Blind Sound analysis - Seen sound effectiveness - Saving private Ryan (Omaha beach scene)

 

Blind sounds prediction: The scene opens with low volume wave sounds at a beach, then switches to a boat moving slowly through water, moment of silence, sound of man vomiting twice, then a louder boat engine sound and a man shouts "clear to ram, 30 seconds, God be with ya", the sound of waves crashing against a boat carry on as two different men give objectives to their soldiers. Then there are explosions and many men gasp. In the background many men are coughing and throwing up, a whistle is blown and cogs or wheels turn. 

Seen sound effectiveness: The whole scene involves diegetic parallel sound to make it a realistic as possible to fully effect and impact the audience with the tragedy of war. The use of silence shows the soldiers' fears as it directly compliments when one of the soldiers kisses his cross necklace and another silently prays to god. The two men vomiting shows the exhaustion of the soldiers. The dialog of the man saying, "clear to ram, 30 seconds, God be with ya" furthermore portrays the soldiers' fears and shows that they're aware many of them are going to die.

Sound analysis - Kill Bill (Beatrix Buried scene)

 

The scene opens with load, powerful bangs as nails are being hammered into the coffin. This immediately shows the intensions of the two men and the force they're and will inflict. As the first nail is hammered in non-diegetic, western whistling starts to play. In my opinion this whistle melody is both parallel and contrapuntal sound as it compliments the location of the scene, however it also contrasts whats happening as it has quite a calming melody. There is then a brief gap between hammering the nails in and everything is silent apart from Beatrix breathing heavily and gasping for air to show her fear and to add realism for the audience. 

When the men have finished hammering in the nails there is more contrapuntal sound of the coffin being pulled across gravel. This sound is contrapuntal as the screen is pitch black because the camera is inside the closed coffin. We then hear the men chuckle and groan as they lift the coffin to put it into the ground. After a very brief moment of silence adding suspense there is pleonastic sound of a rope stretching or tightening. As the coffin is finally lowered there is a loud thud suggesting the coffin dropped, this shows how that the men don't care about the wellbeing of Beatrix and furthermore portray their rough and forceful intention. 

There is then another moment of silence exposing Breatix' heavy breathing. We then hear what sounds like a small pebble hit the lid of the coffin, and then a massive load on dirt on top. This ads comedic volume to the scene because of the rapid contrast in volume. Towards the end of this scene there are recurring thuds as loads of dirt build up on top of the coffin with gaps of silence highlighting Beatrix' heavy breathing. The recurring thuds stop and all the audience can hear is Beatrix struggling and hitting the coffin lid, this sound is parallel as it directly matches her punching and kicking the inside of the coffin.  

My sound knowledge so far

Non-diegetic sound: The characters in the scene can't hear the sound or music - only the audience can hear it.

Diegetic sound: The characters in the scene can hear the sound or music - audience can also hear it.

Parallel sound: The sound directly matches the image on the screen 

Contrapuntal sound: The sound doesn't easily match the image on the screen.

Pleonastic sound: The sound is heightened to convey a point or so the audience can understand the situation.

Parallel and contrapuntal can also include - diegetic or non-diegetic sound (diegetic parallel sound - non-diegetic contrapuntal sound)

Silence is also used a lot to create many different atmosphere's and effects.

Compare two opening sequences - Footsteps and Passenger seat

Both of the sequences include non-diegetic melody's however, 'Passenger seat' has more of a mysterious sense to it. The major difference between the two is that one is meant to be fully understood and the other is meant to be confusing and intriguing. 'Footsteps' has a clear storyline of a young boy growing up and following in his fathers footsteps by joining the military however, 'Passenger seat' is very unclear as the time changes between shots and repeats. This technique of short duration shots and change in time is to confuse the audience. 

Opening title sequence analysis - Footsteps

The sequence opens with calming music and fades straight into a slow turning shot of a baby's bedroom. This non-diegetic music immediately associates with the baby's room because of it's calming and slow melody. The camera follows the parents as they put the baby asleep in its cot. The dad then walks towards the camera, blocking it as it fades into the next shot. The next shot cleverly fades in to match when the lyrics start in the song again and shows a shot of the same child but he is around 6 years old now. The mother tucks the boy into bed and he stands up from his bed and gets an old picture of his father in the military. 

The next then fades in with a close up shot of the same picture at the end of the bed and now the boy is around 17 and packing for the military, following in his fathers footsteps. There are lots of short duration close up shots showing the boy packing his bags for the military. The camera then follows the boy outside the front door and towards the sad mum. The final shot shows the boy from the POV of the mother looking at each other saying their silent goodbyes.

Opening title sequence analysis - Passenger seat

 

The sequence opens with a non-diegetic slow melody and a camera shot through the back of a moving car in the night. The camera then briefly switches to a close over the shoulder shot of the driver and then a close up to the girl in the back passenger seat. An eery effect is created as the camera shows the driver peering at the girl through a POV of the rear view mirror. Adding to the mystery and eeriness the there are short duration shots of the different body parts of the girl. This ads mystery as there is no explanation about what happened to the girl. The short duration shots could represent the investigators taking pictures. A short duration sequence then begins as clips from the start are repeated and short shots following the girl as she is running away from something. Even more confusion is created as when the girl is in the car it is night time and when she is running it is during the day.