In the silent film era, there was no technology in silent films that could support the simultaneous recording of the sound of the picture, and it was not until 1927 that the situation improved. However, when a silent film is broadcast, there will still be orchestral music and other musical accompaniment from the theater, and as the film plays, there will be sound or silence in the appropriate position. Since then, the presence or absence of sound has had great significance in the film.
The flexible combination of sound and picture in the film has improved the status of sound in the film, and with it, sound is a proper noun in the film - sound montage. The versatility and complexity of sound in film makes sound montages an intelligent and vibrant component of films.
Among the films that use sound montage, "Crazy Dating Mirador" is particularly outstanding. It is a film with almost no dialogue, telling the story of grandson Chabin who is kidnapped by the dark forces of Mirador when he participates in the Tour de France, and Grandma Susha takes the puppy to Mirador to rescue Chabin with the three sisters of Mirador.
The aesthetician Yang Xin once said: The combination of many regular lines makes people feel coordinated, as if using lines to compose a silent "symphony".
In the following, we will use the principle of "dots, lines and surfaces" in geometry to talk about how to form a unique film symphony while deepening the theme of the film after the sound is skillfully combined and used.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >, "point": Repeated sound points must have deep meaning</h1>
A good movie is never lazy in the use of sound. In addition to paying attention to the sounds of human voices that must appear in the frame and the collision of objects, we should also pay attention to listening to the background sounds outside the frame. When a certain sound is repeated in the film, we must remind ourselves that the sound must have a deep meaning. And there are three recurring sound points in Mad Dating Mirador: dogs barking, bells, and trains.
The first time these three sounds appeared, it was when Chabin was playing with the toy train, and the puppy was also playing next to him. The puppy accidentally sat on the tracks of the toy train, which crushed the puppy's tail as it passed, and since then, whenever the bell rings and the real train passes, the puppy always barks at the train.
Next, let's analyze these three sound points.
1. The sound of trains
Years ago, toy trains could easily break a dog's tail; years later, train tracks were built so high that they could easily squeeze Chabin's house apart. Whenever the sound of a train passing by sounded, it was followed by a picture of the exaggerated vibration of the house. The director tells the audience in the form of sound and picture that the sound of the train symbolizes a powerful dark force.
Whenever the train sounds, the audience knows: the dark forces are about to appear.
2. Dog barking
When we can understand that the sound of the train represents the forces of darkness, then the barking of dogs is not difficult to understand— the forces that confront the forces of darkness. Before Chabin is kidnapped by the Dark Ones, the puppy barks at the train suggesting that Grandma Susha will soon be heading to Mirador to fight the Dark Forces to save Chabin. The insistence of the puppy is also the insistence of Grandma Susha.
3. Bells
The bells here include the chimes that chime before the train arrives, and the sound of the pendulum swinging. The former is not difficult to understand, the appearance of the bell will inevitably welcome the arrival of the train, is a common suggestive technique. The sound of the pendulum swing represents two meanings in the film.
The first is a video passage in which Chabin returns home after training and completes a relaxing massage and eating of his body, with the sound of a pendulum swinging in the background. The sound of the pendulum swing here corresponds to real time and is not accelerated or slowed down. Here, the director uses a single film clip with a pendulum swing that matches the real time, telling us that this is Chabin's training routine for many years.
The second is that after Chabin falls asleep exhausted after training, Grandma Susha carries him to bed until the lights are turned off, a passage in which the clock walks faster and louder than real time. Here, the audience clearly feels the acceleration of the passage of time, which is prone to a feeling of tension and uneasiness, paving the way for Chabin's imminent accident.
Sound points are used very widely in movies. For example, in "Farewell to the Overlord", when Cheng Dieyi, XiaoSi and Duan Xiaolou were in a meeting to discuss the reform of Peking Opera, Duan Xiaolou wanted to echo Cheng Dieyi, but the sound of smashing nails around him and the ringing of the telephone rang one after another, as if smashing into Duan Xiaolou's heart. The sound points here make the audience immersed in the scene, and accurately feel the tense and complex psychology of the small building, and the urgent and sharp sound points are easy to create a tense atmosphere.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > two, "line": the use of boring sound points combined into a unique sound line, to create a wonderful performance</h1>
Whenever "Crazy Dating Beautiful Du" is mentioned, the audience always thinks of the wonderful song and dance performance of the three beautiful sisters. The young three sisters have a beautiful singing voice, but it is not as deeply rooted in the hearts of the people as the performance with ordinary props in old age, because the director has made a unique design for boring sound points, combined into a unique sound line, so that the popular famous song of the three sisters has become a unique and wonderful performance.
1. Rhythmic clapping, snapping fingers and pedaling, setting off the charm of old and hoarse singing
Grandma Susha, who was penniless when she first arrived at the beauty, could only sit under the bridge, take the wheel frame of the abandoned bicycle, and knock out the sound of banging to make fun of it. At this time, the three sisters of beauty quietly appeared, and beauty and figure no longer existed. The film's first climax begins to appear.
The three sisters began the performance without an audience with their fingers ringing: starting with the harmonies of bass, midrange and treble, and singing their famous songs with a hoarse voice. The three sisters gave themselves rhythm with snapping their fingers, clapping their hands and steppings. Compared with previous songs, the highlight of this time is the thick harmony of the three sisters, which is the unique charm of the old singer's voice, and the solo performed by Grandma Susha with the wheel frame, which is the highlight of this performance!
