Snapper123
Well-known member
Hey guys, one aspect of filmmaking that I regularly think about - should films be visual enough that a deaf person can hold interest and understanding without having subtitles? Subtitles are useful, of coarse (I myself am a bit hindered on taking in quick speech patterns, so I watch all films with subtitles!), but being "entertained" by a film with no sound is an entirely different story. Comedies may be out of the question for the deaf, but for other genres, do you think it's an important aspect to be visual enough that it's entertaining for deaf people? (As well as mega-entertaining for the hearing?)
For example, The Holy Mountain, an old psychedelic icon by Andrew Jodorowsky, doesn't have dialogue for the first half of the film, yet because the major point of the film is it's constant abstract imagery, it works just fine (and for those durations, would be an equally moving film for the hearing impaired.) And for one of my first scripts, there's little dialogue (none of importance), and everything takes an extremely visual cue, relying on simply smiles, frowns, body movements, location tones, and the actions that happen. And when I start to think of it in that sense, it strikes me that deaf people can be an excellent standard to set a film's movement for; if a film cannot entertain a deaf person by it's visuals alone, how could it be expected to hold against the test of time for other audiences or effect the viewers experience visual cues? (unless of coarse, this film is known for famous quotes or witty dialogue comedy.) This is an aspect that can also prove beneficial for foreign markets if you don't want to voice-over everything with awful voice actors - The Holy Mountain, for the most part, could be watched in Spanish to English viewers, even without subtitles, and would prove an extremely entertaining film.
So yeah, do you feel like this is an important aspect that all filmmakers should take into account, and do you know of any films that rely heavily on the visual aspect to display emotion and story sequence, as opposed to relying on dialogue? I'd love to watch some very surreal, visual films that give great examples of a script fowarded by motion and emotion, rather than speaking or direct dialogue, if anyone knows of any other great examples. (This is also one thing I like about 'camcorder films' like Blair Witch or Poughkeepsie Tapes, the motion and scares are usually so visual and haunting that it would scare me even if there was no sound!)
For example, The Holy Mountain, an old psychedelic icon by Andrew Jodorowsky, doesn't have dialogue for the first half of the film, yet because the major point of the film is it's constant abstract imagery, it works just fine (and for those durations, would be an equally moving film for the hearing impaired.) And for one of my first scripts, there's little dialogue (none of importance), and everything takes an extremely visual cue, relying on simply smiles, frowns, body movements, location tones, and the actions that happen. And when I start to think of it in that sense, it strikes me that deaf people can be an excellent standard to set a film's movement for; if a film cannot entertain a deaf person by it's visuals alone, how could it be expected to hold against the test of time for other audiences or effect the viewers experience visual cues? (unless of coarse, this film is known for famous quotes or witty dialogue comedy.) This is an aspect that can also prove beneficial for foreign markets if you don't want to voice-over everything with awful voice actors - The Holy Mountain, for the most part, could be watched in Spanish to English viewers, even without subtitles, and would prove an extremely entertaining film.
So yeah, do you feel like this is an important aspect that all filmmakers should take into account, and do you know of any films that rely heavily on the visual aspect to display emotion and story sequence, as opposed to relying on dialogue? I'd love to watch some very surreal, visual films that give great examples of a script fowarded by motion and emotion, rather than speaking or direct dialogue, if anyone knows of any other great examples. (This is also one thing I like about 'camcorder films' like Blair Witch or Poughkeepsie Tapes, the motion and scares are usually so visual and haunting that it would scare me even if there was no sound!)
