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Buffy the vampire slayer analysis
Buffy the vampire slayer analysis
Buffy the vampire slayer analysis
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The episode “Hush” from the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer does an excellent job of portraying the theme of ‘Language’, both the limitations of spoken language as well as the benefits. In the episode the characters in the town of Sunnydale have their voices stolen by fairytale monsters called “The Gentlemen”. Buffy and her friends must not only find a way to defeat The Gentlemen, but do so without being able to communicate with one another verbally. Though this episode is without verbal dialogue sound for about half of the episodes length, sound remains an important factor in portraying the plot and the episodes theme. The director uses varying sound techniques to portray different ideas in the episode. In some scenes the director relies heavily …show more content…
Filling a scene with no backing track at all, leaving only the diegetic sounds. As Tara walks into the student lounge at that can be heard are birds and students crying, until one student drops a glass bottle. This stark scene with the abrupt loud sound reminds the viewer how the characters would be feeling, as they cannot hear the extra-diegetic sounds that the audience is privy to. All of these elements work together to convey both the downfalls and benefits of spoken language. Parts of the episode would be completely lost on the viewer if not for the help of the score and extra diegetic sounds. Though the episode does touch on the benefits of being unable to speak to one another; Buffy is unable to get past small talk with her love interest until small talk is no longer an issue. Sound plays a large part in this part of the episode as well. When Buffy is finally able to kiss her love interest all diegetic sound is washed out by the swelling romantic score that overcomes the scene. Almost as though they are the only two people in the town. Sound is a powerful tool in cinema and the director of the episode “Hush” did an excellent job using it to his advantage to portray a powerful
The plot of the book, Speak is that Melinda Sordino, a freshman at Merryweather High went to an end of the summer party with some of her friends. Things take a turn for the worst when a senior named Andy Evans sexually assaults her at the party without her friends knowing about it. Melinda is frightened, afraid, and does not know what to do so she calls 911 busting the party, and causing her friends and everyone at that school to hate her, even if they don’t know her.
The Invisible Man is one film that makes great use of sound. Claude Rains, the man who plays as Jack Griffin, had to have been able to speak since he was unseen throughout most of the movie. When he does ‘appear’ as Griffin, his face is wrapped up, covered in bandages to conceal his invisibility and remain perceptible to others. It would be difficult to have a silent, invisible, mummified actor play this role, but Rains had managed to raise his voice through the bandages binding him. While he may be hidden for most of the film, he certainly is heard. As a character and actor, he makes his insane voice known to those around him.
Sound in Alien Nation is one of the ways the filmmakers depict the difference in the Newcomers to humans. Their voices and native language are vastly different. Their native language obviously differs in ways
Communication is everywhere. We, as interactive human beings, spend the majority of our time corresponding with others to satisfy our physical, identity, social, and practical needs (Adler, Rodman, & Sevigny, 2011). Often, this is consciously done; we search our minds for the accurate linguistic means to express our experiences, and use them to communicate with those around us. However, communication is not as straightforward and effortless as we may believe. It is, in fact, often unintentional, with 65% of it occurring as a result of non-verbal cues (Matsumoto, Shibata, Seiji, Mori, & Shioe, 2010). As mentioned by Marta Dynel (2011) in a study done on nonverbal communication, “Non verbal signs and signals ... are prevalent practically in all social encounters, which entail at least two individuals, who need not even talk or consciously interact otherwise”. Examples exist in all mediums, including in the animated film ‘Up’, where one scene depicts transactional communication between a male and female character, all expressed nonverbally . The nonverbal communication in this scene, along with various other communication constructs, will be discussed.
