All films and film makers must shape and influence their audience’s responses through the manipulation of audio-visual and written conventions. The film Point Break, directed in 1991 by Kathryn Bigelow is one film that became extremely influential and controversial due to the inclusion and focus on conventions such as audio, characterisation, dialogue, and editing. These conventions are employed to shape the audience response to the film that leaves them with a new and refreshed outlook on surf culture, mateship, gender roles, and the sport of surfing itself. It is due to this manipulation of these conventions that this film has remained popular among a changing audience and still to this day influences the responses of all whom watch it. …show more content…
In the 1991 film Point Break, music director Mark Isham manipulates audio codes and conventions to fit and adjust to different circumstances scenes throughout the film. This creates a vast contrast between each individual scene which works to only enhance the influence the film holds over its audience’s responses. An example of this is the difference between the audio in scenes depicting the night surfing compared to that of the sky-diving scene features in the film. The latter is dream-like, soft audio, encouraging the audience to view it as a relaxing scene, therefore calming them and their response. The former is rushed and upbeat, prompting a more chaotic, excited response from the audience. Another audio technique employed is that of silence. During the second raid in the film, no audio is featured, encouraging the audience to respond with a sense of suspense. These are just a few ways audio has been used to influence the response of audience members towards each separate scene as well as the movie as a …show more content…
Point Break (1991) editor Howard E. Smith has done this to ensure the audience understands the depth and progression of the story itself. The film opens with dramatic wide shots of the beach, waves crashing on the shore at sunrise. This tells the audience members from the very beginning what to expect throughout the film, assisting in shaping their response before the film even begins. The contrasts in the editing of different scenes also aims to achieve this, an example being the rough, dangerous editing of surfing scenes compared with the gradual, smooth transitions of the sky-diving montage. The comparisons influence the audience to respond to the two sport in different ways, furthermore influencing their understanding and response of and to the matters the film
The sound effects grabbed my attention and continued to make me yearn for what could come next. The sounds bring me to a place where I can’t help but believe in the situation that’s happening. The music heightens my mood and helps create illusion. For example, the first extraordinary sound technique I noticed that the filmmaker used was the echo effect. It was not only used to support the mood the characters were at, but also to express that idea of the ‘emptiness’ in them. This technique dominated the audio when I was taken to a story in the film of a boy who was 18 and poisoned by his own sister. Those are some of the dominant examples of sound usage throughout the movie The Poisoners Handbook. The entirety of the soundtrack is a solid cocoon for the film to stretch and grow
There can be no question that sport and athletes seem to be considered less than worthy subjects for writers of serious fiction, an odd fact considering how deeply ingrained in North American culture sport is, and how obviously and passionately North Americans care about it as participants and spectators. In this society of diverse peoples of greatly varying interests, tastes, and beliefs, no experience is as universal as playing or watching sports, and so it is simply perplexing how little adult fiction is written on the subject, not to mention how lightly regarded that little which is written seems to be. It should all be quite to the contrary; that our fascination and familiarity with sport makes it a most advantageous subject for the skilled writer of fiction is amply demonstrated by Mark Harris.
-Steven Spielberg’s use of editing and cut scenes is one of the biggest factors in this movie. He uses contrast in certain scenes to amplify one and somewhat down play the other. The intensity in one scene can form an overstatement on what is really going on even when the setting itself is very relaxed. One scene the really exemplifies this is one of the first scenes when Chrissie runs into the water and is dragged under water by the unknown, but a bit after we realize that she is actually being attacked by a great white. The camera cuts back to Tom laying down, completely unware of the events presiding. Him laying down enjoying the sun is a complete contrast and also the slight note screaming that is playing is very opposite Chrissies which makes the intensity shoot up when we
The use of sound helped to create a story behind the scenes. The sounds of Drum’s gunfire and Ouiser’s dog barking create a humorous event outside of the set. This scene of family/neighborhood craziness is relatable to any audience member in some way and helped the audience to connect with the characters. The use of the radio at the beginning and end of each scene helped to establish a mood and in some cases a time change. It also worked as a signal to the audience when a scene was beginning or
In the background he uses music and sound effects to add to the dramatic visual images he creates. Finally Steven Spielberg uses specific dialogue to show the victims feelings and emotions. At the beginning of the film the soft, relaxing underwater noises of communicating sharks instantly sets the scene and creates the feeling of being deep underwater. The familiar beach sounds have a calming effect, which immediately lulls the audience into a false sense of security.
