Our world is full of sound whether it’s the birds whistling in the morning, the leaves crunching under the feet of a squirrel, or the wind whirling around you. Gordon Hempton doesn’t take these sounds for granted like we do; he cherishes them and records them all as they happen. In 2003, he had lost his hearing suddenly and suddenly it recovered completely, causing him to have a newfound love for the sounds of our world. This video clip shows Gordon recording and capturing the sounds of nature and trying to make a difference in saving the natural quiet of national parks, and getting people to listen. This video is told from a third-person point of view, with first person accounts from Gordon himself. If this topic was something that the viewer was personally interested in, then I believe that it would evoke an emotional reaction but in my case, it does not.
The camera focuses on two subjects: Gordon and nature. The subjects and objects filmed are chosen in order to create the most effective sequence and create the strongest visual image for the viewer. Because the focus of the video is about sound, the thing that the camera focuses on is generally the object making the sound. For example, thirty seconds into the video, you can hear the crunching of snow under Gordon’s feet. The visual aspect to accompany that sound is a close up on his feet walking through the snow. Also, as you can hear the melting of the snow, a video of ice melting accompanies it. Overall, the majority of shots in the video are B-roll, focusing on nature and nothing very important or specific. I think that this lack of visual interest in the B-roll really detracts from the video as a whole. Because there was nothing specific for me to focus my attention on, I ...
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... it’s slightly unnoticeable. There is no strong climax or action, but the video has a dramatic curve. The rising action occurs when Gordon is on his way to the quiet area. The climax would be when he arrives, saying, “…this is the last thing I will say.” The falling action would be when he leaves, and it switches to another setting.
Because of the culmination of the visual elements and film techniques, this video story acts as an example of an effective, smooth, video story. There were moments where the videographer could have improved and created a stronger piece, but the majority of the video is powerful and transmits a strong message. The videographer used appropriate shots, angles, and tilts to help share Gordon Hempton’s message and passion. This video really helps show the silence and natural noise that goes unnoticed and how important it is to protect that.
Silence — the sound of quiet, the state of mind, the lack of meaning — all these pertain to its definition. Communication is expanding, noise is increasing, music is becoming more obtainable as people search desperately for a moment of peace or a breeze of silence. As the scarcity of physical silence increases, its value as a rare commodity increases as well. The idiom “Silence is golden” may perhaps only grow closer to reality as time passes, as exemplified by the white noise machines or silent fans entering the market and fictionalized in Kevin Brockmeier’s short story, “The Year of Silence.” In light of this, Brockmeier explores the value of silence and noise in his story without putting one above the other. Through strange clues and hidden
Throughout the film, the filmmaker follows the three victims around in their everyday lives by using somber music and backgrounds of depressing colors. The documentary starts off with colorful images of the scenery
Spike Lee, through his undoubtedly inventive yet obtrusive camerawork, embodies emotional impact. From lateral panning and jumpy camera sequences to his use of perspective, Lee inspires intensity and apprehension. An odd synchronicity between the camerawork and subject matter fosters these emotional reactions and inspires inquisition; the viewer conceptualizes the camerawork to uncover a significance the narrative cannot deliver. The cop sequence retains suspense and effortlessly transfers Flipper’s anxiety; a “voyeuristic” perspective stimulates the former while rapid camera shifts and altering points of view maintain the latter. The scene in which Flipper asks for a promotion illustrates Lee’s emphasis on viewer impact and impression, sometimes at the cost
The screenwriter chose an effective way of illustrating the point of attack, establishing the setting and handling of exposition. The first scene of the film was a black screen which had audio of a man and a woman having a conversation. After, the film switches to a grainy video of men being detained by police. The video clip manages to bring the dramatic tension to all time high because an unidentified character is shot by the police. Therefore, this left a sense of uneasiness and tension throughout the whole film. The beginning of the film also did a wonderful job of establishing the setting. The scene of the grainy video clip had a caption box stating it was “Fruitvale BART Station 2:15AM New Year’s Day 2009”. The film then introduces the
The human ability to perceive sound is often taken for granted and is erroneously considered, by most, to be secondary in importance to sight. It is true that our primary understanding of the world develops through sight, but sound is responsible for our ability to communicate with one another through both concrete and abstract means, as well as for defining the nuances that shape our surroundings. Without sound, humans would be alienated in their own uncertainty; unable to express the fears and aspirations which are common to our condition. Sound has the unique ability to transcend boundaries, cultures, and ideologies through speech, music, and the noises which we distinguish categorically through memory and experience. It is this transcendental quality of sound which Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck chose as a central theme in the film “The Lives of Others”. The film expresses beautifully the effect that music and language have upon our ability to feel empathy and compassion. The use of sound in the film explores the human potential for change and transformation from our basest instincts toward nobler causes.
