The Graduate: The Sound of Silence or Sound?

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Sound is such a complex concept that can be described in many ways depending on the situation. A sound can be loud like a Jet Plane roaring overhead or can be as quiet as a mouse as it scurries to its hole. Sound can also describe something as an emotion. For example, a little girl sounded sad as she sobbed into her mother’s shoulder. Sound is such an important treasure that we have today that I couldn’t imagine living without it, or not having sound in a movie. Just imagine if there was no sound in the movie, The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols[1]. You wouldn’t be able to hear the two main sound tracks, Sounds of Silence and Mrs. Robinson, both by Paul Simon and performed by Simon & Garfunkel[2]. The sound cuts and edits are clever in some parts and effective in showing perspective in other scenes and all this would be unnoticeable and would have no significance in the film whatsoever. Without sound, The Graduate would just be plain boring and really confusing.

One of the coolest sound edits at the beginning of the film happens when Ben walks through the door. Crossing the threshold, Ben is greeted with loud talking, people getting in his face, and asking him questions. As he continues up the stairs, this rustle continues and the noise follows him until he gets to his room. The sounds instantly stops as the door slams shut, creating this sense of solitude and of distance from everything. The door acts as this barrier like it would in real life. Close the door, and the sound stops. This sudden shift in noise level was instant and you can relate to it in real life. I wonder how they even did this. You have to get the film at the exact point that the shuts and cut out the other noise. It’s just amazing. The sounds in this movie are very distinct and well thought out. Each sound isn’t an accident and this door shutting is only one of many examples.

Now imagine yourself in one of those body scuba diving suits. What would you see? What would you hear compared to what was happening outside the suit? In the pool scene on Ben’s 21st birthday, many things are happening. Sound and camera view are two of the major aspects of this scene. First, there is a non-diegetic sound coming from the room where Ben’s voice is assumed to be. You can’t see him, but his Dad is having a conversation with him. As soon as he appears on screen, you can hear his flippers, clearly a diegetic sound. Now here comes the really interesting part. From Ben’s perspective, the camera view that we see is as if we were in the suit. There is no peripheral vision and the screen is now sort of like a rounded off rectangle. Also, the sound from the outside is completely “shut off”. All the viewer hears is the breathing of Ben in the suit. You can see the people talking at him and see his flippers flop up and down on the pavement, but there is no sound. I do have a question here. We know that Ben is in the suit and that we are looking out at the water as if we were him and we can hear him breathing. Does that make the sound diegetic or non-diegetic? We can’t technically see him but it’s in his perspective. Just something to think about. Before the scene ends though, the camera pulls away from Ben and you can still hear the water from his perspective. Suddenly, a non-diegetic sound comes out of nowhere and BAM! You can hear Ben talking on the phone, connecting him, through sound, to the next scene. This is called a sound bridge. [3] What a neat trick that just did. Instead of using a visual link like a pan to connect scenes, the connection is through sound. Just like before, the sound is purposely thought out and clearly shows the perspective of each character.

So what really makes a film have an affective sound quality and performance? What makes this film so successful? Well, a sound track could make a film successful. One example would be Adele’s performance of “Skyfall” in the James Bond movie Skyfall directed by Sam Mendes.[4] With the Graduate, it was the song “Mrs. Robinson”. Yes, this was a major factor in getting The Graduate its popularity, however, for me it was how well thought out the sounds were and how effective the placement of it was. There was clearly a difference between lots of sound and little to no sound. There was a link between the sound and the picture and it all made sense! So now here is this question. With The Graduate being so successful because of the sound, does the movie get its successfulness from the sound that is makes, or the sudden shifts and contrasting scenes of sound? Some movies can be booming loud but it’s the action that ties you in. This movie is very low key. Nothing major happens, but you feel as if something HAS happened because the sound is so precise for each second of the movie. It has a shape and a form and not only does the picture tell a story, but the sound gives the storyline more depth and meaning. That’s what makes a movie for me.

 

 

[1] Mike Nichols, The Graduate, (1967), http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061722/

[3] Stephen R. Prince, Movies and Meaning an Introduction to Film, (Pearson Education Inc., 2013), 207

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: An insight to true Craziness

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The establishing shot: Near the morning with the sun coming up over the mountains. Details are hard to see and the sound of nature ring throughout the whole scene. But wait? What is that? A flicker of light, an approaching car, or maybe it’s just McMurphy traveling to the Mental Institution. What makes this establishing shot so important in this film, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s nest?1 Well, first of all, it’s not just any shot. This shot shows the expanse of the area beyond the institution, the unknown and unwelcome for all the inmates. Everything was normal. Very natural; trees, mountain, birds singing, until this flicker of light appears on screen, wreaking havoc for everybody. I believe the Cinematographer’s use of this light was to show that things were about to change, that the institution was about to receive this bit of enlightenment from the outside world. One bit of enlightenment that would change everything. On another note, this establishing scene is very dark. Hardly any light is being shown and you can hardly see the road until that car comes zooming by. This is in very big contrast to the atmosphere of the institution.