Loud crashes and sound effects which occur a few times in the production create a startling effect which grabs the audience’s attention and realistically develops a tense atmosphere. In the opening scene, sisters Savra and Mara interact and set up their current situation when their
Michelle Cliff’s utilization of language in Abeng is paramount to the novel’s discussion of nationality and identity. As it is a postcolonial text, Cliff faces the decision of what language she would adopt to tell the story, ultimately deciding on hybridizing formal English in narration and dialogue with occasional Patois dialogue. Her decision here communicates several of the underlying themes of the text that Cliff attempts to address. Throughout the novel, there is juxtaposition between Clare’s narration and the dialogue that occurs between her and other characters. Cliff introduces the juxtaposition in a way that it is difficult to notice at first, due to early encounters with characters being in English. However, as the novel progresses,
Sound also draws attention to specific scenes and can cue expectations of what will occur. The sound viewers hear first is that of thunder and rain. The external sound is both accessible to characters within the scene and the audience. Although the rain and thunder are unnoticeable viewers can presume that the weather is rainy outside which explains the minimal lighting coming through the windows. Lionel stomping up the stairs, the sound of jacks, and the chewing as the three young boys eat are all examples of diegetic sounds which appear natural. By using diegetic sound viewers perceive the story as more realistic because it places the audience within that scene. The use of the recorder and orchestra music is also important because it adds drama to the scene. When Susy picks up her book the loudness of the music increases which intensified the scene to make it appear more dramatic. As Susy opens the curtains again the music gets louder, the combination of music and camera distance in this shot hint that perhaps Susy saw something of importance through her
In Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein, sound is used as an effect to scare people and create a “spooky” feeling. They used the sounds of a storm with rain and thunder, the sound of footsteps coming up from behind people, and other noises like creaky stairs, floors, and doors. This created that “haunted” or “spooky” feeling that would be used over and over again in horror films for decades. When they used sound effects, it was to emphasize that something was either happening or about to happen.
Bauer, L., Holmes, J., & Warren, P. (2006). Bee Talk and Monkey Chatter . Language matters (pp. 49-57). Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
takes away from the mood of the story. Another reason speech is so important is
People need to adapt their use of language to suit the participating audience. Culture and exposure to different contexts define the contact of society and the way each group of people are going to interact. Historically, only a fraction of the languages of the world have been written (Coulmas, 2013). Verbal communication is highly relied on to make meaning as mentioned in Crystal,(2005), Unique features of speech include most of the prosody, the many variations of intonation, loudness, tempo, rhythm, and other tones of voice cannot be written down with much efficiency. Adaptation and the ability to understand alternative ways to communicate are vital aspects of using written and spoken English in a way of
"Have you ever thought about it? What would happen if...you could ever turn me? You can't, by the way, you couldnt' so..no bad ideas. I'm positive the universe makes Slayer-blood like...demon-infection-resistant-y or something. What ? That sounds like it should be a thing. But did you ever, you know, think about it?" Buffy didn't even know what made her ask. No matter how he answered she was pretty sure it'd make her want to hit him. But the thought had occurred to her a few nights ago, so now they were alone, cozy and lazy on the back porch, she figured why not. Worst comes to worst, could always punch him.
Sound falls in to two categories, diegetic and non-diegetic meaning sound that is natural, and sound that has been added such as a music. The director uses sound by making everything in the background sound very low to heighten the sound of her breathing so it is easily heard. This technique is another way to express the emotion of nervousness as well as show how scared the character must feel. Although the words Juno says at the time is quite jokingly stated the way sound is used helps portray a different feeling for the audience to experience. Different film techniques often times, subtly help the audience feel what the characters are actually feeling, despite what may have been said, it helps get the directors true message across in a creative way. This scene perfectly shows exactly how it is possible to do this as well as showing how it is
...te the mood and feeling that he wants from the film. In The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo sound effects are used in a very subtle manner to motivate large pieces of the plot. For example, in the scene when Martin Vanger allows Mikael into his house and treats him to wine and dinner, a constant whistling of wind can be heard until Martin eventually gets up and closes the door, allowing Martin’s mistress to reveal that nobody knows that she is there, and thus giving Martin the ability to kill her. This sound effect returns later at a very pivotal point in the story when Mikael breaks into Martin’s house to find evidence, and is caught by Martin because Martin hears the whistling of the open door and goes to close it. It is this kind of attention to detail that causes Fincher’s films to be so articulately entertaining, yet also extremely deep and important to his time.
...46 phonemes within the English dialect which can be joined to create words that create sentences, which then create texts. Language ambiguity is overcome by employing dialogue stream effect and concomitance of articulation, by using phonemic prompting, syntax and grammar. The largest thing to remember is that language has a great influence on cognitive functions such as memory representations.