Drama Research: Sign Language (Oscar Sharp)

Another Drama short that I really liked from Debbie's seminar, was Oscar Sharp's 'Sign Language' (2010) as the narrative was intriguing the whole way through and the narration from the protagonist, Ben, a guy who holds up an advertising board for a job - a 'board guy' as he explains. The video opens with the narration coming from Ben introducing himself to the viewers. We see many scenes where there is a pull focus and even from the beginning of the short, there are a variety of bright colours featuring in the film.

Ben seems like an overly-cheerful character from the first impression and draws the audience into immediately liking him as he talks to the camera in the style of a documentary. He introduces the different 'board people' who he claims to be friends with. The first friend he introduces is Harry and describes him as a 'joker' and we see him with the most miserable facial expression; providing a sense of humour from this ironic explanation. We then are introduced to Chris and Steve, then Alex; a work experience advertiser and feel as though this character knows everyone on the street in the same industry. Then we are introduced to Anna; who turns out to be Ben's love interest. The music that is played underneath the film is relaxing and signifies the uplifting theme throughout the narrative. It also connotes Ben's optimistic attitude, despite his job coming across as not fun to many people.

The camera films Anna in the distance and then a pull focus shows Ben turning to look at her; signifying his interest for her. The camera shots in this film seem as though they are handheld, signifying that it is a single person filming rather than a film crew. The colours in this film are full of bright green, reds and yellows which also signify the optimism that is shown by Ben. Towards the end of the film, we watch Ben finish his last shift and when he thinks the others aren't interested, we see them all with personal messages for Ben to say goodbye. This creates a sense of friendship and makes the audience feel that the other advertisers also find Ben a lovable character.

In the final scenes during the credits we see a close up of Ben describing how he still 'loves mondays' before we see him getting into a plane to advertise a golf sale. The film then switches to Anna who has taken Ben's old job and is smiling while looking up at his advertisement in the sky. Overall I really liked the brightness of the colours and the optimistic feel to this piece; with the camera angles varying from close ups to long distance shots.