Nigel - Silent Things Analysis

I think this short film has a strong sense of representation towards all of the characters.

The younger girl (we know this because he asks why she isn’t at school) is represented as a friendly towards the other characters but knows how to stand up for herself, as the beginning she defends the man and says ‘so what if he’s my boyfriend’ which is pushing away the hassle from the boys in the background, ultimately defending the man and herself. You don’t really see how these characters exactly met or if they had a conversation beforehand. She is represented as being quite happy shown by her facial expression most of the beach scene. But she has a darker side as she gets the man in trouble by saying that he was the one who made her

basically get on the ferry instead of admitting to running away from home, as would presume would be the case unless the mother allowed it. This girl seems to have power over the man but visa versa, the man makes her laugh suggesting he also has some power over her, but not as much as the girl as the girl defends him.

The man is in the main focus of the short story, everything revolves around him. He is represented as being quite weak and in his own zone. You first discover him in a liminal setting which he is happy at, at the end this is restored, with the man using the kite once again with the woman by his side. The editing and sound used when the viewer is empathising with him is cleverly crafted to go alongside the tone of the title ‘Silent Things’. There isn’t much sound when he is having difficulty and instead everything seems to go in slow motion for him, the reactions are important in revealing how he is seen by everyone else, therefore also how they are represented. The girl looks worried when he has difficulty which could suggest that she cares or that she was out of her depth as she makes no real steps to actually help him.

The woman is essential for the story as she gives the whole thing a kind of equilibrium, a time when it seemed like they both were at peace as found at the ending of the short film, although we don’t see this until then, before that we see the woman as an enemy because she is trying to separate and put negative thoughts in the mind of the man about the girl which seem to actually turn out to be correct and was aiming to protect him the whole entire time. 

The attendants who lead the man off the ferry are represented to be a kind of set example of the general public as they presume things and don’t actually ask much, so as a basic negative view over everything, even shown to have an odd facial expression which shows that they are unsure what to make of that situation or maybe just suggests the opinions of perhaps people in general. It could be even said that their faces represent disgust or just being weirded out by the situation, which was made very serious by the girl’s choice of words.