From watching the two minute film sequence that my group created, I am pleased with what we produced. We decided we wanted to try to create an extract from a neo noir film, and based its plot largely around the contemporized noir film ‘Brick’ (Johnson 2006), where a teenager finds a peer mysteriously dead, and searches for clues to discover what lead to their death. We worked on producing the opening sequence of our film, in which a teenager discovers the body of someone she knew.
The microelement I was responsible for was sound. (image of timeline in Final Cut)
As we were trying to create a noir film we decided it would be fitting to included a voice over from the main character, as voice over’s are a main characteristic of noir, and are evident within both old and contemporary noir films, such as ‘Brick’ and ‘The Big Sleep’ (Hawks 1946). The tone of our voice over is also very emotionless; to try to create the same effect as the hard-boiled voice over’s in other noir films. Rather than having the voice speaking in the present tense about the events in the sequence, we decide to have it talking in the past tense, looking back on what happened (this was inspired by the noir film Double Indemnity (Wilder 1944), which uses a voice over in the same style). The reason for this was; we were creating the opening sequence and therefore needed to explain to the audience what had happened in order to set the scene. However, the voice over overlaps the images of the main character journey, which results in her finding the body, from days before and therefore doesn’t complement what’s being shown. This may be confusing to the audience but because what’s being said does not fit the images beings shown, the audience have to concentrate on what’s being said, therefore catching their full attention from the beginning. Also it’s not evident what the character is talking about throughout the sequence until she finds the body, therefore the audience will be intrigued to find out what she’s addressing, again catching their attention and making them want to keep watching. We decided to end the voice over at the point where the girl finds the body, creating a dramatic pause to add emphasise to this moment, as it is vital for the films continuum. It’s also the moment where what’s being said finally makes sense to what’s being shown, (as the girl is explaining what she found), therefore it gives a moment for everything to click within the audience’s head.
(Double Indemnity: sound relevant from 3.33)
We decided we didn’t want to add any non-diagetic music to our sequence, as it would take away the emphasis of the voice over. Instead we only had the sound of footsteps, as are main character is continuously walking (until she finds the body), and therefore it highlighting that she’s on an important journey. To emphasise the footsteps, we edited the sound from filming to enhance it, and made it longer it so that it covered all the walking in the sequence, to keep it constant. The footsteps also adds a sense of eeriness, which would otherwise have to create using a soundtrack, as it’s the only sound that can be heard, giving a sense of isolation. We stopped the footsteps when the girl finally stops walking, so the silence emphasises the significance her finding the dead body, and signals to the audience that something important has happened as she is finally stood still
. (example of when diagetic sound is used, for conversation between characters)
Between the images of the girl walking, are several quick shots of the surroundings where the body lays. We added these shots as it shows the audience where the girl is headed, which is evident when she arrives. However when these shots are shown it is not evident of their significances and should therefore get the audience trying to think about why they are included. We decided these shots should be completely silent as it draws attention to them, and gives the audience a quick moment to only focus purely on the image, so they can consider why there’re shown. It also adds a sense of further eeriness as these silences come directly after the sound of the voice over and footsteps, making the silence more noticeable. This reflects the eeriness and the isolation of the location shown, as it is in fact the place where the dead body lies. To conclude I feel that the sound within our film extract was successful. Feedback from viewers shows they felt the voice over was key to the sequence and informed them of what they needed to know, and that the sound of footsteps worked well with the images of the girl walking. Some feedback however suggested that adding background music would have created better tension to the sequence. I disagree however; as I feel non-diagetic music would have taken emphasis away from the voice over and footsteps, therefore losing their effect.
