01
Log update from last week's lecture (Introduction to Film Studies):
We watched a clip of Europa (1991) in the lecture as an example of European cinema, and what struck me most was the sound design behind that short clip. Visually, it's just a moving train track in black and white, the same image again and again, almost like a repeating gif. However, with sound, it becomes a countdown. This repeated visual of a train track passing underneath us is enhanced by a voiceover, sounding sombre and quite hypnotic. It reminded me a little bit of those electronic head massagers with the soothing voice counting down, telling the user to immerse themselves into their quiet/happy/relaxed place, only this voiceover is telling the audience to immerse ourselves into this world, Europa. It is the music combined with the voiceover that I found notable. Despite the visuals being entirely the same, and possibly quite boring to look at by itself, the ambience is built up really effectively with the use of music and layers of sound. At each number 1 to 10, a new drone tone is introduced, adding lower layers of sound with each number. This echoes the narrative telling the audience to go "deeper and deeper" and I found that really effective, especially when you also consider that there was an overlying rhythm (a regular rhythm with irregular emphasised beats) that made the music(?) sound very minimalist, something that I feel reflects the unsaturated, simple train track visual.
I've always thought the Inception soundtrack was really boring, but now that I think about it, combined with visuals, it must be really effective. After all, it's Hans Zimmer, right? ; )
Anyway, this realisation/analysis about the Europa clip really inspired me to think of my own sound design project. I wanted to see how I could use minimalist music to build up tension and suspense, and so one of my ideas is to use a clip from The Shining, a horror film famous for its intense psychological tension (cabin fever!!!)
On the other hand, I was really interested in sound design for battles, and what movie has better battle scenes than Lord of the Rings? I'm debating between the earlier idea and either the Battle of Helm's Deep or the Charge of the Rohirrim to show the contrast between the calm before the storm and the actual fighting itself.
We watched a clip of Europa (1991) in the lecture as an example of European cinema, and what struck me most was the sound design behind that short clip. Visually, it's just a moving train track in black and white, the same image again and again, almost like a repeating gif. However, with sound, it becomes a countdown. This repeated visual of a train track passing underneath us is enhanced by a voiceover, sounding sombre and quite hypnotic. It reminded me a little bit of those electronic head massagers with the soothing voice counting down, telling the user to immerse themselves into their quiet/happy/relaxed place, only this voiceover is telling the audience to immerse ourselves into this world, Europa. It is the music combined with the voiceover that I found notable. Despite the visuals being entirely the same, and possibly quite boring to look at by itself, the ambience is built up really effectively with the use of music and layers of sound. At each number 1 to 10, a new drone tone is introduced, adding lower layers of sound with each number. This echoes the narrative telling the audience to go "deeper and deeper" and I found that really effective, especially when you also consider that there was an overlying rhythm (a regular rhythm with irregular emphasised beats) that made the music(?) sound very minimalist, something that I feel reflects the unsaturated, simple train track visual.
I've always thought the Inception soundtrack was really boring, but now that I think about it, combined with visuals, it must be really effective. After all, it's Hans Zimmer, right? ; )
Anyway, this realisation/analysis about the Europa clip really inspired me to think of my own sound design project. I wanted to see how I could use minimalist music to build up tension and suspense, and so one of my ideas is to use a clip from The Shining, a horror film famous for its intense psychological tension (cabin fever!!!)
On the other hand, I was really interested in sound design for battles, and what movie has better battle scenes than Lord of the Rings? I'm debating between the earlier idea and either the Battle of Helm's Deep or the Charge of the Rohirrim to show the contrast between the calm before the storm and the actual fighting itself.