Blindscape is a 1993 animated short film (8 minutes) directed by Stephen Palmer.
The cartoon opens with a simple outline of a man, sleeping, against a white void background. As the man wakes up objects become visible—but only when he hears and/or touches them. It soon becomes obvious that the man is blind.
The man wanders through the forest, uncertainly, with leaves appearing on the ground as they crunch beneath his feet, and trees appearing as he bumps into them. He manages to grab a stick at one point, but drops it. Suddenly, animals begin appearing. Are they dogs and rabbits, or are they terrifying monsters?
Tropes:
- Bee Afraid: A bee torments the man, appearing and disappearing as its buzzing comes closer and then recedes.
- Blank White Void: The opening shot is the man waking up against a white void background, as he is blind, and has not seen or felt anything.
- Draconic Humanoid: The man imagines himself as a terrifying winged demon, after he roars at the beast/dog and makes the dog back down.
- Eyeless Face: To convey the fact that he's blind, the man is drawn with no eyes.
- The Great Serpent: As the man's terror mounts, a giant snake appears in the forest when he touches it. It appears to be a vine on a log.
- He Who Must Not Be Heard: The man never speaks, not even when the policeman is calling out to him near the end. Whether he can't or he just won't is unclear.
- Imagine Spot: The common animals of the forest (which actually turns out to be an urban park) are imagined by the man, in his fear, to be monstrous beasts.
- Impairment Shot: Essentially the entire cartoon, which mimics the idea of blindness by only showing onscreen what the man touches or hears.
- Noodle Incident: Why is a blind man sleeping in a forest?
- Repeat Cut: The horrifying monster is roaring at the man and biting at his pants—until the man roars back. Then the monster turns back into what it actually is, a dog, and the man turns into a monster. That's followed by several repeat cuts of the shot where the man, now a winged humanoid, stretches to his full height and howls.
- Silence Is Golden: Most of the film has no dialogue, except for a bit near the end where a policeman shows up and tries to help the man.
- Splash of Color: Things don't just appear, but pop out in color, when the man touches them. The most dramatic example is his face, which is drawn as a black-and-white outline for most of the cartoon but appears as white flesh and rumpled brown hair when the man rubs his face.
