Silent Things - Holly Stone

Silent Things

Representation of Disability

There are many representations of disability in Silent Things. The title of the short film itself works with the opening scene of the film. The camera opens on a worms eye view of the sky, a non-diagetic sound track plays continuously in the background, with a kite flying in the sky with edited sounds or alternatively a Foley. The kite sounds like its soaring, breaking the silence of the shot.

Above is the shot we are cut to, a two-shot of our two protagonists. The body language of the female represents that she has a disability as she continuously
twitches and may appear as though struggling mentally or physically in some way.

The next shots are continuous cuts of our two protagonists as they untangle the kite, the silence still continuing in the scene. The facial expressions on their faces shows that they are not particularly bothered about not communicating with one another, effectively this could be a way of showing their isolation, and possibly represent that part of their disability is being unable to communicate. 

A new female character is introduced to the scene as she watches our male protagonist flying his kite. However behind him are people who are shouting abuse at him, the girl replies to their question of whether shes his girlfriend with the answer "yes". She does this only to make the potential bullies go away. However this represents how society outcasts those who are disabled or are different in some way. Although the male protagonist is harmless and is peacefully flying a kite on the beach, narrow minded people begin to isolate him from the rest of them. 

In the next shot one of our main protagonists ask the girl on the beach why she said she was his girlfriend. This once again may represent his naivety and represent his disability as stereotypically mentally disabled people are often described as "slow" and may not understand the reasons behind actions as well as "normal" people. He then announces that he has asparagus syndrome. This adds to why he cant communicate particularly well and why he isolates himself. Asparagus effects communication and in some-way make sufferers minds work slower when compared to a person who doesn't suffer asparagus.

As the new female character and our male protagonist continue to converse on the beach. Our main female protagonist begins to walk over to the pair on the beach. The mid-long shot shows her walking over to them, her body language however, suggests she feels threatened. If she too suffers asparagus, the idea of meeting someone new may come as a fright, again demonstrating the isolation of disabilities.

The female protagonist begins to explain how you can't simply decide to be friends with someone, and how it is more complicated than that, demonstrating how she feels threatened possibly once more. She continues to get fired up against our male protagonist, causing a minor argument.

As our male protagonist then begins to ignore her, the sound

of the waves on the beach begin to disappear to the non-diagetic

sound track again. Silence falls upon the female protagonist and her facial expression

and body language as she looks at the ground suggests she is disappointed and represents

once more how disabilities can make you feel isolated.

Our male protagonist and the new female character are shown in a over the shoulder shot as they are sitting by the shore of the beach. They talk about ferries and the male protagonist begins to go in depth about how ferries work, essentially breaking the stereotype about him possibly being "thick" and "slow" as although he has never been on a ferry, he knows an awful lot about them. The film progresses to our original female protagonist watching them from the distance, showing isolation as her friend agrees to board a ferry with his new found "friend."

The lighting on this close up of our protagonists face shows that he is in distress although wanting to go away. The lighting clearly shows his facial expression which may have purposely been used to gain the audiences sympathy. The sound is once again removed from the film, a distant non-diagetic heartbeat is heard to show how distressed our protagonist is. Although his female friend is talking to him, the sound is removed from her voice and adds to the tension of the moment. 

Although our male protagonist is assisted and taken away from the ferry, his "friend" betrays him and claims that he was asking her to get on a ferry with him and lies to the officers. This confuses him as he knows he's done nothing wrong, causing more stress.

Although there was a lot of drama, the film finishes on the two original characters re-united and silent on the beach again with the same kite. This represents
how their disability may not allow them to understand the consequences of actions and
make them hold grudges, however it teaches them to move on and find a place of safety and something which makes them feel good.