Interpreting The Short Film 'Beyond Words' By Tropfest
The text Beyond Words composed by Tropfest in 2009, is known to be the world’s largest short film festival. Due to the suspense and fear shown within the text it is one that engages its audiences in order for such emotions to be felt. Beyond Words uses a diverse amount of codes and conventions of thriller such as iconography and characterization. The question arises as to if Beyond Words is an effective thriller.
In the beginning of Beyond Words it was understandable that the female protagonist was deaf due to the straightforward hand movements which signalled sign language. Then on the male’s half he had pulled out his walking stick signalling his disorder as the yoga session came to an end. Either way neither of our characters were aware of the conditions they shared entirely until the resolution. Another important piece to this text was when the female sprayed her perfume on in the beginning of the text. This giving the blind male a scent to follow in the yoga class, corridor and out in the carpark when she was attempting to leave, all areas where the two encountered one another.
Beyond Words displayed several snippets and motions showing the built-up suspense, leaving the responder constantly engaged in what is to …show more content…
come. The composer has done this by using characterization and the relationships they share. The way in which the text was formatted displayed significant cleverness, adjusting to both the deaf and blind perspectives of both the main characters. We are first introduced to our protagonist, being a female who enters into her yoga session being stared at creepily and made to feel uncomfortable by the male who is perceived to be the antagonist. The responder is then put in the position to feel fear for our protagonist and what the male’s intentions are. After the session came to an end, the for seen antagonist makes an effort to talk to her but she does not hear him due to being deaf which he is unaware of at this point. In relation to this factor, as she leaves the building it is realized towards the resolution that she had dropped her keys, yet there was no reply when she was being spoken to. As the female protagonist leaves to walk to her car, the audience is presented with the definite antagonist. An unrelated male who is attempting to steal the female’s car keys. At this specific location, the roles of both characters were tested to an extreme. This clip intensified the suspense of the text which made for a powerful climax. As she struggles to tug herself off from the well-defined antagonist, the blind gentlemen steps in and can hear the struggle in the female’s position. A moment was then fabricated between the two main characters relying on each-others help to comprehend what had just transpired. The attacker shortly straggles off quickly once hearing our protagonist step in. Following this scene is the joint effort of both main characters finally registering the meaning of all things up to this point in time.
Iconography also played an important role in Beyond Words using several components to illustrate each one to its full potential. Firstly, the use of sound in our female’s panorama introducing non-diegetic (mood sound) sounds. Towards the beginning, the sound of echoes made the responder feel as though they could not hear a thing relating this to her deaf perspective. Leading on to the use of editing in our male’s outlook, the use of black screen visuals which appeared at certain points were used to adjust to his blind birds-eye-view. Furthermore, the use of space was fascinating due to being in their positons and states. The areas they found themselves in such as the yoga class did not assist to either character, enforcing both to make themselves as comfortable as possible.
The responder is positioned to feel puzzled throughout the text wondering why our so called “antagonist” was making our female character uncomfortable at the start, until the pieces started to fall into place. Coming to realize shortly after that what one of the two may have thought about the other was not a hundred percent accurate. Throughout Beyond Words the main characters were both bewildered leaving the audience in a whirl of emotions. Both not having the abilities to understand each other at the start created a both exciting and mystified position for the responder.
Therefore, Beyond Words is an incredible representation of an effective thriller providing examples to back up this statement, these being characterisation and iconography.
It is also a text that illustrates how individuals enable themselves to make up faulty allegations about other individuals that turn out to be the complete opposite which was perceived by the responder.
Reference:
YouTube. 2017. Beyond Words | Finalist of Tropfest Australia 2009 - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJlVNxBbrU8. [Accessed 24 February 2017].
Zero at the Bone. 2017. Film Review: Beyond Words | Zero at the Bone. [ONLINE] Available at: https://zeroatthebone.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/film-review-beyond-words/. [Accessed 24 February
2017].
In the beginning of Beyond Words it was understandable that the female protagonist was deaf due to the straightforward hand movements which signalled sign language. Then on the male’s half he had pulled out his walking stick signalling his disorder as the yoga session came to an end. Either way neither of our characters were aware of the conditions they shared entirely until the resolution. Another important piece to this text was when the female sprayed her perfume on in the beginning of the text. This giving the blind male a scent to follow in the yoga class, corridor and out in the carpark when she was attempting to leave, all areas where the two encountered one another.
Beyond Words displayed several snippets and motions showing the built-up suspense, leaving the responder constantly engaged in what is to …show more content…
come. The composer has done this by using characterization and the relationships they share. The way in which the text was formatted displayed significant cleverness, adjusting to both the deaf and blind perspectives of both the main characters. We are first introduced to our protagonist, being a female who enters into her yoga session being stared at creepily and made to feel uncomfortable by the male who is perceived to be the antagonist. The responder is then put in the position to feel fear for our protagonist and what the male’s intentions are. After the session came to an end, the for seen antagonist makes an effort to talk to her but she does not hear him due to being deaf which he is unaware of at this point. In relation to this factor, as she leaves the building it is realized towards the resolution that she had dropped her keys, yet there was no reply when she was being spoken to. As the female protagonist leaves to walk to her car, the audience is presented with the definite antagonist. An unrelated male who is attempting to steal the female’s car keys. At this specific location, the roles of both characters were tested to an extreme. This clip intensified the suspense of the text which made for a powerful climax. As she struggles to tug herself off from the well-defined antagonist, the blind gentlemen steps in and can hear the struggle in the female’s position. A moment was then fabricated between the two main characters relying on each-others help to comprehend what had just transpired. The attacker shortly straggles off quickly once hearing our protagonist step in. Following this scene is the joint effort of both main characters finally registering the meaning of all things up to this point in time.
Iconography also played an important role in Beyond Words using several components to illustrate each one to its full potential. Firstly, the use of sound in our female’s panorama introducing non-diegetic (mood sound) sounds. Towards the beginning, the sound of echoes made the responder feel as though they could not hear a thing relating this to her deaf perspective. Leading on to the use of editing in our male’s outlook, the use of black screen visuals which appeared at certain points were used to adjust to his blind birds-eye-view. Furthermore, the use of space was fascinating due to being in their positons and states. The areas they found themselves in such as the yoga class did not assist to either character, enforcing both to make themselves as comfortable as possible.
The responder is positioned to feel puzzled throughout the text wondering why our so called “antagonist” was making our female character uncomfortable at the start, until the pieces started to fall into place. Coming to realize shortly after that what one of the two may have thought about the other was not a hundred percent accurate. Throughout Beyond Words the main characters were both bewildered leaving the audience in a whirl of emotions. Both not having the abilities to understand each other at the start created a both exciting and mystified position for the responder.
Therefore, Beyond Words is an incredible representation of an effective thriller providing examples to back up this statement, these being characterisation and iconography.
It is also a text that illustrates how individuals enable themselves to make up faulty allegations about other individuals that turn out to be the complete opposite which was perceived by the responder.
Reference:
YouTube. 2017. Beyond Words | Finalist of Tropfest Australia 2009 - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJlVNxBbrU8. [Accessed 24 February 2017].
Zero at the Bone. 2017. Film Review: Beyond Words | Zero at the Bone. [ONLINE] Available at: https://zeroatthebone.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/film-review-beyond-words/. [Accessed 24 February
2017].