'SILENT THINGS' - Alex

REPRESENTATION - (Ability/Disability)

'Silent Things' (Rob Brown, 2011) is a dramatised romantic comedy that deals with asperger syndrome in young adults/teenagers. The narrative follows the misunderstanding that comes with autism, and the stigma that comes with it. After watching the film, I looked up the symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome in  children to find a lot of the symptoms are displayed.  I've listed 5 symptoms of the disability and how it's been shown in the short. 

COMMUNICATION DIFFICULTIES

The male lead suffers from Asperger's  and shows no physical clues to suggest it. He does disclose his disability during a shot-reverse-shot conversation with the female lead. However, as the conversation progresses, you see the clear stereotypes; more through personality and interaction with other characters.

Although the male is occupied, he doesn't make eye contact with the female for the entirety of their initial conversation. This is an accurate representation. Communication difficulties are frequent; sufferers tend to lack eye contact, or have trouble using facial expressions/gestures. This character progresses through the short and begins to find a friend in the teenage girl. In figure 4. he begins to make eye contact - this eye-line match is shown using an OTS shot. The depth of field focuses on the male to highlight this conversation's importance.

SKILLED OR TALENT

Once the friendship's been established, the two begin talking about the upcoming trip on the ferry. He tells the female lead all the credentials to make a ferry move - obviously not common knowledge to the majority, but something he just happens to know. One symptom of asperger's is excelling in specific areas of knowledge or being multi-talented in very hands on activities.

PROBLEMS WITH SOCIAL SKILLS

When the two main characters begin talking, the male doesn't want to lead the conversation in any way. Asperger's sufferers generally have difficulty interacting in social situations. The female lead is left to ask the questions as she constantly pushes some form of interaction. The main line that triggers a form of interest is when the female lead shouts out to abusive on-lookers that he is her boyfriend - the male accepts this form of flattery and uses it as a form of comfort.

When the male is waiting to board the ferry, he begins to have an internal breakdown - he is centred on himself and becomes fixated on cutting everything around him out. This is shown sound filters to position ourselves in an asperger's sufferers mind. To other characters, this sound would be non-diegetic. However, this problem with social skills results in questions being raised on whether he is inappropriately taking the female on the ferry. Having a younger mind and socialising with younger people can be another struggle that older people with asperger's suffer with.

Working again with the flattery that comes with comfort, many sufferers like to use their imagination to help themselves. This can be from two extremes; the male lead calls the female lead his friend when confronted by another character with asperger's. The other character with asperger's asks how they can be friends "if they only met today" - both of them display social awkwardness when confronted with this unknown person. In conjunction with lack of communication, the female lead shows physical clues that she suffers as well - she's very tense in her body language, and touches her hands and face whenever she's on screen.

The two asperger's sufferers find comfort in each other, and the narrative shows the two rejoin as friends at the end of the short.

WHAT CAN I TAKE FROM THIS?

- I'm not very experienced in films that deal with (dis)ability, so to have this as the longest film to analyse really was helpful. Not necessarily a key skill/technique as well, but it had also opened by mind to asperger's, and made me interested enough to research more into this form of autism. The film was clearly successful in it's purpose if it made me want to look into it.