In brief, the audience can see how this 1931 sound film could be shaped by sound in a number of ways. Considering that sound at this time was a new phenomenon it is understood why mostly diegetic sound was used over nondiegetic sound. This director also showed the audience how the story could be affected by sound with examples like the clock becoming a character and storyline of its own and also the murderer being identified with his whistling. With the lack of sound and the collage of images during specific times, the director was able to create a mood without music or sound. Apparently this was a technique that was learned throughout his many years of silent films. These details were what brought the story together and would not have been done so precisely without the technique of sound.
In conclusion, I have demonstrated how Coppola exploits a wide array of sound and editing to create suspense, intensity, and anxiety in the sequence to affect the audience’s emotions, using diegetic ambient sound effects, non-diegetic music, voice over and four editing types. With this sequence, Coppola has shown the savagery of war and our complicity in this violence as an audience.
Music can decipher a narrative event by indicating a perspective. To unify a set of diverse images and provide rhythmic and formal continuity and momentum, a film’s structure is more often than not, directly articulated by a musical structure. Music can assist the dialogue and visuals of film and often is inaudible (e.g. music is meant to be heard unconsciously, not consciously). Music has been used by directors to reinforce or strengthen certain weak scenes in film and then on the other hand when music is not needed to reinforce a scene
Sound as we discuss in our discussion question section, sound plays a significant role in every scene, it helps the audience in many ways such as to know the audience what is going to happen or to get the into the character. Now on days many directors increase realism brought on by sound inevitable forced acting styles to become more natural the scene can be identifying a digetic sound. Many people may think that the sound effect that a director use in a movie, novella or documentary is the same, they are totally confused, its two types of sound such as digetic sound and non digetic sound
...successful collaboration of sound, colour, camera positioning and lighting are instrumental in portraying these themes. The techniques used heighten the suspense, drama and mood of each scene and enhance the film in order to convey to the spectator the intended messages.
As an audience we are manipulated from the moment a film begins. In this essay I wish to explore how The Conversation’s use of sound design has directly controlled our perceptions and emotional responses as well as how it can change the meaning of the image. I would also like to discover how the soundtrack guides the audience’s attention with the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds.
The use of jump cuts within Breathless and Contempt was an unconventional technique during the French New Wave and still is today because it violates one of the rules of Classic Hollywood Style. Jump cuts create “…discontinuities that the perceptual system will not ignore because the stimuli fall outside of the accommodation ranges for perceptual continuity, then spatial coherence breaks down” (Berliner). Even though jump cuts are not aesthetically pleasing, Godard uses them for the deeper meaning of the films.
Sound is what brings movies to life, but, not many viewers really notice. A film can be shot with mediocre quality, but, can be intriguing if it has the most effective foley, sound effects, underscore, etc. Sound in movies band together and unfold the meaning of the scenes. When actors are speaking, the dialogue can bring emotion to the audience, or, it can be used as the ambient sound. Music is one of the main things to have when filmmaking. The use of Claudia Gorbman’s Seven Principles of Composition, Mixing and Editing in Classical Film gives audiences a perspective of sound, and, how it can have an impact on them.
...n, the use of sound in films is highly significant in the development of the plot and in turn the development of the theme. Although, the sound components play a very significant role individually, it is through the combination and manipulation of such components that the sound design of the sound track has a greater impact emotionally upon the audience. Moreover, the effectiveness of this emotional impact can be significantly increased through the implementation of an effective combination sound to the image. Such combination can be seen within Gravity which exhibits a soundscape that successfully assist in bringing the world of the film to life. Sound is important to films and is an essential feature, many a time an audience will not even self-consciously acknowledge the music or sound effects but if they weren’t there the viewing pleasure would not be as pleasing
I really liked when the scenes where the image and sound both work together great. I refer to the silence as nothingness and feeling alone because that describes the dark silences perfectly. It is definitely the most prominent part in the movie, and I think more movies should try to use silence to their advantage. I absolutely think that the movie uses silence expressively. For one thing, they are in space so there isn’t a lot of noise in the middle of the galaxy, but for some reason when I think back to when there were shots of the rocket ship in the dark galaxy I think of how the film makers made there be no background noise except the ship which was nice because it made it seem very realistic. Usually in movies there is a lot of background music that you don’t notice, but it helps the scene out. In this case the director used silence to make the scenes more realistic. I think of the scene where Matthew McCaughey goes into the dark hole. He was narrating at the time then suddenly you hear dead silence. It made me have a deeper connection with the movie because the movie was silent, but so were my thoughts. When I think back to the movie, I don’t remember there being a lot of music because it all just blended in, then I went back to see if they had anything special about their music I noticed all the different types of music they had throughout the movie. (This is all referring to my discussion post from chapter