massive give away as to how uncomfortable he is both in environment and social situation. The dark gloominess of the ship backs this up. The short film reaches its new equilibrium once the police and security have got past the mans barrier to communication and let him calm down a little bit, it is obvious time has past as it Is now dark showing how much time the mans disability takes up. The original girl is waiting outside the front of the police station she has an even more scared and anxious look on her face but this time it is different it is caring as apposed to jealous, she is concerned for him. The last scene is them on the beach flying kites again this is the new equilibrium. They are silent but content with each other.