This week we explored the voice, sound, music and silence of audio tracks in film, in this week’s readings and films I learned a lot and also found some inspirations. In Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary (2008), one of the film directors claims that sound is the heartbeat of the film and you can get the emotion of the film from the sound. Indeed, I think this claim can be illustrated in the film of Confession Call (2018) and Daybreak Express (1953). In Confession Call (2018), the phone call throughout the whole film and tells the story, however the background music also helps to present the emotion and the whole tempo of the film. The background music changes the tempo and beat according to the conversation, the fast tempo and the low powerful beat matches the story’s emergent, which just like the heartbeat, and this heartbeat presents the tension of the film. Also the sound in Daybreak Express (1953) is impressive as well. The fast paced background music matches the concept of “express”, the footage edits to the rhythm of the music. Thus I think I am inspired by the two films of the way they design the sound, which I would also imitate them to use the sound to control the tempo of the film and also use the sound to present the emotion.
For this week’s sound practice, I regard it as my final sound design practice which I may continue this design style in my final work. In the beginning of this sound clip I use the voiceover to claim the theme of my work which is water, however this voiceover is coming from the archival footage, I think this kind of retro sound to a certain extent will attract the audience. Then I use the sound of water flowing as the background to make a peaceful feeling, also I add the sound effect of glass bell ringing to create a recall emotion, give a space for the audience to think, and I think this sound is fit to the peaceful feeling as well. Moreover in order to make the emotion even richer I use the light piano music as the background music, the slow tempo will make the audience feel relaxed and comfortable and control the film’s rhythm. Additionally there are two ambiences in the clip, the first one is the outside ambience at a beach, the second is the atoms of the forest in the rain. The two sounds create the environment of people with the water and the plants or animals with the water, which the both ambiences help to set the calm and comfortable feeling, and express the theme as well.
Reference list:
Capturing Reality. 2008. [film]. Directed by Pepita Ferrari
Confession Call. 2018. [film]. Directed by Arturo Aguilar
Daybreak Express. 1953. [film]. Directed by D. A. Pennebaker