Liam Woodgate

How is disability represented in this extract through the use of camera

work, editing, mise en scene and sound.

The opening shot of the extract is a birds eye view shot of their bedroom, clearly
displaying the differences of each character. Davids half of the room is dark and
tidy, whilst Bens side is colourful and messy. This would be stereotypical of
disabled people and how they are simple-minded yet happy and how abled
people can be sad and depressed over small problems in comparison. This
difference in character creates a conflict between the siblings. In the next scene,
the first shot is an extreme close up of Bens face with food in front of it. This
establishes him as a key character of family life and displays how
influential/prominent he is. They begin to argue at breakfast but the father
intervenes, I could do without having another [fight] in my own kitchen. This
shows how he has had to put up with their tension for a while and hes lost his
patience. Bens mental issues infuriate David which has an effect on the family,
this is a stereotype of disabled people, they are often seen as a hindrance and
cause issues. After their mum tells him off for being rude, a close up shows the
viewer that he is smiling, deceiving her and using his disability for leverage. This
is an antitype, because disabled people arent often portrayed as being
manipulative or exploiting their few privileges. Along with this, Ben shouts no!
when David reasonably tries to take some of the cereal, this annoys the viewer
as well as the characters, placing us in their shoes and displaying us how
frustrating it would be live with him.

The extract attempts to have Ben come across quite negatively towards the
viewer. For example, one of the first main shots we see of him, we see an
extreme close up of his face in focus, with his fork and a bit of cereal in front of
it. This shot is fairly off-putting, which is an aspect of the stereotype that
disabled people are unattractive. As David describes his life with Ben, we view a
visual montage of most of their time spent together. We see shots of him eating
ice cream, learning to ride a bicycle at an old age and still playing with toys. The
extract portrays Ben as childish and immature, which supports the stereotypes
attached to disability. When David confronts Ben about eating too much cereal,
Ben responds by saying but I like Weetabix, which is clearly reaffirming the
stereotype of disabled people being simple-minded and ignorant, yet harmless in
their intentions. When he asks how pigs die, and David lies to him to tease him,
he believes it which tells the viewer how nave and vulnerable he is, this
supports the stereotype that disabled people need help and are incapable of
caring for themselves.

There are parts where we can clearly see how isolation affects Ben himself, but
mainly we see how David is held back by his brother and is consciously suffering
from it. We are able to see how affected David is since he is intelligent and
socially aware enough to consciously assess his situation, allowing the viewer to
empathise with him. One of the first shots in the extract rotates around Davids
head with him narrating allowing the audience inner thoughts into his own
opinion on Ben, he fantasizes about Killing him to end his own personal
suffering. Davids friend invites David along to a gathering, a close up of Davids
Liam Woodgate

face reveals the pain that he cant be a normal teenager with his friends because
of his brothers disability. He responds by saying Maybe, its just complicated.
This supports a common stereotype of how isolating a disability can be for the
individual and the people that have to take care for them. David is struggling to
be a normal teenager whilst he has to constantly look after someone else.
However, after his friend insists he decides to let Ben go home alone. Ben is
clearly nervous. In the scene on the bus, he is holding the rails firmly and a level
front on shot of him shows us his fearful expression. The diegetic sound fades
down and stays at a low volume. This switch of sound highlights how Ben is
somewhat separated from the external world, this supports the theory of how
some disabilities cause people to live in their own world.

In conclusion, I think this extract certainly follows the stereotypes of disabled

people and abled peoples reactions and responses to them. The use of close ups
of characters reactions to create a mood, and portray how Bens disability
affects them as well as a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sound to firmly
asserts that the piece is attempting to portray Ben as a disabled person through
the use of stereotypes, however we also see an anti-type in Ben possibly using
the disability to advance his own agenda which would not be stereotypical and
could be considered offensive to a disabled person.