The Conversation is a 1974 film about audio surveillance, written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. We watched this in our screening following our sound day with Cammy. The film is about a paranoid surveillance expert called Harry Caul who runs his own company in San Francisco. It is evident through out the film that Harry is very highly respected by others in the surveillance line of work. However Harry Caul is obsessed with his own privacy. We first see his apartment as he unlocks his triple-locked front door, I thought he must have some valuable possessions inside his apartment but it was almost completely bare.
Walter Murch edited the picture and mixed the sound on The Conversation. We watched the film to pay particular attention to the sound design during the movie. As a complete film this film would struggle with todays audience in terms of story and plot. Watching from a sound design perspective you could appreciate the care and precision taken over the sound in the film, the relationship between what we see and what we hear and how the combination of both really heightens our viewing experience and the overall emotional sense that we get from a scene. Andy had mentioned the use of silence in films, I must admit I'd never thought about that before but it is so evident now. We are so used to sound in films, background noise, wildtracks, continuous background music that we are not often left in complete silence. When we are we really stop to notice it.
At one point in the conversation, when Harry has been bugged unknowingly by another surveillance expert at the moment when he actually opens up and talks quite personally to a woman in private. The moment he angrily snaps the devise in his hands the sound goes so muffled that you can't tell what's being said. This use of sound design really worked with the character of Harry's anger, like he was so angry that he couldn't hear straight.
I thought this film was interesting in terms of sound design but I didn't find it crazily enjoyable as a film that is to entertain. In context I can appreciate it but It's the kind of film I now feel I don't need to ever see again unless it's to further research sound design or editing.
Walter Murch edited the picture and mixed the sound on The Conversation. We watched the film to pay particular attention to the sound design during the movie. As a complete film this film would struggle with todays audience in terms of story and plot. Watching from a sound design perspective you could appreciate the care and precision taken over the sound in the film, the relationship between what we see and what we hear and how the combination of both really heightens our viewing experience and the overall emotional sense that we get from a scene. Andy had mentioned the use of silence in films, I must admit I'd never thought about that before but it is so evident now. We are so used to sound in films, background noise, wildtracks, continuous background music that we are not often left in complete silence. When we are we really stop to notice it.
At one point in the conversation, when Harry has been bugged unknowingly by another surveillance expert at the moment when he actually opens up and talks quite personally to a woman in private. The moment he angrily snaps the devise in his hands the sound goes so muffled that you can't tell what's being said. This use of sound design really worked with the character of Harry's anger, like he was so angry that he couldn't hear straight.I thought this film was interesting in terms of sound design but I didn't find it crazily enjoyable as a film that is to entertain. In context I can appreciate it but It's the kind of film I now feel I don't need to ever see again unless it's to further research sound design or editing.
No comments:
Post a Comment