"Less" is more—however— "less" can also be difficult to achieve. With sound, I always find films with subtle soundtracks to be more enjoyable than films that have hundreds of sound effects all popping on at the same time. As we get closer to the Academy Awards, I'm interested in analyzing two of this year's nominees for Best Sound Editing: Roma directed by Alfonso Cuarón and A Quiet Place directed by John Krasinski
These two films really speak to me sonically because of the elegance in their simplicity. I personally take pride in achieving realness with foley—human elements. To me, it's harder to make a human sound, well, human. The concrete steps, the movement of the pants hitting the leather boots every time this person does as much as taking a full step forward are always crafted perfectly to match the character on-screen. When there's no music, when there's nothing more than digital silence, our ears go straight to the loudest sound that's being played through our speakers, headphones or earbuds. Even if that sound is merely just a creak on an old wooden floor, we are going to automatically give all of our attention to it. There's barely any sound masking. However, picture this same sound effect underneath a beautifully composed piece by Nicholas Britell or underneath a potent explosion with high amounts of LFE. We wouldn't be paying the same type of attention. "Detail" is where the challenge arises in sound design and it's what I want to focus on today.
A Quiet Place (Supervising Sound Editors: Erik Aadal and Ethan Van der Ryn), tells the story of a family that coexists Earth with ferocious blind aliens that attack any source of a sound. In addition, the family not only lives in extreme quietness, but they also communicate with ASL due to their eldest being deaf since birth. The film shows little to almost no dialogue. In addition, we don't hear our everyday sounds of the countryside. These extraterrestrial creatures not only kill humans, they literally attack every single object that emits sounds which means there shouldn't be any life. Everything we hear within the diegesis is subtle; digital silence is presented in the most realistic way possible. This a film that makes us pay attention to that which we would most likely ignore in other films. Of course, because of the film's genre, the soundtrack includes a couple of suspense stingers to level up our "scare-o-meter". Nevertheless, this doesn't damage the authenticity of the world that Krasinski intended to present. An example of this attention to detail comes from the eldest daughter Reagan (Millicent Simmonds), who's constantly struggling with her cochlear implant. There are various instances where Reagan takes off her implant and we go from extreme quietness to almost nothing. The subtle backgrounds disappear with rising layers of low frequencies, heard as a result of Reagan touching the device. This process is very human and has us take the character's POV. A similar intention is evoked during Cuarón's Roma. What seems like nothing is actually very rich.
In Roma (Supervising Sound Editors: Sergio Díaz and Skip Lievsay), we follow the life of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) an indigenous maid who works for a middle-class family during the 1970s in the neighborhood of Roma in Mexico City. The film itself portrays a recollection of memories from Cuarón’s childhood, which means details call for authenticity. The film counts with multiple long shots that capture the realness of the image. Unlike, A Quiet Place, Roma doesn’t have non-diegetic music. Because of this, we’re able to listen to the complete image. Each of these images pertains to a world and each of these worlds, or in Foucauldian terms “heterotopias”, have their own unique soundtrack. We have the countryside, Mexico City, the house itself, and Cleo’s personal space just to name a few. The dichotomy between these heterotopias is exalted and represent the social and political differences between them. We’re put inside the diegesis as spectators, which means that Cuarón wants us to actually live the film the way he actually lived it when he was a boy—with very specific sounds and very specific images.
These films vis-à-vis the rest of this year’s nominees rely on subtlety for the creation of the worlds the directors intended for us to experience. Both films sonically put us inside one of its characters’ shoes. When this is done, we’re meant to stop being spectators and actually believe we’re living the situation on-screen. Films that work with this idea do more than just delight the audience with the essence of simplicity. It makes us ask the question, are these films presenting the human element to us or are we giving it to them by identifying with the marriage of sound and picture in ways no other films care to achieve? The dictum that "more makes the image richer" isn't necessarily true.
These two films really speak to me sonically because of the elegance in their simplicity. I personally take pride in achieving realness with foley—human elements. To me, it's harder to make a human sound, well, human. The concrete steps, the movement of the pants hitting the leather boots every time this person does as much as taking a full step forward are always crafted perfectly to match the character on-screen. When there's no music, when there's nothing more than digital silence, our ears go straight to the loudest sound that's being played through our speakers, headphones or earbuds. Even if that sound is merely just a creak on an old wooden floor, we are going to automatically give all of our attention to it. There's barely any sound masking. However, picture this same sound effect underneath a beautifully composed piece by Nicholas Britell or underneath a potent explosion with high amounts of LFE. We wouldn't be paying the same type of attention. "Detail" is where the challenge arises in sound design and it's what I want to focus on today.
A Quiet Place (Supervising Sound Editors: Erik Aadal and Ethan Van der Ryn), tells the story of a family that coexists Earth with ferocious blind aliens that attack any source of a sound. In addition, the family not only lives in extreme quietness, but they also communicate with ASL due to their eldest being deaf since birth. The film shows little to almost no dialogue. In addition, we don't hear our everyday sounds of the countryside. These extraterrestrial creatures not only kill humans, they literally attack every single object that emits sounds which means there shouldn't be any life. Everything we hear within the diegesis is subtle; digital silence is presented in the most realistic way possible. This a film that makes us pay attention to that which we would most likely ignore in other films. Of course, because of the film's genre, the soundtrack includes a couple of suspense stingers to level up our "scare-o-meter". Nevertheless, this doesn't damage the authenticity of the world that Krasinski intended to present. An example of this attention to detail comes from the eldest daughter Reagan (Millicent Simmonds), who's constantly struggling with her cochlear implant. There are various instances where Reagan takes off her implant and we go from extreme quietness to almost nothing. The subtle backgrounds disappear with rising layers of low frequencies, heard as a result of Reagan touching the device. This process is very human and has us take the character's POV. A similar intention is evoked during Cuarón's Roma. What seems like nothing is actually very rich.
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| Still from A Quiet Place (2018) directed by John Krasinski |
These films vis-à-vis the rest of this year’s nominees rely on subtlety for the creation of the worlds the directors intended for us to experience. Both films sonically put us inside one of its characters’ shoes. When this is done, we’re meant to stop being spectators and actually believe we’re living the situation on-screen. Films that work with this idea do more than just delight the audience with the essence of simplicity. It makes us ask the question, are these films presenting the human element to us or are we giving it to them by identifying with the marriage of sound and picture in ways no other films care to achieve? The dictum that "more makes the image richer" isn't necessarily true.
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| Still from Roma (2018) directed by Alfonso Cuarón |