LECTURE FOLLOW UP
Off-Screen vs. On-Screen Sound
After watching … the importance of off screen sound is reinforced. If done well enough, it should be so well integrated into the world that is being depicted, that the average listener will most likely take what they’re hearing for granted. However it is the off-screen sounds and their many story telling functions that bring much context to the film, including the mood and location. These sounds ultimately have the power to subtly steer the film in a certain direction and is a constant reminder that there is a world out there that exists beyond the frame that limits what we see within its boundaries. Off screen sound can be as conventional as purely setting the scene but can also be used in more abstract ways like David Lynch and Roman Polanski’s emphasis on uncanny off-screen sounds to promote paranoia.
Point of View
The short animation film ‘Dustin’ that we watched during a lecture with Jessica had many scenes that were in 1st person perspective, specifically the dog’s perspective. It made me wonder about how things such as mic choice and placements as well as mixing could help recreate varying perspectives in a film, and perhaps in my eventual hand-in.
Diegetic vs. Non Diegetic Sound
Going over these terms again during these lectures have reinforced what I had learnt last year when studying the film ‘You Were Never Really Here’. Diegetic sound plays an obvious role in setting the narrative of a film. Non diegetic sound however can include things like narration, external music and added sound effects. Whilst diegetic elements are malleable, I find it is non-diegetic sounds that can completely alter the feel of a scene. Thinking back to the opening scene of ‘You Were Never Really Here’, Johnny Greenwood’s score really sets the rhythm of the movie with its disharmonic percussion melded with the diegetic sounds of the city, creating a whole new soundtrack in a way.
Rythm & Emotion
Going on from the last paragraph, the concept of rhythm that we also touched on in class takes me back to the Making Waves documentary, in which sound editor Teresa Eckton talked about creating a pattern when overlaying the sounds of the machine guns in the disorientating opening scene of ‘Saving Private Ryan’. This order and pattern within the chaos can help the audience keep their grounding and anchor a scene. The world is full of rhythm and this notion opens up many possibilities. Using the principles of rhythm, everything from the way one breathes to the sounds in our environment, irregularities in volume and much more can be utilised to bring or take away tension. Watching Osbert Parker’s ‘Timeline’ trailer really showed me how field recordings could be combined in a way to create an ever-changing tempo, and through this tempo an aural story.