MIDTERM PAPER

Atelier de Sonoplastia para a Imagem

João Cabaço
A21903164
 Mid-Term Paper

The use of sound in movies has constantly evolved through

the history of cinema. It was asked to us to talk about the
contrast in sound use between the movies Safe by Todd
Haynes, and the movie A Man Escaped by Robert Bresson.

A Man Escaped is a movie that was made in the 50s, when the
technology for sound in general was still rough. The movie
employs the use of foleys, along with other techniques of
sound design, to create a sound atmosphere that is still
immersive.

During the movie in some scenes, due to the need of moving

the camera, the characters don’t talk and a monologue,
recorded in post is placed along with the use of foleys. This
can be observed in one of the beginning scenes where he
describes his cell, while walking around in it, a monologue is
played while some of the actions are accentuated by some
foley sounds.

In the later part of the movie, where he and the boy escape
the prison, we hear from time-to-time a sound of a train
passing, and other vehicles such as a gas powered motor
most resembling a motorcycle. This are all heard during a
close-up of the characters, falling in the Disembodied Sound
technique used by Vertov listed in Lucy Fisher’s Enthusiasm:
From Kino-Eye ro Radio-Eye.

This book lists 15 techniques of aural reflexivity, used to

immerse us or, make us perceive things, that would not be
possible only by the use of visual Stimuli.

These techniques continued being used through out the ages,

arriving now to the year 1995 with the movie Safe.
In this movie the techniques are also present, along with new
ones that where made possible due to the advancements in
technology such as ADR.

With ADR, dialogue is able to be recorded and synchronised in

the post-editing phase, enabling the ability of audio while the
characters walk or there’s a lot of visual action happening in
regards of camera movement, and it is used to replace some
missing parts of audio.

In one of the scenes, the main character Claire, while she is

at the hairdresser a product is applied to her air and we hear
a gurgling, bubbly sound, that reflects on vertov’s technique
number 8 as listed by Lucy of Inappropriate Sounds. This is
followed by her starting to have a nosebleed that can be
linked to how chemicals harm her.

The use of sound in this movie can represent how harmful the
chemicals are to Claire and how badly she reacts to them.

We also observe the Mismatching of both Sound/Visual

Distance and Location, in a scene where Claire is in her
kitchen eating with headphones listening to a dialogue of a
lady but, we are placed inside her head as the audio is played
directly at us, as if we, the viewers, where the ones listening
to it, and it even proceeds playing as she keeps on going with
her routine.

The Wagnerian Aesthetic can be observed in both movies,

where in Safe it is only really present in the beginning of the
movie, in A Man Escaped, it is used through out the movie
with the big ending, where they escape and loud orchestral
music is played, symbolizing their victory.

Both movies have a big use of Michel Chion’s 3 borders of

cinematic sound.
We empathise with both main characters through the sounds
we hear in both movies, as they put us, the viewer in a mental
space that is engraved in our memory. We have the example
of, in A Man Escaped as the guards lock fountain the sound of
the keys playing prominently makes us feel like we are in the
cell inside the prison with him, along with all the narration that
occurs throughout the movie.

A contrast between these two movies is that both main

characters are in their own prisons. Claire is stuck in a mental
prison, with the life she has, and Fountain is in a physical
prison.

We are also able to contrast with this analysis, that while the
sound in A Man Escaped is more of Fountains mind and his
thoughts, the sound in Safe is more of what is around Claire
and how that hurts her.
 Bibliography
Enthusiasm: From Kino-Eye to Radio-Eye, Lucy Ficher

The evolution of Sound Technology, Rick Altman