Monthly Archives:

Sound Bytes – Should not Bite

What beautiful scenery. Fantastic talent. Wow, check out the cinematography….Awesome ….. Oh, what’d he say?

 I’ve watched my fair share of indie films and judging by the DVD shelf that just crashed to earth, perhaps collected a few too many. So when my movie arrived fresh from purchase I did not expect the sound to, well…. stink. (Is this mix grammatically and spiritually excusable in a blog? Dunno. I am throwing down the gauntlet and forging ahead anyway with my complaint, err, um – point! Yes, I meant to say point.)

Sound demands as much consideration as other elements. As a movie watcher I can comment freely: rain should sound exactly like rain and church bells should never sound like a cell phone ringtone. People tend to snicker in places where sentiment was the intention. How to affect quality sound is another matter and a topic best left to the experts, which I am clearly not. Heaven knows the sound police found blunders in my little student (aka free) film.

What I know for sure is that quality sound is not achieved by wishing for it or hocus pocus. I’ll have to leave my soapbox now (my minute rice is burning) and I’ll sign off with a helpful link which could be called: How to Make Sound for a Movie 101. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuJR1ND2CDM

 Why pay grad school when there’s YouTube?

~Peace,

Tina

Comment on this Post   

A Short Look at the Long Take

Rainy Saturdays are a good excuse to watch old movies. Good Will Hunting proved to be a good choice this weekend. It is also a great example of using a long take to good effect.

The long take is not used as frequently as other emotionally manipulative shots but when it is the audience’s attention gets grabbed. It’s a bold move and arguably the riskiest. What is the attention span of the average teenager? For that matter, what is the attention span of our entirely impatient McCulture? I would be afraid to find out.

Will and his psychiatrist talk and talk and this easily could have backfired. It does work but I wonder why director Gus Van Sant felt this was the best way to convey all that information. Aside from The Untouchables and Citizen Kane, I could not recollect too many long shots.

With a fair amount of Googling I developed a list of directors who routinely favor the long shot. Familiar names include:

Martin Scorsese                    Alfred Hitchcock

Quentin Tarantino               Paul Thomas Anderson

Brian DePalma                      Orson Wells

Glad I didn’t place any bets that the long take isn’t popular. So, it seems I should remember more scenes with the long take. Better go watch more movies.

~Peace

Tina

Comment on this Post