Connor is concerned with how Sound Art is a vehicle for change in the gallery, in particular how sound can extend beyond the walls of the gallery to ventilate it with the sounds of what lies outside it, or to temporalise place. Connor discusses The Sonic Boom Exhibition held in London in 2000 which featured 23 sound artists who exhibited at The Hayward Gallery. The show featured an emphasis on sculptures or objects that produced sound. David Toop, the curator for the Sonic Boom Exhibition was faced with ‘a positively suburban problem of sound pollution’ says Connor. When one enters the exhibition one is immediately overwhelmed by a dense cloud of noise and sounds. How many sounding objects can one put into one space? David Toop defends his approach with the help of a w...
It is a common mis-conception that films are merely entertainment, and serve no other purpose than to provide for the viewer a two-hour escape from reality. This is a serious under-estimation of the power, purpose, and potential of film, because film, upon reflection, revea...
The film Wendy and Lucy, directed by Kelly Reichardt, presents a sparse narrative. The film has been criticised for its lack of background story, and as a short film, much of the story is left to the viewer to infer from what is presented in the plot. However, Wendy and Lucy is able to depict the intimate relationship between Wendy and her dog as well as reflecting more broadly on the everyday, and commenting on the current economic state of the film’s setting in America. This essay will examine how film form contributes to the viewer’s awareness of the story in Wendy and Lucy and allows a deeper understanding of the themes presented. The aspects of mise-en-scene, shot and editing and sound in the film will be explored.
This work follows in that of the purveyors of documentary photography. Like Richards, Jacob Riss went into the city slums a century earlier armed with a camera. In New York, Riss saw a glut of people, mostly immigrants, jammed packed together and feebly existing in filth. Riss, who was primarily a writer, found that his words were not communicating the ailments of society to the public as he wished. Then, the primitive flash was invented. Riss saw this as way to communicate the troubles he saw in the dark areas where the grossly impoverished lived. The outcome of Riss’ efforts was a startlingly powerful book of his images and text appropriately titled How the Other Half Lives. Though the photographic equipment has change through this time span, the aim of the photographers is the same: to educate the rest of the world of those that are forgotten or ignored, and in that way, bring about change.
Often times people neglect the fact that the things- such as films- that they see and hear day to day can actually be worthwhile in teaching them. They come into contact with them purely for the purpose of being entertained and, sometimes, do not even realize that they are being taught valuable life lessons in the process. In conjunction with this theory, Professor Michael Taylor once said, “We don’t often think of the value of media beyond its entertainment, but there is a whole area that has to do with education through entertainment. As filmmakers, the work that we do has a huge impact on our culture. With that comes an opportunity, and may be even a responsibility, to use that impact for greater good.” Many French and Francophone films
First of all, the audio is used brilliantly in the sequence. Sound is one of the most powerful tools in cinema. Sound cues us to form expectation and opens up the possibility for the editing. In the beginning of the sequence we see the indigenous people dancing and Willard resting on the boat. However, he is getting ready to complete his mission. When his voice-over comes into play, the audience starts to realize that Willard is becoming insane just like Kurtz, he is becoming part of the jungle and so is the audience. The scene cuts to Willard rising slowly from the water, accompanied by the song “The End” by The Doors. The tribal beat and the song mix together, intensifying the suspense. The odd thing is that the tribal beat is a diegetic sound and the song is a non-diegetic sound. The combination of these two sounds invades each other’s boundaries and creates a hypnotic feeling. “Filmmakers carefully choose which sounds to include on the soundtrack, knowing that emphasizing a particular ...
Film Society of Lincoln Center , ND/NF Q&A: "Stories We Tell", Sarah Polley, online video, May 10 2013, viewed May 5 2014,
To begin, Emily started her speech with an effective attention grabber. To be more specific, she asked the audience a question. The question was if any of us had ever heard the sound of a pager for a fire call during dinner with family. As she asked this question, the audience heard the sound of a pager for a fire call. Due to this, it was clear that she asked an interesting question and provided the audience with further evidence to engage the audience. The real audio file helped make it feel like the audience was really hearing the sound during a family dinner. The sound grabbed the audience’s attention by encouraging further listening when she spoke. In addition, the speaker related the topic to the audience members by reminding us of our own family dinners and real life situations that are possible to members of a firehouse family.
Oscar Wild once said, “The truth is rarely pure and never simple” and he is right. But no matter what the outcome is, or how complex the truth is, we will always strive for the truth. The concept of truth is no stranger to film documentaries, and one filmmaker that certainty was aware of that was Dziga Vertov. During the 1920’s Vertov created a newsreel series to promote the concept of ‘Kinopravda” which translated to English mean “Film truth.” Unfortunately, Vertov was ahead of his time, and this concept disappeared along the filmmakers’ path. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that other filmmakers around the world once again recognized the importance of the truth. Two movements with the purpose of revealing the truth of life, emerge in different parts of the world, Direct Cinema in North America and Cinema Vérité in France. Although, both had the same purpose, their approaches towards getting the truth make them completely different. Cinema Vérité’s approach gave the filmmakers a chance to manipulate and distort reality by participating and observing at the same time, while Direct Cinemas approach was strictly observational, and there is no better way to find out the truth than observing without interfering.
As the camera zoom smoothly creeps in from the establishing wide we are exposed to a changing palette of noises from the surrounding environme...