The Street Disability. How does the editing help construct representation?

As the main character of this extract walks away from his old place, we are purposly shown a fence and barbed wire. This could be to symbolise that there are more than just emotional barriers stopping the character from living a 'normal' life but also physical barriers preventing him along with the views of others. An ellipsis is used to take you from one location to another. Then a close up shot of a women's face lets you see who the subject of the scene is. They then cut to a long shot to show you the main character speeding up to help the woman. This shows he is a caring, helpful person. This representation is then shortly contrasted as he bends down to help the woman with her shopping (close up shot is shown of his face and then her face) who screams when she sees him. This is contrasting as you don't tend to scream at caring helpful people, so this is showing that he is scary and must be a 'freak'

The clip uses ellipsis and sound bridges at 3 different points. The first is from the workplace to the women and houses, the second the houses to the town and the last one, from the town to the army office. This is a very useful editing technique as each time it portrays the character in a different light. For example, as he walks away from the work place we as the audience view him as a victim and feel sorry for him as he is unable to get his job back. As he leaves the houses and enters the town, we could see him as a possible threat as he looks very angry as he walks with purpose to the rhythm of the up beat tense music. This clip also breaks the 180 degree rule but this is done with great purpose in order to show both sides of the character's face in order to emphasise his disability and how others view him. This works well with the dialog that is taking place as this rule is broken. For example as he says "join the British army" we are shown the 'good' unscarred side of his face, as if to say he is only useful when he is 'normal'. Then a moment later as he says "Scare the shit out of your family" we are shown the scarred side of his face. The way the two images are contrasted along with the dialog makes you believe that the other characters only think he is useful when he is 'normal' and then if he isn't 'normal' he is just a 'freak'