Sunday 17 October 2010

Body Of Lies Introduction : Sound

Sound - The opening of 'Body Of Lies' involves mainly non-diegetic sound but as is normal has a small amount of diegetic sound. The first diegetic sound we hear is that spoken by (what we assume to be a) terrorist at the start. This man speaks in Arabic, but there are subtitles included in English for those of the audience who speak English. The Arabic language shows the characters background, so the audience already knows that this character is that of Asian descent and is of a terrorist origin. And have an idea as to whats going on in his part of the world (wars etc.) The first main diagetic sound we hear is the loud explosion which the terrorists cause, and this isn't assisted by any sort of sound effect as the explosion itself creates fear. This loud bang acts as the indication that the scene has ended.

The non-diegetic sound included also represents the characters background. When we see the character at the start we hear a sound that we usually associate with terrorists. This noise is a sort of a native violin sound being slowly played, and it captures the identity of the characters brilliantly. When we see the British soldiers move towards the terrorists we hear a quite thudding noise, similar to that of a heartbeat. This creates a lot of tension and nervousness, especially as this noise increases in noise as the soldiers get closer. We also hear a windy effect when the soldiers are outside the building, and it makes the audience feel on-edge and slightly haunted.

1 comment:

  1. Your familiarity with technical language is good Ed. Well done. Ensure your points are explained fully: "we hear a quite thudding noise, similar to that of a heartbeat. This creates a lot of tension and nervousness," Why does it create tension?

    Be careful not to stereotype characters from the Middle East: "e hear a sound that we usually associate with terrorists."

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