Lights, Camera, Action!!!! (Sound?????)

As I watched (and enjoyed) some of the intense gunshot and long dialogue sequences from ‘Inglorious Basterds’ during this weekend, one thing really struck me about how majority of movie reviews almost never say anything about how a movie ‘sounded’.
Think about it.. Can you watch any of those epic battle sequences from Troy or even those weepy scenes from Kal Ho Na Ho without the dramatic background score and accompanying dialogue? What is it that makes one of those action sequences from Batman or even the musical renditions from Song and Lyrics extra special– Definitely the audio! (Even for an f1 race, audio is everything – my colleague will definitely agree with that!! ;) )

This actually set me trying to recollect some of my favorite sound sequences from movies all across… instant recollection was the mud fight action sequence from nayak (mudhalvan in tamil – oke okkadu in telugu). The concept of the sequence by itself was pedestrian (the protagonist soaking himself in mud and fighting the goons) but I loved the way it was executed from a sound perspective. The sequence had the hero jumping up in the air – frame then frozen--- panning across each camera ( I heard there were close to 21 cameras) located 360 degrees around in super slow motion—and an electronic synthesizer in the background score following each camera all round and then finally the hero landing on his feet. The beauty was in the synthesizer moving precisely to the reference point of the camera angle (if it was the camera on the right in the super slow mo, the synthesizer had moved right and stayed there just long enough) Of course, that again brings us to whether the sound sequence was relevant to the movie. I would say this particular sequence wasn’t entirely relevant (and most may not even remember there was a scene like this!) but just probably might go to show how much of an extra factor audio might be in turning an ordinary scene into one of instant recollection.

Probably one sequence that demonstrates relevance of sound design and execution is the Neo – Morpheus kungfu sequence from the original Matrix. The first part of the sequence is an earnest ‘attempt’ by Neo to try and hit Morpheus (you will notice there is no background score for the initial part of the sequence) and then as news spreads across that Morpheus is fighting Neo, there’s a buildup of background music. As Neo is attempting to break through the shackles the background slows down. After a quick gyaan session by Morpheus, Neo begins to demonstrate his speed and almost lands blows to Morpheus- this is where the background score builds up brilliantly and becomes really intense.The standout feature of this sequence has to be the controlled build up of seriousness in the sequence. I am not sure if brilliant screenplay alone would have lent the desired ‘emotional’ effect to this sequence. Some of the other sequences in this movie too were breathtaking from the same perspective.

Let’s all get thinking on some of our favorite sequences too…..

PS: Also maybe goes to show why I would like to watch any of these sequences ONLY in an auditorium! :P ;)