Tag Archives: film-tv1

11.09.01 SOUND AND VISION

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Inarritu, A. G.  Short film 11’09”01
from the Anthology film 11’09”01,  2002

Short film by the maker of Babel.  His response to the trauma of watching September 11 happen on TV: horror revealed through sound, blackness and glimpses.  Listen to the layers and development of the soundtrack.  Does it work – does it capture the extremity of the event?

 

The piece starts with different voices. I would assume that it is different layers put on top of each other, but I won’t exclude the possibility of it being a gathering of people praying or talking at the same time. Whatever the technique is, it conveys chaos and confusing. I can’t understand the language, which makes it even harder to understand the purpose of it. After a while we hear a thud, a deep but soft, almost like a bass drum. There are long breaks between each thud, and the voices keep going while music slowly fades in.

The next part of the film is introduced by electronic sound, voices from radio and television becomes a new layer. The voices suddenly stops, and we hear the sound of a plane taking off/flying past. Then comes the crash. The voices we hear now is from the scene, recorded while it happened, shouting and talking in english. Chaos and confusion. More layers are added of news reports, sirens, screams. We are told about what the piece is about (for those who has been living under a rock for the last 11 years) through news reports, and after a while we hear reports also in different languages.

When the “thud’s” come, fast flashes of footage appears. We see people jumping from the towers, while the sound layers are accompanied with a new one that explains what is happening (news report or someone who was there).
The music is rising in intensity, while we hear screams and thunder from the tower collapsing. More sirens, honking, screaming.

A voice, I think over radio or tv, is talking about how they are going to get the people who did it back. He says he wants to get the fathers, mothers, children, everyone. On top of this a layer of someone talking in a foreign language, we hear “Allah” pronounced several times. War of words? Music is again appearing, fading in, it sounds like screeching of train brakes.

Then, complete silence. We’ve only seen small parts of footage so far, but we’ve had a summary of the event only by the use of sound. We understand the chaos, the panic, the despair, just from what we’ve heard so far. Now we see the footage, but without any things. The World Trade Centre collapses.

The chanting voices we heard in the start reappear (it might be other voices, but it sounds similar). Different layers of people talking in foreign language(s), while somber cello/violin music fades in. The dark screen slowly fades into a light, white background, which almost could resemble the smoke and ashes from when the tower collapsed. The voices are now even inaudible.

Then a text in arabic comes up, and after a while the text comes up in english.

“Does God’s light guide us or blind us?”

 

I really liked this short film. It is so powerful, and almost frightening to watch/listen. The chaos is conveyed really well by the way he has used different layers on top of each other. There are so many sounds going on at the same time; we don’t know where to focus our attention, and because we can’t see what is happening we are really dependent on what we are hearing. This is probably the intention of the filmmaker; to convey the feeling of being confused and uncertain of where to focus our attention when a million things are happening around us.

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Oldboy

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I figured that I could watch some movies without feeling bad since I’ve been sick, and (old)boy am I happy I did! Yesterday I went to a bar with some friends, thinking I was better, but soon realised that I’m still not healthy enough to 1, walk around the city for half an hour and 2, listen to a band (Drunk mums) which is really good but also really loud. I left the others and took a tram home, and decided to put on a movie.
The choice fell on Oldboy, a South Korean movie from 2003. The name rang a bell, but I couldn’t remember where I had heard about it before. Now when I think back on it I’m pretty sure it was because someone mentioned to me that it was their favorite film. I can understand why.

I’ll do a quick review of it without giving away the story, ohoy.

First of all it is a Korean movie, a country I know just about nothing about. However, it seems like the director Chan-wook Park has adapted a style which borrows elements from both Asian, American and European films. The big fight scene contain elements from the kung-fu films, but only to a small extent; it is less technique, less drama, and it isn’t cut to enhance the moves and impact as it is all filmed in a long pan (on a dolly).
Chan-wook Park has said in an interview that after watching Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock he knew he had to give directing a shot, and the use of suspense is evident in Oldboy. We are lead through the story by the narration which represents the protagonists thoughts, so it is a limited omniscient point of view. We only know what the main character knows, which is close to nothing before he starts his search for truth.
The movie goes through different phases of suspense, we keep thinking that we have the answer but we are only met by a new secret, a new question.

In addition to having a original (if there is any such thing today) story, the visual language is perfect. The lighting of the cell where the protagonist is held captive in the beginning of the movie is dark and depressing, and has a majority of close ups to enhance the feeling of claustrophobia and imprisonment. This becomes less frequent when he gets released, but it is used again when he is contacted by his captor.
Although the cinematography is steady and consistently amazing, some scenes which are particularly offensive and, I would dare say, disgusting, is covered with tragic music which juxtaposes the horror of the action with the desperation of the protagonist.

 The movie is highly entertaining, and contains both comedy (a very small but still evident element), action, tragedy, but the main element is revenge. The story is, like I mentioned, full of twists, and even the end is completely unpredictable. For anyone who haven’t seen this movie I highly recommend it,  I will definitely revisit it soon.

Sources:

http://www.offscreen.com/index.php/pages/essays/genre_oldboy/

Oh and have a look at the trailer, even though I recommend watching it without knowing anything about it. Makes it even more stressful and exciting.

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Lenny

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Some students filmed this some years ago, and we got the honor of editing it. I honestly think that Paul gave us this task to show us how important it is to get the sound right, because it was horrible to try and fix it in the edit suites. First of all, the group should have found a location without the construction work in the background (come on, outside RMIT? Do a little more effort..). The noise changes from clip to clip, and it’s a big job to make the sound match.

The microphone placement could have been better, as the levels on the voices are pretty low. Again, if they had picked a better location this wouldn’t have been such a big issue.

They should have recorded foley sounds. When we see Lenny walking towards the bench (long shot, ground level) we can’t hear his footsteps, while as soon as he steps on the gravel we hear it loud and clear. I took the sound of the girls footsteps and edited them in, it sounds a bit metallic but it works.

Anyways, here’s the clip.

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