Disability clip - Touch Of Frost

Within the clip for touch of frost, our main focus is on Billy. Billy is quite clearly disabled. The first scene of the clip is billy wiping down his jeans, then we see that there’s police with dogs obviously looking for someone. These two things put closely together could show straight away that Billy is suspicious. The music within this is quite suspicious, mysterious music to add to the tension. At this point, we don’t know that Billy is disabled. We then discover straight away that his, we get a close up of his face, and we see that he notices the police lights and he panics, there is then a panning shot as the police begin to chase him down when Billy runs. This could give the audience a sense of feel like they are also chasing him along the screen. The music is now stopped at this point, and we here dogs barking and police shouting instead. We then hear billy speak for the first time, telling them he hasn’t done anything, we can sense he sounds scared. The camera angle at this point is looking down on billy, making it feel as though he’s very vulnerable at the minute as he’s been caught by the police and he can’t get away.

Next, we are shown the police car outside a house, with all the neighbours hanging about. The camera pans across showing the extent of the situation. We are next introduced to an old man, and the investigator. The camera angle at this point in the clip, is up from above slightly right, and this could suggest that as they are having an important secretive conversation, that we could get a sense that we’re kind of eves dropping on the conversation. In this conversation, we get the first comment about Billy’s disability where the inspector describes him as “mentally subnormal” and the old man corrects the investigator to describe him as “handicapped”.  The inspector then suggests he needs someone in the room with him, to keep an eye on billy. We’re next introduced to an older woman, by now we could think this is Billy’s house, and that their Billy’s parents. If so, then his mother, the older woman, brings up to the door a bowl of soapy water and tells the investigator billy would feel better if he was cleaned up first. This could suggest that Billy is less abled as well. Investigator refuses and speaks to billy first. We see billy sitting on a chair inside a room, his dad speaks to him like he’s a child, and billy keeps saying that he hasn’t done anything. The inspector also talks to billy as though he’s a child.

As the investigator talks to billy, the camera shots show shots of Billy’s face close ups, shots of billy with his dad sat behind him, and shots of the investigator, but there are no shots of billy and the investigator together, these shots could show, billy is alone in this, but then it shows also that his dad is going to be there to speak for him and help him out. The fact that billy is sat in the middle of his dad and the investigator puts him in a position where he looks vulnerable, over-powered, and targeted. The way that the investigator talks to billy, is not only in a childish manner, but he’s sort of trying take advantage of the fact billy might not fully understand or tell truth as he’s scared. So the investigator talks to him and says things to try and catch billy slip up, and say something wrong, because he knows billy is vulnerable because he’s disabled.

At this point, I would say I wouldn’t know as an audience whether or not to believe billy. Understanding he’s disabled, I feel sorry for him and I believe him, but I also have a feeling he could have done something accidently and freaked out and is now scared.

By now, we see the investigator becoming agitated that he’s getting nowhere with billy. Billy’s dad interrupts and says that billy said he was going out to “play”, billy corrects him and says he was going to walk by the river. Just by this sentence or two, we see more of younger, childish with billy.

Thoughout the clip we see that disability is treated differently with lots of emotions because of their disability.