Process & Research
Inspiration
Sono Sion is the director I referenced for this project. His films are very expressive and always presents raw human emotions as it is. In scenes where the main character breaks down and screams, the screaming cannot be heard as it is drowned by a deafening and unnatural sound. The sounds he use are often metaphorical and reflect the human condition rather than the environment.
For this project, I wish to do the same by manipulating sound to express a psychological state rather than a literal sound.
Story
I decided to not complicate the story with details like diabetes or meeting a long lost friend as I wanted to experiment with emotive sounds and playing with flashbacks and flash forwards. I chose to interpret our group’s photos as a story of a boy who met with an accidents and tries his best to cope with losing his legs while reminiscing of days when he was not handicapped.
Motifs to link different time frames
Beer cans and the skateboard were motifs that represent the bond between the 2 friends, but they were also motifs that link the past and present, as well as portray the attempt of the protagonist to try his best to live the way he did before the accident.
Flash Forward Scenes
Depicting the disruptive nature of the accident: I added predictive scenes of the accident to interrupt the flow of the narration of the protagonist’s initial ordinary life. This disruptive nature would portray how the accident dramatically and suddenly changed the protagonist’s life.
Sound: To increase the effect of a looming tragedy, I added an uncomfortable static sound to confuse and disorientate the viewer. To ensure that the flash forward scenes are effective, I added the same skateboard sound effect for the scenes preceding and succeeding the flash forward.
Accident Scene
Intensifying the impact of the accident: I gave a personifying sound effect each to the incoming car and the protagonist. For the car, the sound is characterised by a loud muffled booming sound which is not a literal depiction of the sound effect of a car but a psychologically exasperating sound. The scenes involving the protagonist includes a gradually quickening clicking sound with a single tone sound. By having 2 separate sounds to characterise the car and protagonist, and quickly switching scenes between the two, a tempo is established. Having 2 contrasting sounds switching between each other also intensifies the impact as the sounds become a wreck when they intersect.