BAM! Those lights are bright. Everything in the room is white. The janitors are wearing white, the patients are wearing white, the walls are white, and the floor is white. Why would someone do this? Well, usually, white or bright colors are associated with happiness. Well, you know, evil people are darker, most scary films are dark because you never know what is going to POP out of the shadows. Everything is white because it alludes to the audience that all the patients are happy. They want to be there. It’s very clean, comfortable, and good, versus the dark, dank and cluttered scene of the outside when the patients go on a field trip or play basketball. Maybe the institution is so white and orderly so when the patients are exposed to the outside, they want to be within the safety of the walls. Clean vs. Dirt or Good vs. Bad. It all depends on how you look at it. Oh and by the way, Miss Ratched was wearing black when she first walked on the set. If that was noticeable and didn’t have you questioning whether she belonged there or if she was really trying to help the people, then I don’t know what is. The white is very contrasting to the deep color of the red when Billy committed suicide. Imagine if the place was dark; you wouldn’t be able to see the affect the blood had on the patient’s sanity because they themselves wouldn’t care. It wouldn’t have been a shock.

Now for something different. Acting!!!! It is quite interesting to see how each actor developed their characters. It makes me think what kind of acting skills they all used. Did they used Method or Technical acting or was it both? I think the hardest part to act would be the character of Chief. How hard would it be not to laugh at something the others said or did, or not respond to anything when confronted? Having a blank face and no sound for the majority of the film would be terrifying to me. I myself love moving, talking, and was brought up to respond when spoken too. Imagine just having to drill yourself to forget everything that you were taught, everything that was habit. Yes, other people had to develop their “crazy” personas but because chief was the only odd one out, the one that seemed just quiet and shy, everybody pays attention to him. He is the one getting all the scrutiny. He is different and different takes time, patience, practice, and is a whole lot more noticed than the “normal”.

The production designer had a lot of work to do for this film. White outfits had to be found, black ones as well, a boat, a bus, the institution for goodness sake! There are not many that are still open and finding the right one must have taken some time. By the way, those trips that the Production designer would have taken to find those locations is called a Recces. I think that is pretty cool. Getting to travel the country, travel the world, just to find the right location. And then finding many locations for one building. I bet some of the scene in the institution were filmed at many different locations, yet everything had to be sort of similar.

This film had many, many, many aspects of everything in it, and all were put together very nicely into this film. How else would you question whether a person should or should not be put into a mental institution? How else would you question doctors? It all has to do with all the people involved in the film. Without them, nothing would be the same.

1 Milos Forman, Director, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Fantasy Films, 1975. Film

 

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: The Joys of Cinematography

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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) has many great examples of cinematography that greatly improve the quality of the film and creates a bond between the viewers and the film itself.

Color and shadow or the use of light plays a big role in the film. In the beginning of the film, the light on Sundance’s face is dark on one side and light on the other in many shots. At first, I thought that this meant that Sundance had a double personality that would portray different aspects of himself throughout the film. Like in the Godfather (1972) where his is trying to be a good person but in reality is killing families. After watching more of the film, I realized that this lighting effect was not signifying a double personality but the future of Sundance himself. He thought that he would be rich, end up being happy in the end and be, well, alive. But the dark shadows on his family revealed the reality of his situation that if would continue to rob banks and continue his lifestyle, that the looming darkness of his face will consume him and thus Sundance will have the fate of death.

Another awesome Cinematography effect that I thought was amazing was the use of the Sepia coloring giving it an “old-y” western feel and then when the story was established it switched to give the true colors of the scene. In America, there were vibrant colors, lots of brightness and vibrancy. Then as the story went on and Butch and the Kid decided to go to Bolivia, the color switched again to the western-y look and thus created a great transition between the two places. When they arrived in Bolivia, I would expect that the colors would be even brighter than before to signify that this was the better light that they were looking for. Instead, the color was bland that included browns and grays but had a very bright light as if it were a surprise to Sundance that this was Bolivia.

The use of practical light in the Sheriff’s office was also pretty cool. It was one thing that I finally understood from the reading. Camera’s need light. That is a given. I wondered as the scene went on how they would light the scene. When the Sheriff turned on the light, I was so happy that I got it right away. Also, this use of light and in the Sheriff’s office, could also signify the justice that I mention below.

One of the most interesting Cinematography effects in the film was the use of the long shot and lights. During all of the chasing scenes, Sundance and Butch never see the face of the people chasing him. This is very meaningful because it signifies, to me, the unforeseen future that is chasing them on their journey. They find out the name but they never can identify them and throughout the film, they never know what their future is going to hold until the moment that are shot dead. I thought it was also interesting the use of the lanterns in the long shots especially at night. I saw this as the light signifying the law, goodness, justice whereas Sundance and Butch were encompassed in darkness and were hiding as if they were the bad guys. Throughout the chasing scene at night, the lights come closer and closer, meaning that their fate was set. The justice would eventually get them and every time they thought they got away, their justice would get closer and closer until the brightest part of the film in the ending, their justice finally caught up to them.

The use of the cinematography actually drew me into the film more than I thought I would. I understood the story line and the significance of certain uses of the light and color and how it affected the work as a whole.