http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7P35GcPX94http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7P35GcPX94
At
the beginning of the scene, when Inspector Frost walks into the room and sits
down to interview Billy, he is portrayed as being both vulnerable and slightly
sinister at the same time.
This
is established through the use of cinematography, as a medium close-up shot
shows Billy with his head tilted to the side. The lighting used allows one side
of his face to be shown in high-key lighting, and the other side of his face
has a shadow cast over it. Billy also has a large cut on this side of his face.
The high-key lighting connotes that Billy is a vulnerable and innocent
character. However, the shadow connotes that he may have a more sinister side
to his personality. The large cut on the shadowed side of his face adds to the
suspected darker side of his character; although, this could also reinforce the
pity that the audience feel for him. The injury is ambiguous, however, as it
could make him look either like a victim of something or guilty of something. These
portrayals could be linked to and define by Colin Barnes’ theory, as these
descriptions can be put into several of his categories for disabled people; ‘pitiable
and pathetic’, ‘an object of violence’, or ‘sinister and evil’.
Mise-en-scѐne
is also used to portray both of the opposite aspects implied of Billy’s
personality. For example, when the camera first enters the room and the
audience is able to see Billy sitting down in the living room, he is made to
look quite small in terms of the entire frame of the shot. He is positioned to
the left of the shot, sitting in an armchair, and on the far right of the shot,
a man is standing, with no light cast upon him, making the audience unable to
identify him, but it can be presumed that he is a policeman. The room is basic
and made to look quite empty, consisting of dark, dull colours, therefore
allowing the audience to focus on Billy and the man standing in the room. The fact
that Billy is made to look small and lonely in the shot, causes the audience to
categorise him in Colin Barnes’ ‘pitiable’ group once again. However, this
sense of innocence is contradicted by the fact that there is policeman standing
in the room with Billy. This implies to the audience that Billy cannot be left
alone in the room, to the extent that he needs a police officer to be present.
This therefore gives the audience the impression that Billy could be a danger
to himself or others around him.
This
part of the scene also uses cinematography to portray these two different
traits of Billy’s character, as the lighting in the room shows Billy in harsh high-key
lighting in comparison to the darkness of the rest of the room. This creates a
spotlight effect which is shining on Billy. This use of spotlighting the
character connotes that he is about to be interrogated, reflecting the
situation that Billy will be in later on in the scene. Once again, the fact
that it is implied that Billy is about to be interrogated, shows the audience
that this character has maybe done something wrong, but on the other hand, he
could be being falsely accused of something, causing the audience to feel sorry
for him.
Sound is also
used to establish Billy’s personality in the way that Inspector Frost speaks to
him. This is because although his tone of voice can be interpreted as caring,
it is also quite patronising. This is shown through the fact that despite Billy
being a young adult, Inspector Frost speaks to him like a young child. This
reflects the stereotype of disabled people as being less intuitive than
able-bodied people. This stereotyping is reinforced later on in the scene when
Billy’s father feels the need to answer a question for him, presuming that
Billy did not understand what was being asked; and also when Billy says
something which Inspector Frost does not understand, so rather than ask Billy
to explain, he completely ignores him and asks his father instead.