2. Use the boring sound of newspaper, refrigerator, vacuum cleaner and wheel frame to create a wonderful symphony
The second climax in the film occurs in the wonderful performance of the three sisters and Grandma Susha at the hotel. In the absence of a song, the three sisters and Su Sha's mother-in-law interweave a gripping symphony with the sounds of ordinary daily necessities.
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The first appearance of the three sisters is the grandmother who plays in the newspaper, and the perfect combination of foot pedaling and newspaper folding sounds completes the opening scene that amazes the audience. The next grandmother, who appeared next, played the iron shelf of the old refrigerator with her fingers like a piano, forming a mix and match with the sound of newspaper. Grandma, who has a beloved vacuum cleaner, also appears, using the palm of her hand to cover the vacuum tube, resulting in a unique undulating whining sound. Finally, Grandma Susha, holding the wheel frame of her bicycle, beats the wheel frame like a jazz drum, making a crisp sound.
What is originally a dull and tasteless sound point can miraculously blend together to become a unique sound line. It can be seen that the effect of 1+1 is far greater than 2, and it can complete a wonderful performance without singing, creating a wonderful symphony.
"I Grew Up in Iran", staged in Iran a few years later, also uses the same principle, using sound points to connect into lines, achieving the effect of promoting the psychological transformation of the protagonist and the development process of the story.
Unlike "Crazy Dating Mirador", a musical film without dialogue, the "sound point" of "I Grew Up in Iran" is a large number of character dialogues and inner monologues, forming a sound line that drives the development of the story. The difference in the sound line depends on the cultural background and social situation of different countries.
"Crazy Dating Mirador" comes from the prosperous and developed artistic power - France, and "I grew up in Iran" is from the turbulent Iranian regime, music and beauty are strongly prohibited by the regime at that time, and the status of Iranian women and the status of French women is simply a world of difference. In "I Grew Up in Iran", the heroine can only use a lot of inner monologues and dialogues to find her true self.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > three, face: the clever combination of sounds, resulting in a sound montage full of wisdom and vitality</h1>
The so-called sound montage is actually a combination of sound use, such as the combination of sound and picture, the combination of sound and sound, etc.
"Crazy Dating Mirador" can be called pure fire in the use of sound montages. Through the editing of sound and picture, the director made the film shine, and was nominated for both Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature at the 76th Academy Awards.
A sound montage full of wisdom and vitality must have the following two characteristics:
1. The change of sound can drive the audience's emotional changes, so that the audience is completely immersed in the storyline;
2, the change of voice will not happen for no reason, its transformation implies that a change in the storyline is about to occur.
There are two very wonderful sound montage clips in the film.
The first clip is when Chabin finishes a day of training, rides on a fixed bicycle at the dinner table, using the rotation of the bicycle wheels and chains to drive the rotation of the phonograph's pitcher, and then broadcast the beautiful accordion sound. The accordion music here is the first brisk music in the film, and the picture is also the only time chabin has shown a smile when he grew up, and the picture and music at this moment also make the audience feel his inner pleasure.
The sound of the accordion continued, the clock suddenly rang, and Chabin slowly fell asleep, because the chain no longer turned, and the otherwise pleasant and brisk music suddenly became twisted, deformed, and disappeared. The audience's mood at this moment is also as dark as the weather outside, and it is extremely depressing.
As we analyzed above, the bells and trains represent the dark forces, and with the ringing of the bells, the pleasant music becomes distorted, suggesting that Chabin, who is full of expectations for the Tour de France, is about to encounter misfortune, paving the way for the dark forces to kidnap Chabin.
The second clip is when the three sisters of Mirador and Grandma Su Sha perform at the hotel. The sound of newspapers, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners and wheel frames form a wonderful symphony. At least in this moment of watching the performance, the audience feels awe for the beautiful music and the director's rich imagination.
When the dog falls asleep listening to the performance on the stage, the same musical elements are still in the ears, but the content of the picture has changed dramatically. The dog saw his master Chabin, and like a slave, with the strength of his neck, pulled the train slowly forward.
As the picture changed, the volume of the different instruments also changed: the rustle of the newspaper, the banging of the refrigerator and the wheel frame were greatly weakened, and the whimpering sound of the vacuum cleaner tube was amplified, such as crying, creating an atmosphere of depression and horror, making the audience feel particularly distressed. Both the picture and the sound convey to us Chabin's current state of slave-like pain.
Good works always maximize the role of sound, deepening the theme and resonating with the audience.
"Memory Building Blocks Cabin", which won the 81st Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2009, is also a short film without any dialogue, and the director's use of sound montage makes the short film play a great role in explaining the theme and driving the audience's emotions.
Especially when the old man dived to the land, recalling that when he was newly married and built the first floor of the house with his wife, the music was so relaxed and pleasant, as the music melody became faster and faster, the sound became louder and louder, and the life of the old man and his wife appeared to be more and more happy, until the house was built, the two sat on the table, drinking red wine and raising a glass to celebrate, the music suddenly stopped, the picture suddenly turned to reality, only the old man raised a glass to the void alone.
The music and picture move from the bland to the climax of happiness, and the editing that suddenly returns to reality makes the audience feel a huge sense of loneliness and emptiness in their hearts, empathize with the encounter of the elderly, and resonate with the old man while being full of compassion for the elderly.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >4</h1>
The change of the film from silent to sound makes the film's expressiveness more powerful. It is believed that with the further development of sound processing technology, people's understanding of sound will be more in-depth, and the status of sound in movies will become more and more important.
While watching movies, we must also listen carefully to movies and listen to the outlook on life, values and worldview conveyed to us by movies.
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