Hunger by Steve Mcqueen
- This a great example of how you don’t need lots of dialogue in a film to gain context. In fact, McQueens choice to minimise spoken words creates a hyperrealistic sonic world in which every sound feels weighted with meaning.
- we watched the first couple of scene and I understand the stylistic choice to make the audio hyperrealistic. Things like the drag of a cigarette can be heard from our perspective to give context, not simply as a noise, but as a piece of storytelling that connects us to the characters inner world.
- This way of telling a story not through word of mouth but by sonic realism has given me some good insight into the worth of someone making audio for film. This creates a more active relationship between viewer and film, which is something I’m becoming increasingly interested in for my own sound redesign project.
- The spacious use of dialogue actually allows the watcher to feel inclined to understand the events unfolding on screen. It’s a useful way to keep the audience hooked.
- The introduction not only communicates what’s goes on with our character, it also communicates what’s going on a social and political scale within the confines of this era of Ireland. Through footsteps, breath, the scrapes of chairs and the metallic clangs of the prison environment, we come to understand the atmosphere of tension and dehumanisation long before er get any explicit context. Sound becomes a vessel for the films political weight
Walter Murch’s words encapsulate this perfectly
“You have more freedom with sound than you do with picture. There are, consequently, fewer rules. But the big three things—which are emotion, story, and rhythm—apply to sound just as much as they apply to picture. You are always primarily looking for something that will underline or emphasize or counterpoint the emotion that you want to elicit from the audience. You can do that through sound just as well as through editing, if not more so. Rhythm is obviously important; sound is a temporal medium. And then story. You choose sounds that help people to feel the story of what you’re doing.“
How can sound create character?
- We talked a lot about the use of sound, the sound being a firm part in film and art.
- Audio and dialogue play a huge part in hoe we view a character, from what they say to how they sound. Dialogue reveals intention, background and emotion. However sound design and Foley reveal texture, physicality and psychological state.
- Sound design and foley also play a crucial part on how a character is created, if want a character who is a heavy mercenary for example you would add a heavier foot step to shape them in a more aggressive way. Meanwhile, a nervous character might have quicker, lighter movements, the rustle of clothing or the subtle trembles of objects that touch.
- Motifs can add character by adding a soundtrack you can evolve that character musically. They become part of the character identity. Through reassuring musical phrases or signature sound cues
- Silence also can be a powerful tool into creating character
A Strange Border – Essay on Music & Sound, by Paul Davies
Davis writes about the transitional space between music and sound design, where ’emotional interpretation’ becomes fluid. Though I didn’t explore the full essay, one idea stuck out to me is the notion that sound exists on a boundary between the litra and the symbolic. It can represent real world physics but I can also slip into abstraction that evokes memory, mood or subconscious meaning. This is also something I can see myself experimenting with in my own film, using sound not only as music to mimic the world onscreen but to hint at the emotional world off screen.
Reflection
Across all these films and concepts from Pinewoods Foley craft to Hunger, Murch and Davis, I’ve realised how deeply sound shapes our experience of cinema. It’s more than an accessory to the image; it’s a language that can transform the emotional and narrative core of a story. What I once thought as a technical layer now feels like an expressive medium in its own right, capable of carrying symbolism and helps also to shape character and audience perception.
As I move into redesigning the sound for my own film project, I’m approaching it not just as a technical exercise, but as a creative opportunity. I’m thinking more intentionally about the choices I make, how prop texture can effect the meaning of a moment, how silence can pull a viewer closer and how motifs narrate the inner life of a character. I feel more attuned to the artistry behind sound and I’m excited to apply these ideas in ways that will hopefully resonate on both a narrative and emotional level.