In this clip screened in the lecture from the Coen brothers’ ‘Blood Simple‘ describe what is happening in terms of the edits specifically in terms of the audio and video. Also name the different kinds of audio you can hear.
WHAT IS HAPPENING:
The scene works largely through the shot-reverse shot approach. There are also cutaways. In addition to this, there are shots where an action carries over a cut to another shot from a different angle. Hence, this scene would have been edited very meticulously to ensure continuity of actions and to create this strong sense of rhythm.
I don’t know these characters’ names, so I’m going to give them names. The guys who kills the other guy can be called ‘murderer chap’. The guy who gets killed can be called ‘vomit chap’.
There are a number of J-cuts and L-cuts in the more dialogue-heavy moments. For example, there’s a J-cut from vomit chap to murderer chap when vomit chap asks murderer chap what he did with the bodies. Vision remains on vomit chap as the audio switches to murderer chap’s answer — “It’s taken care of.” Here, the visuals cut to murderer chap who continues speaking — “The less you know about, the better.”
DIFFERENT KINDS OF AUDIO:
There’s a heap of foley in this clip. For example, snap of lighter being shut, thump of fish being dropped on table, opening of folder and taking out of paper, fly buzzing, footsteps, gunshot etc.
There’s also a distinct atmos. track running underneath everything, which consists of faint sounds of traffic (cars travelling past) and crickets. This establishes the setting — at night, in a metropolitan area.
Then there’s the dialogue / sync sound.
Then there’s the offscreen sounds — vomiting and flushing toilet and tap running. I don’t know whether the toilet flushing and tap running were foley or not, but I’d assume the vomiting was taken as a wild track.
Then there’s some strange, amplified, rhythmic air-thudding thing which is supposed to be the turning of the ceiling fan. I don’t know what audio type this classifies as, but it begins in the second half of the clip as action starts to pick up. This rhythmic air-thudding thing becomes much slower and more amplified near the end of the scene as the camera approaches the fan — the source of this sound. This, alongside the non-diegetic musical symbols, serves to underscore the tension of the recent events / give them greater impact.