For this assignment, I chose a random movie called Sleepover and paused at a scene more than halfway through the movie. In this scene, a blonde girl is dancing with a boy who seems to be somewhat mentally retarded, but they are having a great time, dancing enthusiastically, at a party or a school dance. Another boy, who is blonde and seems older than the first boy, is dancing with another partner, yet keeps looking back at the blonde girl, as if he likes her better and he is getting jealous of the first male. He gets slapped by his brunette partner after making a comment about the first couple. Everyone stops, which indicates that the music has stopped, and the announcer gives the first couple a trophy, which I believe signifies that they just won the dance contest. The blonde girl is happy to get her picture taken with the mentally challenged boy and starts to leave, but the boy stops her and asks her something. Then, he shows her a picture of him in the hospital. Throughout this scene, the blonde girl is happy and smiles, encouraging the boy to share his feelings. I believe she is being nice to him because of his condition. The scene ends with the boy’s two friends showing up and seemingly trying to stop him from further embarrassing himself. From the girl’s appearance, I think it is a classic case of the popular girl being nice to the unpopular kid and going out with him to be sincere.
After seeing the scenes with the sound on, this is what took place: the blonde girl and the boy were indeed a part of the dance contest which they won. However, the boy was not mentally challenged and was simply extremely enthusiastic. The other couple was the competition and the blonde boy got slapped by his partner for blaming her bad dancing to be the reason why they lost. The first boy showed the hospital picture in order to stall the girl from leaving and showing off something he was proud of. The girl makes it clear that she is not dating him, but simply danced with him in order to be nice. The friends were not telling the boy to avoid embarrassment. They also wanted to take pictures with the popular girl and the boy was the one who reminded them to “be cool.” I believe that the actors did a great job in complementing their dialogue with their nonverbal actions as I was pretty close with my guess. They made it simple and clear for the audience to understand exactly what was going on, and other factors such as the setting were also great nonverbal props, which enhanced the actions.