Drama - Sign Language

Sign Language dir: Oscar Sharp: 2010: 5'

 This is a warm hearted, very sweet little ‘docudrama’ following the conventions of a short documentary but with an added cute dramatic story slowly creeping its way into the film. It is the story of a Ben, a man on his final day of his job as a sign holder due to his ‘promotion’. Instantly it becomes impossible to dislike Ben, as the director has taken his dialogue into deep thought. From his dialogue we warm to Ben as throughout he describes his enthusiasm on the beauty of the world and the beauty of the people around him, we can also see how his character is colourful and light from the costume he is wearing with his colourful clothing, gloves especially (a hint of a connection that we soon come to realise as the film continues).

As the film continues we gain the impression that mood of the film may slowly being going into the romantic genre. Personally I got this from the camera work and framing of the shots. The framing is mainly close ups studying Ben’s expressions as his talks about his views on certain topics. The camera also lingers on Ben as he focuses on a certain subject a number of times, which the camera then pans to reveal he is watching the female flyer across the road. The other characters are shown in a wide shot throughout from Ben’s point of view, the only close up we have on another character is the female flyer suggesting Ben has an attraction towards this person. This to me also suggests that Ben is lonely, possibly looking for love and is a shy character.

The costumes used also hint towards Ben’s attraction for the female character as they are the only actors in the film that wear colourful clothing making them stand out from the grey, dull setting of central London, she is also wearing the same gloves design as Ben. The fact that throughout the film the female flyer does not pay attention to Ben suggests that Ben has never approached her and she is oblivious to his attraction for her.

As the film draws to an end you begin to believe that Ben may actually be a loner and that his fellow employees around him are not these ‘great friends’ that Ben describes them as. This is because throughout the film the director has intentionally made sure the other actors (Ben’s fellow workers) do not pay attention to Ben and are always shot from at a distance. This makes the turning point of the film even more surprising and heart-warming because as Ben begins to leave his last day at work his fellow workers have placed personal goodbye messages on each of their large sale signs for him and finally tell him to go over and speak to the woman he has been attracted to for so long.

The music throughout is a tender acoustic guitar track that for me creates two emotional moods for the film. The first emotion is a slight hint of sadness as Ben is having his last day of work and is desperate to speak to the person he is attracted to and may miss his chance forever. The other emotion is happiness as it reflects Ben’s optimistic, happy-go-lucky character which is very difficult not to warm to.

Overall, Sign Language is a short film that I very much enjoyed; personally I believe it is the tone of the film that worked the best for me. It is very easy to make a short drama very melancholic, which is a common theme for most British dramas that focus more on social realist situations such as poverty and the dullness that follows with it. With Sign Language the film had a more light-hearted, joyful message to it. This is because even though Ben has what many consider to be to be a miserable job he is throughout optimistic and happy and passionate with everything he talks about or does. It sends the message that no matter your situation in life, enjoy and love life.

The overall style of the film is not something that my group is not trying to achieve, but the cheerful tone and happy undertone and message is something we definitely want to bring across to our audience.