The Sound of Silence
Scene 22. EXT. ROOF OF TALL BUILDING – VERY EARLY MORNING
VASSILY and PETRA emerge onto the roof. A shot of the city
from high up.
The SOUND LEVELS show a bang of the roof exit door slamming
closed, then complete silence.
VASSILY and PETRA record the SOUND OF SILENCE.
Sunrise over the city.
The extract above is taken from a script of a short film currently in post production at SoundSpot; Vassily and Petra. It poses a key sound design scenario which revolves around the concept of silence.
Some brief research has shed light on this topic bringing up aspects of 1-technology, 2-dynamic balance and 3-the use of silence as a design tool.
1- TECHNOLOGICAL advances in film sound have resulted in soundtracks which can exploit a wider range of frequencies whilst reducing the unwanted noise and hiss. As magnetic tape has disappeared and Dolby becomes a universal standard meaning sound designers and mixers can focus more on these low level sounds which previously were masked by artifact/tape noise. This brings us closer to a mute canvas which can be built upon, whether it be a delicate sound or a high impact collision filling the entire screen.
2- With this bigger range of sound comes DYNAMIC BALANCE which can be assessed within a scene of a film or ultimately an entire soundtrack. Just as photography is composed of the lights and darks to create balance and beauty so is a soundtrack; utilising peaks and troughs in sound levels. The emphasis for this balance is more of an issue for the mix which works in unison with the films narrative in order to tell a story and keep audience interest.
3- SILENCE AS A DESIGN TOOL. Not to be taken literally but used to reflect the idea that stripping down a soundtrack at times is just important as making it dense and sonically rich. This comes with time, understanding cinema and design intuition.
…Finally a word from the master.
Michel Chion. The Silence of the Loudspeakers, or Why With Dolby sound it is the Film That Listens to Us
“Everything today tends on the contrary to separate the sounds from one another: their dispersion across several tracks, their precision, the differences in contrast and the gulfs of silence between them, etc. We live in a world in which rhythms overlay one another without blending, in the same way that music heard on a car stereo is superimposed on the rhythms of the passing world but does not become confounded with it.”
http://aspectratio.wordpress.com/2008/10/22/from-here-on-in-absolute-silence/
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VoKROBFWuvoC&pg=PA51&dq=silence+cinema&lr=#v=onepage&q=silence%20cinema&f=false
http://www.frameworkonline.com/Issue40/40ls.htm
http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/2637/comments?page=1#comment_67481
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[...] A final anecdote & question about silence in art: a few years ago I attended a screening at the NZ International Film Festival where an acclaimed electronic minimalist musician was performing a live accompaniment to an equally minimalist film. I was totally open to the approach taken but I left incredibly frustrated, simply because from frame one until the end of the credits there was droney minimalist music, but not one second of silence. How could someone be a minimalist & not engage silence in their work? If I was to consider the dynamic range of ideas in that particular live score I would say it was similar to some of the cursed pop music blaring from radios… But ever since I have wondered, are we afraid of silence? Directly related to this question; I’m currently working on a commissioned remix of a beautiful classical piece and there are definitely momentary silences in my version of it, but I got to thinking: if it was performed live as a concert is the fear that a silence might confuse the audience that the piece is finished? Is that part of the fear of silence in creative works? Over at the Social Sound Design site I asked the question: In my opinion some of the best film sound is not loud or overt, so I am interested to know what your favorite use of silence or near-silence is in a film? The answers are interesting & it has prompted some films worth revisiting but my question was partly motivated by reading someone say online that “you can’t use silence in a film – it could be mistaken for a technical fault” which is such wrong-headed thinking… The use of silence is about context – of course if you cut in a burst of silence inappropriately into a film soundtrack it will be ‘read’ as a mistake, but migrating a scene to silence in a very carefully considered & evolved way would never be mistaken as a fault, because by its very nature it is intentional and if implemented correctly (ie so the audience don’t quite realise it) then you end up in the most amazing place where the absence of sound is everything. I’ve been there on at least half a dozen films and no one has ever claimed it was a mistake. But when people I know say they saw the film I ask, did you notice the silence? Almost always the answer is no. Success!!! A few articles worth a read on the subject of silence: Silence in Game Sound Design and a PDF article: Sound, Silence and Horror and The Sound of Silence [...]
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