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Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Masterfully Crafted Sound Within A Quiet Place
Below the Line: We live in a society where sound is omnipresent. A Quiet Place takes us back to the root of solitude but simultaneously experiments with the versatility of sound sonically and atmospherically within the dynamic spectrum.
4 comments:
Rachel Kolb
said...
Sound is such a powerful tool and this article is defiantly realized this. This film is based all about sound. It is the motivation of the entire film. To hear about how the volume effected the emotion that resulted from the sound and the image is so interesting. What I have found is most people is louder is better, and don’t think about how the volume itself is an element of design. The variation in levels in this film really added a lot to the images itself and really added to the suspense. Silence is a tool that when used right is extremely powerful. One thing that I found really interesting about this article is they used the term digital silence. This term was used because the film was silent but the environment that the audience is in will not be silent due to external factors like an HVAC system or lights.
This movie explores the role of silences in our lives. Though nothing is ever silent, we often try to fill whatever small amount we get. We play music through headphones, can turn on our televisions, or play videos any time we feel like it. I know that I personally find it hard to concentrate if it's to quiet and often put on music to compensate. One of the reasons that I find this movie interesting is that it takes the most common thing, noise, and makes it terrifying. I loved how this article tries to explain the design concept of the seemingly silent film. The idea of incorporating echolocation into the movies is a very interesting concept for the creatures mixed with the other creaky joint sounds. I’m so excited to see this movie and when I see it I’m going to pay special attention to how the sound effects the emotions and moods in the scenes.
I was able to see this movie over Carnival weekend and was absolutely floored by the sound design so I’m super happy to see an article about it here. The sound designers did an amazing job establishing these “levels of quiet” in an overall silent movie. The first time you hear real sound in the film is jarring and terrifying because they did so well to keep everything minimal and the actors do a fantastic job of showing the gravity of their situation through facial expressions and general movement. I think the craziest thing about the design of the film is how kids are involved. At the beginning of the film, the youngest son is running around and grabbing at things, and while he knows how serious it is to not make a noise, he’s still just a kid in this crazy situation. I felt immersed in the minimal dialogue and any time sound was present was encapsulating.
Firstly, I had absolutely no idea that John Krasinski directed this movie. From what I saw in the trailers, A Quiet Place looked masterfully done, both artistically and in the script. I love the way the sound designers played with the concept of emphasizing one element from the absence of another-- as they mentioned in the article, there is so much attention to the quiet moments in the movie that the loud moments seem even louder because they are coming from a place with such an absence of sound. I think it’s also important to note that this is one of the first horror movies I’ve seen centered around a main character with a disability. It seems like instead of capitalizing on this theme the producers creatively explored the implications of deafness in the context of a genre that does not see this explored often. The sound designers really went above and beyond in making sure the audience is put in the situation of the deaf character and that they really experience what having in a hearing aid sounds like while hearing noise around you as well.
4 comments:
Sound is such a powerful tool and this article is defiantly realized this. This film is based all about sound. It is the motivation of the entire film. To hear about how the volume effected the emotion that resulted from the sound and the image is so interesting. What I have found is most people is louder is better, and don’t think about how the volume itself is an element of design. The variation in levels in this film really added a lot to the images itself and really added to the suspense. Silence is a tool that when used right is extremely powerful. One thing that I found really interesting about this article is they used the term digital silence. This term was used because the film was silent but the environment that the audience is in will not be silent due to external factors like an HVAC system or lights.
This movie explores the role of silences in our lives. Though nothing is ever silent, we often try to fill whatever small amount we get. We play music through headphones, can turn on our televisions, or play videos any time we feel like it. I know that I personally find it hard to concentrate if it's to quiet and often put on music to compensate. One of the reasons that I find this movie interesting is that it takes the most common thing, noise, and makes it terrifying. I loved how this article tries to explain the design concept of the seemingly silent film. The idea of incorporating echolocation into the movies is a very interesting concept for the creatures mixed with the other creaky joint sounds. I’m so excited to see this movie and when I see it I’m going to pay special attention to how the sound effects the emotions and moods in the scenes.
I was able to see this movie over Carnival weekend and was absolutely floored by the sound design so I’m super happy to see an article about it here. The sound designers did an amazing job establishing these “levels of quiet” in an overall silent movie. The first time you hear real sound in the film is jarring and terrifying because they did so well to keep everything minimal and the actors do a fantastic job of showing the gravity of their situation through facial expressions and general movement. I think the craziest thing about the design of the film is how kids are involved. At the beginning of the film, the youngest son is running around and grabbing at things, and while he knows how serious it is to not make a noise, he’s still just a kid in this crazy situation. I felt immersed in the minimal dialogue and any time sound was present was encapsulating.
Firstly, I had absolutely no idea that John Krasinski directed this movie. From what I saw in the trailers, A Quiet Place looked masterfully done, both artistically and in the script. I love the way the sound designers played with the concept of emphasizing one element from the absence of another-- as they mentioned in the article, there is so much attention to the quiet moments in the movie that the loud moments seem even louder because they are coming from a place with such an absence of sound. I think it’s also important to note that this is one of the first horror movies I’ve seen centered around a main character with a disability. It seems like instead of capitalizing on this theme the producers creatively explored the implications of deafness in the context of a genre that does not see this explored often. The sound designers really went above and beyond in making sure the audience is put in the situation of the deaf character and that they really experience what having in a hearing aid sounds like while hearing noise around you as well.
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