2012 A Deafening Story - Dom

'Some things given to us we take for granted. We follow a young man named Mike who is ecstatic that he is able to hear, every small noise from the tremble of his feet to the sounds of birds in the sky, blissfully unaware that he will be getting a very harsh reality check '

I chose this film on Virgin Media shorts because of the interesting  and creative editing effects and it offers interesting perspectives on disabilities, in particular deafness. The way the plot unfolds is also entertaining.

Click here to watch the full film

Representations & Media language.

The main issue being addressed here is disabilities, in particular deafness. The short is essentially a perspective of a man suffering from deafness, who appears to temporarily be cured. 

First of all, A mid shot shows the main character, walking towards us with a distortion around him; showing us he has a disability and how he struggles to make out the world around him. We assume his sense of hearing is gone, because of the distorted sound used. It's hard to tell whether its diegetic or non diegetic. The sound could be what he 'hears' or to represent his inability to make out the sounds around him.

The city setting and characters around him ding 'everyday' things, adds social realism, emphasising the believability of his deafness being cured.

quick-zooms to a close up of the characters face (shallow depth of field) , emphasises his amazed facial expressions. He seems overwhelmed when his hearing returns.  At this point the distortion goes away  and the sound heard from here is all diegetic. It clearly communicates his disbelief for what has happens.


In terms of body language, he keeps on touching his ears. A sign they are working! Moreover a sign that they don't usually work and he is confused to why they have started to hear again.

The diegetic sounds of him clapping and clicking are enhanced and accompanied by some quick-zooms. They show his new almost perfect hearing. More Close Ups and extreme close ups show him clapping close to his ear: we get a sense of what he is hearing, putting us deeper in his perspective. There's a shot reverse shot of some birds tweeting. A sound able hearing, people would ignore but he picks up on; as shown via this shot. I.e it shows his appreciation for everyday sounds we take for granted.

A mid-long shot of him walking slower suggests he is overwhelmed by his hearing returning to him. We can see visually, what he is hearing in his environment. Every sound  from footsteps to police sirens, he is enjoying. ones we often don't care much for.

Entering a shop, there's an eye line match between him and the shop assistant who reading  a magazine. A close up of a chocolate bar, with diegetic loud rustling sounds gives us the idea he was going in not because he was hungry, just because he wanted to experience more sounds.

Point of view shots between the young man and young woman when purchasing the chocolate give us their perspective in turn. The girl appears not to be able to hear the man. we assume she is just ignoring him, as she is reading a magazine and had acknowledged he was in the shop beforehand. Eventually the man is cut mid sentence "can you...hear me?" and its finished by the girl aggressively  his hearing then deteriorates  We then see from two different perspectives. How it can be hard to try and communicate with the deaf, and how it can be trying to communicate when deaf. What is interesting is the man doesn't assume the woman to have any disability  and just thinks she is ignoring her (partly because of the magazine, which I think is why its there, including the bubblegum associated with not listening). Which is ironic, considering that he suffered from complete deafness a few moments ago . He gets frustrated as well. 

The point at which the woman finishes the man sentence ( it appears she had been getting more and more angry moments before) , is the point where we question whether his disability was genuinely cured in the first place, or it was (somehow) in his imagination. It's a blunt reality check; he is deaf, and there's not much he can ever do about.
Costume and the job, show the class of the girl, however, I think the main focus/issues are on the disability.

Narrative

Story is hard to work out. Little information given about the story apart form we know he suffers from deafness. The plot seems like an abnormal event, judging by the facial expressions, so therefore is hard to relate to the plot. The plot is completely linear showing a chain of events. the point where he becomes deaf, although time has passed in the film, seems like its 'back to square one' so to speak.

I would say the equilibrium his him being deaf, confrontation (although its positive in this case ) him regaining hearing. The attempt to deal with it could be seen as embracing it, the resolution could be his hearing going away and closure is where things are back to normal. The only thing that has changed is his perception of the world. so in that sense  you could apply Todorovs theory. Its a linear structure in chronological order.

Beginning is the same as ending giving the impacting message, ' don't take your ability/senses for granted because gone day you may not have them' which is the impact this has.

Genres

Technically its labelled as drama. To be honest I cant find a category of genre for this film. Possibly because it could be made to raise awareness of the suffering deaf people have and make us understand what its like form both sides. Therefore  its very hard to class as a single genre as its trying to give a realistic view on the disability. It follows the same codes and conventions as other 'dramas'.i.e the realistic story and events that occur. Semantic codes I can pick out are the way its shot possibly the setting. syntactic is simply the way the plot unfolds, i.e when he is arguing in the shop.

I guess you could say the authors ideology is that deafness, shouldn't have to be. Unfortunately, the truth is (as shown at the end of the film) it happens, and we can't really escape it sometimes.

Audience.

The film was from Virgin Media shorts. Therefore, I guess the majority of the audience are teen to late twenties independent film makers, or student like me. Considering the age range of the independent film makers, student age, and the age of the characters in the film , I think this was made for a young adult audience. class I think is irrelevant here, with nearly everyone having access to the internet to view it.  

I wouldn't say the audience are 'pleased',  but it does have an impact on them. I.e. they are more aware of the hardships both deaf people and those coping with deaf people face daily. 

Apart from being in the Virgin Media shorts competition, no awards were won Its on other short film site, Vimeo, attracting the same audience.

Matt Livingstone the writer,director is  second year film and television student with a long term ambition to work in the film and television industry. Hence, he could be raising awareness for students like himself. This was likely to be assignment.

I realised the film I analysed, was the shorter version on VM shorts. This is because of the competition rules.

Overall

The mains theme raised here is deafness or disabilities in general. It seems to more overall, the author wants to show how hard it can be to cope with deafness. Both from the victims point of view and whoever he/she encounters.