nonverbal scene from a movie

Stephanie Mott
COMM 324
Assignment #4
9/28/09
Tess and Jane are sisters. Jane has liked her boss, George, but has never told him. Tess moves in with Jane and meets George at Jane’s work party. Tess and George start dating and George asks Tess to marry him. Jane has been planning a wedding for her sister Tess. Kevin is a reporter for the newspaper and he has been flirting with Jane (Tess’s wedding planner) as he has been developing the article. Kevin discovered while visiting the wedding party to develop the article that Jane is in love with the man Tess is going to marry. Jane denies it and after the article is done Kevin and Jane go their separate ways. About two weeks after the article was published, Jane discovers that even though she was attracted to her boss (probably in love with her boss like Kevin said), they don’t have the connection necessary for the kind of married relationship that she would want. After this, Jane discovers that her relationship with Kevin might have the connection necessary for the kind of married relationship that she would want. Kevin is at work covering his last wedding on a boat so she goes on the boat to tell him how she feels.


Kevin is talking to people on the boat and he has his back toward the microphone where Jane is about to speak. Jane and Kevin are about 30 feet from each other. Janes says Kevin? Kevin Doyle?. Once Jane realizes that Kevin sees her, they make eye contact through the whole time that Jane is speaking to Kevin through the microphone.

Kevin seems to produce what I am going to call unique head movements for further reference when Jane says his name. When Kevin hears his name, he turns his head back about 90 degrees and squints for a second to see where the noise came from. As he is squinting he also opens his mouth about a half a centimeter. When his head has moved about 90 degrees in the opposite direction to the people that he was having the conversations with a minute before he seems to turn his head back in the direction of the people he was talking to and then slowly continues turning his head and body to the left toward Jane. It looked like the person that was across from Kevin in their conversation (before Jane said his name) was letting Kevin’s head move by gradually releasing his head from a piece of string and then once Kevin realized it was Jane the person that was releasing the string started pulling the string towards themself causing Kevin to make a small and very quick jerk to the right with his head and then the person released the string again which allowed Kevin to start moving his head to the left toward Jane again.

Kevin’s body position and facial reactions change as a reaction to Jane saying his name. He turns his body halfway around so that he his full chest is facing toward her. As he turns around he keeps his hands at his sides. As he turns his head around his facial expressions change more than once. His eyebrows go up vertically and this forms a crease about a half inch above his eyebrows, his eyes expand, his chest expands a little bit, his body leans slightly back and his head leans noticeably back. As he turns he opens his mouth about an inch and then starts to close it. But instead of fully closing it, he says “Oh my God”. He says it slowly and sort of in an ominous tone. Then he walks about four steps and two feet toward her. Next he holds his right hand up so that the bottom half of his right arm is fully extended and his hand is parallel to the side of his head. He smiles with his mouth closed so that dimples form on both sides of his cheeks and a circle indentation forms under his eyes. His eyes move to the right, left and then back to the middle and then he puts his hand down.

Jane’s facial expressions change when she realizes that Kevin is paying attention. She moves her shoulders and back behind her so that she is standing up straighter. She smiles but it is not a genuine smile. She has her hands clasped in front of her. Her voice is in an average person’s volume but it sounds fragile. It sounds fragile because her voice is constantly stopping and starting during her first five words. As she says her first five words most of the words either sound like she is starting to laugh when she says them or at the end of the word her voice becomes noticeably lower. The first five words are words like “Ah, Um”, etc. .

Kevin’s facial and body expressions change after the shock and surprise of seeing Jane wears off. It looks like he makes one sigh because he moves his shoulders and head up and down once. His mouth opens so that there is about a centimeter between the top and bottom lip. His cheeks are the opposite of being puffy like the cheeks of a baby. His eyes and eyebrows move closer together. From the angle that I am seeing him at it looks like the start of one of his eyebrows is connected to his eye.

Jane still looks embarrassed because she is smiling every time she is not talking but it doesn’t look like a genuine smile. When Jane starts saying complete sentences, she lifts her shoulders up so that her hands are no longer clasped together but instead are less than one inch apart and are formed into fists. Before Jane says the next statement she looks like she is going to sigh because she looks like she is taking a breath and lifts her shoulders up and then back down but she starts the next sentence instead of sighing. This make her seem like she is in a nervous state. Jane then says “Hi, I Just wanted to say that you were right about me, about all of it, I just didn’t want to hear it especially from you”. When she says she “I didn’t want to hear it”, she shakes her head to the left and right about a half of an inch. When she says “He was right about all of it” she moves her head back slightly. In addition, when she says these two statements she moves her left hand that is in a fist to the left and her right hands that is in a fist to the right like she is pulling on a piece of rope. This makes her seem nervous and slightly embarrassed. She is fidgeting her head in different directions which makes her look nervous and embarrassed.

Once she says this, Kevin changes his facial expression. He looks surprised. He looks happier because his face looks like it has more color. His cheeks look less sunken/more puffed out. His eyes and eyebrows are about their normal distance apart. Kevin coninues walking toward her (probably at the rate of about one step per four seconds) and has a skeptical and curious expression on his face.

23 1:38

As she is trying to start her next sentence, Jane moves her head to the
Then a bubble spot gets put on Kevin and Kevin looks very serious. Jane says “Kevin, I have been waiting my whole life for the right guy to come along and then you showed up and you are nothing like the man I imagined. You are cynical and cranky and impossible. But the truth is fighting with you is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I think there is a very good chance that I am falling in love with you”. When she says “you showed up”, her hands become unclasped and she moves one of her arms to point toward Kevin. The pointing is done with her whole hand; it is not done with only one finger. Jane has her hands in front of her and her hands are clasped.

Then Jane says “So that’s it. That’s it, that’s all I have to say, and so I’ll go now”. As she says that’s it her eyebrows move up about one inch.
Next she steps off of the stage and starts walking toward Kevin. Once Jane stops talking Kevin continues walking toward Jane at the rate of about one step per two seconds.
As she is walking toward Kevin she is not making direct eye contact with anyone until she sees Kevin. Jane only makes minimal eye contact with people either to ask them to let her go through (so that she can walk toward Kevin) or when she is in the process of trying to make sure that she is still heading toward Kevin. Jane and Kevin stop walking towards each other when they are about
feet away from each other. Once she and Kevin start making eye contact, Jane has a more genuine smile than she has had at any other point during this interaction.


The book describes “head cocking” as a behavior that people do when they are flirting (Andersen 162).


Win face



Jane: Kevin I just really she says um and sighs at the same time
Kevin: Get over here


Face
Eyes Rapid opening of the eyes
EYEBROWS raising of eyebrows
Mouth opens rapidly, jaw drops, teeth about an inch apart
all of these appearing is relatively rare what is most common is just slight raising of the eyebrows

Posture
Backward head and torso leans
Straight forehead with raised arms


EMBARASEMENT
A large portion of the nonverbal behaviors that display embarrassment are analogic requests for forgiveness used to retain dignity in embarrassing circumstances (Andersen 157). Some behaviors are planned to maintain dignity (Andersen 157)