Moments in sound

FilmStack Challenge Of The Month #4

Forrest Fenn, who I turned into a Coyote

The great

Ted Hope

described approaching the FilmStack challenges like this:

I like the idea of the FilmStack Challenge Of The Month being a sprint. We should move fast to answer it. It should not be labor but a burst of joy. Or at least that is my attitude.

I’m going to try approaching them in that way from now on. I like feeling what are my spontaneous reactions to the challenge. The kind of responses I would get excited about if you’d asked me in a bar. I’m also going to try not mailing this out, but just putting it up on Substack.

The challenge this month, offered up by

Swabreen Bakr

is:

you can choose to share either your favorite needle drops, composers, themes, monologues, usage of voice-over narration, or directors who use soundtracks to further their storytelling. Expand upon how these key moments of sound usage helped to shape a scene or contributed to the emotions you had while watching it.

I love thinking about sound early in my process. Notes on how the film will sound get scrawled alongside initial outlines. I make playlists for the writing process, and lose myself in technical audio ideas. The first films I made, I recorded sound on and that taught me to really be deeply aware of it.

So Swabreen’s challenge made me think of the 3 areas that I spend time on when I’m developing something, and three examples that blew my tiny little brain when I first experienced them in the cinema; Music, character detail and the mix.

MUSIC

Music is what we think of when we think of the soundtrack to the film, and there’s an emotional shortcut that comes with music that is so intoxicating. To me, great musicians are like magicians, so I love finding musical collaborators whilst I’m still developing the film. I talked about my idea for Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy to write an album for a film I was making here, and I’ve done similar things with Calexico, Jófríður Ákadóttir and others. I’m currently daydreaming about getting Hot Chip to make music for my next film.

Beyond the music for the film itself, I like using music as tone setter for world building. For placing me in a specific mental state when I’m location scouting, or travelling to set. When I’m doing picture research, or reading back through my notes. Music becomes woven into the process.

But of course, an incredible needle-drop moment of expressive sound can hit you deep in the gut. And I can’t think of anything that has done that more surprisingly and stunningly than the end of Claire Denis’ Beau Travail.

A million words have been written about that scene (HERE are some good ones), so I’ll just add that the expressive power of that scene, with that song took me to a higher place.

CHARACTER DETAIL

When I was doing my A Levels in England, I used to get all the old Sight and Sound magazines from the library and read all the filmmaking interviews I could. And, I’m ashamed to admit, I would cut out my favourites. Sorry Exeter College.

One of the most memorable was an interview with the Coen Brothers about Fargo. And they talked about adding the sound effect of bells to Peter Stormare’s footsteps when he attacks Steve Buscemi with an axe. Which, when I then heard it watching the film, opened up a whole new way of thinking about the possibilities of sound for me. Detailed sound suddenly became a playful, creative element of filmmaking that didn’t just emphasise the image, but tap into your psyche.

I was probably still thinking about those bells when I decided to give each character in my film The Lure a spirit animal on the soundtrack. Every time a character was about to be introduced, or reintroduced, we placed the sound of their animal deep in the mix. Not audible enough to be obvious, but just enough that you might feel it. We gave Forrest Fenn the sound of a coyote of course.

THE MIX

So many filmmakers have changed how I see filmmaking just through the mix. Altman of course, Coppola, the Dardenne’s. All different, but all incredibly influential to how I like to understand films and filmmaking.

But it was only when I watched Hidden by Michael Haneke that I realised you didn't have to hear everything. That what you withheld, and what you placed prominently in the mix could absolutely fuck you up on so many levels.

Which is the beautiful, powerful, surprising and transcendental impact that great sound can have.

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