Text: “you must never listen to this”: Lessons on sound, cinema ad mortality from…
David T Johnson
Film criticism: Spring 2008; 32, 3; Humanities module
pg. 68
New narratives through presence of the absent
Left over images can create their own narrative, such as the left over footage after the action or piece to camera has taken place. The camera is used to document wildlife but also the directors mindset. It becomes a tool for his confessions. This educational drama also shows a very personal story, morphing from shots of wild foxes to Timothy Treadwell details his problems with alcohol abuse.
The pathologist uses his voice to relay what he heard concerning Timothy’s violent death, as he listened to the last recording he made. The pathologist seems to also take a liberty by making his own deductions about their character, supposes the actions, relationships and so on.
The film does not play the actual audio, this adds to it’s mystery and evokes imagination of the events, which can be more powerful and scary as individual horrors combine with this. The presence of this absence, makes it that much worse.
The film maker is happy to clips of Timothy that are extremely provocative, his confessions, break downs, outbursts and inner most thoughts, but shies away from also playing the moment his was mauled by a bear. This could be seen cynically as Herzog is manipulating some personal things, and not explaining others to increase their dramatic effect, especially concerning the taboo of his death.
Herzog listens the the audio from Timothy’s camera, this provides a link to what happened, which although he could have heard it from another source, seems to increase the feelings involved. The audience is on the same position as Palovak, not having heard the tape, but going by what the pathologist and Herzog describe through their words and their actions.
Timothy creates his own persona, a presentation to the camera. sometimes real, sometimes differing from take to take. After the scene of the ‘presence of the absence’ scene where we know the circumstances of his death, Timothy’s mortality is constantly in the viewers heads, their own personal interpretation.
Timothy hesitates in his last shot of his last film – emphasising his need to be in front of the camera, as it has shaped his personality. That of an adventurer, alone in the wilderness, friends with the animals. But as Herzog observes, the animals were not friendly to him, even in the scenes when he though they were, and so the rest can be seen as a perception, and experience and not fact. The audience has also put their perception onto the film, creating an individual meaning of the events, bringing our ‘everyday’ into play.
Crows attack the students. The birds – Alfred Hitchcock.
First we listened to the audio from this clip and were able to piece together much of the action using just the sounds. The audio layers work to tell a direct story, literally. The audio used makes the crows seem menacing, they screech and so do the children, emphasising the fear. This film was an early exploration in using sounds not diagenic to the actual events, and although it is rough by todays standards (for instance, when the birds attack the car, the sound is muffled as the window is done up, however there is no audio shoeing the birds hitting the car).
Kick-Ass – Shootout
Here almost none of the audio is diagenic, and the music used creates an unusual effect of adding a ‘fun’ element to a horrific event.
Elephant – Columbine film
This film portrays shootings in a very different manner. Sound is used to create a sense of space, and place within the action. A shot can be heard up close when in shot, and muffled in the distance when in the corridor. The sound of a gun being shot in a corridor was captured to create this effect and make it seem authentic to the audience, creating a sense of realism. However, at the same time overlays and a muffling from the point of view of the shooter is used to portray the events form their perspective. The mix of real and fabricate sound adds layers in the convention of this type of ‘docu-drama’ where real events intertwine with artistic representation.
The Conversation – Opening Scene
The concept of surveillance is explored here through how the sound is used. There are two or more conversations happening at the same time, and the sound switches between what the couple is saying, what the police are hearing, and how they are communicating also. The sounds create a perspective on the visual events: if the couple are shown with their dialogue, we assume we are part of it, but the police officers representation of what they are hearing is also used over this visual. Now the viewer is transformed into part of the police ‘listening in’ to the conversation, and communicating with each other. As the couple become aware they are being spied on, they use yet more sound, a band playing, to cover up their conversation from those listening in.
Playing with sound – and creating those that don’t exist
Iron Man morphing.
There is a lot of CGI used in these clips, and some such as screws and clips have been borrowed from other sources to compile a new meaning. But what is interesting is how Iron man’s plasma cannon (the hand lasers) have been created where no such thing exists. A sound has been made to fit the action on screen and continue a believable narrative. This is in much the same vein as how the noises for the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were created from Whales, Horses and Koala Bears, in order to create a familiar type of sound that is believable and manipulating it to fit a new area.
Tron Legacy’s Light Cycles
Unfortunately the sound effects on this bike are not very far removed from that of a conventional motorcycle. This my have been done to establish a familiarity with things in real life, but it seems to me to be an opportunity missed, as this futuristic fictional machine could have been complimented with a much more exciting and innovative soundtrack (such as Iron Man’s Plasma Cannns) rather than the sound of a hybrid motorcycle.
We were given a piece of video with no audio track, and asked to find or create sounds to go with it in order to create a smooth effect of the audio coming from the action. Here is my final peice
The layering adds a depth I was not expecting, the a cars, people (multiple layers), flame thrower, and drums interact to give a relatively convincing portrayal of the event. Using sounds that were not initially wiht the recording gave a real challenge but it has surprised me how this short video was able to be manipulated to resembled and original in just over and hour.
mclaremontdavies 