Stutterer

How does Cleary make the audience sympathetic to the stutterer?

Stutterer is a 2015 Oscar award-winning short film about a lonely typographer, who has a speech impediment and therefore finds it difficult to communicate. The opening shot is a close-up on the characters mouth whilst he is making a phone class to discuss a billing issue, however, due to his stutter he is cut off by the woman on the other end and is left with the dial tone ringing in his ear as he internally goes over what the conversation should have sounded like. Cleary uses the 4 areas of moving image analysis to make the viewer feel sympathy for Greenwood as he lives his life struggling to talk.

Mise-en-scene

Throughout the whole film, Cleary uses mise-en-scene to allow the viewer to understand a bit more about his life and the things he goes through on a daily basis. The first shot we see is a close-up on Greenwood's mouth as he is on the phone, the shot only shows his mouth and his chin, which emphasises his stutter as that is the first thing we see and the only thing we can focus on.

Greenwood is a Typographer and therefore language is a big part of his life, which is ironic as he is unable to articulate his thoughts and feelings clearly. In many different scenes in the short, he is working in his typography room, which always has a warm-toned light in it, which shows the viewer that it is a place in which he feels safe, comfortable, and at home. However, even though the light is warm it is very dim, which is a stark contrast to the light from his laptop as it is always bright, also the only time he goes on his laptop is to message Ellie, which could show the viewer that she holds a close place in his life and she literally lights up his life.

Sound

The first thing the audience hears is Greenwood stuttering whilst on the phone to Umbrella Broadband, this is a central part of the short film as it focused on throughout the entirety of it. If he isn't shown to be stuttering there is a constant voiceover that represents Greenwood's internal voice, that creates "Snap judgements" and also comments on the events that happen in his life and the possible conversations he could have had with people, like when the lady in the street asks him where the 'Blue Swan Cafe' is and how he pretended to be deaf but answered her question in his head.