Time

Transitions, Rhythm And Time Perception

Sources for this deck: Tim Harrison, Sound Design for Film, ch. 10, and Walter Murch, In the Blink of an Eye, 2nd ed.

What is the essence of the director’s work? We could define it as sculpting in time.
– Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Tarkovsky’s concept of “sculpting in time” refers to the unique ways film directors manipulate time to tell stories. Here’s a more concise explanation:

Sculpting in Time:
- Directors shape the film’s narrative by controlling the portrayal and flow of time, similar to how a sculptor models clay.
Manipulating Perception:
- Techniques like slow motion, flashbacks, and montages alter the audience’s perception of time, emphasizing certain narrative elements over others.
Narrative Techniques:
- Through editing and pacing, directors create rhythm in scenes, connecting story points and building dramatic effect.
Transitions:
- Directors use various transitions to smoothly or abruptly lead the audience through different stages of the story.
Contrasting Elements:
- Juxtaposing different timelines or using sound and visuals in contrasting ways creates a unique narrative depth and emotional resonance.
Experiencing Beyond the Ordinary:
- By manipulating time, films offer audiences experiences and emotions outside their everyday lives, enhancing storytelling’s immersive effect.

Tarkovsky suggests that the essence of filmmaking is this mastery over time, allowing stories to unfold in unique, non-linear, and evocative ways that differ from our experience of reality.

Transitions

Sound significantly influences an audience’s perception of time and continuity in a film:

Consistent Sound Across Cuts:
- If sound remains unchanged across a picture transition, it provides a sense of continuity.
- Even with a change in visual perspective, the consistent sound makes the moment feel continuous.
Discontinuity Through Sound:
- A break or change in sound can indicate a passage of time.
- Small sound changes suggest short time lapses, while major shifts (e.g., cicadas or birdsong) can denote transitions from afternoon to evening or night to morning.
Importance of Sound in Conveying Time:
- While visual cues like lighting are significant, sometimes sound alone carries the narrative burden to show time progression.

In essence, sound plays a pivotal role in shaping an audience’s experience of time and narrative flow in films.

flashback/flashforwards

Flashback - Soul

Flashback - Ratatouille

Flash forward - Arrival

Flash forward - Dune

Sound in - M (1931)

“Fritz Lang’s “M” (1931) is a pioneering film in many respects, especially in its use of sound, which was still a relatively new innovation in cinema at the time. The sound bridge is one of the techniques Lang employed to great effect in the movie.

In “M”, a sound bridge works as follows:

Linking Different Scenes:
- The sound from one scene continues into the next scene, even before the visuals of the next scene begin. This creates a connection between two separate scenes, helping to smooth the transition for viewers.
Foreshadowing:
- The sound bridge can hint at what’s about to happen in the subsequent scene. For instance, before the visuals of a new scene appear, the audience might hear relevant sounds or dialogues that foreshadow the events of that scene.
Creating a Mood:
- In “M”, the continuous use of sound, especially the haunting whistle of the killer, helps in setting a tense and ominous mood. The whistle, in particular, acts as an audio signature for the murderer, alerting the audience to his presence even before he is seen on screen.
Illustrating Collective Panic:
- The movie “M” revolves around the hunt for a child murderer, leading to a collective hysteria in the city. Sound bridges are used to connect different parts of the city and its inhabitants, thus illustrating the widespread nature of the panic. For instance, the echoing sound of the murderer’s whistle or discussions about him can be heard across different scenes, tying together the narrative and emphasizing the city’s collective fear.
Societal Commentary:
- Lang uses sound bridges to not just move between scenes but also to draw parallels between different strata of society. The transitions often compare the reactions of different groups – from the criminal underworld to the police to ordinary citizens – to the threat posed by the child murderer.

In summary, in “M”, Fritz Lang masterfully uses sound bridges to weave together narrative threads, foreshadow events, create mood, and offer societal commentary, showcasing the potential of sound as a storytelling tool in cinema.

Prelap

The sound of the next scene arrives before its picture does.
Murch calls the effect “fruitful confusion”: for a moment you hear the sound metaphorically, and then the cut explains it.

Postlap

The sound of the last scene lingers over the new picture, often with a long reverb tail.
The outgoing emotion overstays into the next scene on purpose.

Compound time

Superimpose time - A Touch of Evil

Skippable if short on time — the Apocalypse Now slide’s notes make the same compound-time point.

1. A Touch of Evil (Directed by Orson Welles, 1958)

Setting and Context: Set in a town on the U.S.-Mexico border, the film is a crime thriller that delves into themes of corruption, morality, and justice.
Key Scene: Towards the climax, the hero, Miguel “Mike” Vargas, tries to gather evidence against the corrupt police captain Hank Quinlan. Instead of confronting Quinlan with a weapon, Vargas uses a microphone and tape recorder in an attempt to capture Quinlan’s confession of his misdeeds.
Significance of Sound: Once Vargas successfully records the confession, Quinlan is fatally shot. As he lies dying, his own incriminating words are replayed through the small speaker of the tape recorder. This playback serves multiple purposes:
- Diminishment of Power: Quinlan’s powerful and menacing presence throughout the film is reduced when his voice, associated with guilt, comes out of a tiny, distorted speaker.
- Commentary: Orson Welles intended this echoing of Quinlan’s words as a broader comment on the story’s themes. The repetition emphasized the inevitable outcome of corruption and deceit.

Apocolypse Now

2. Apocalypse Now (Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

Setting and Context: A war film that offers a harrowing depiction of the Vietnam War, exploring the chaos, moral ambiguity, and the blurred lines between good and evil.
Key Scene: One of the soldiers, Private Clean, is on a boat with his squad, journeying through Vietnam’s dangerous waters. During a moment of respite, they listen to letters and tapes sent from home. Clean plays a tape from his mother, where she shares news and sends her love.
Significance of Sound: As Clean listens, their boat is suddenly ambushed. Clean gets fatally wounded in the attack. However, the tape from his mother continues to play. This overlay of sound serves multiple purposes:
- Juxtaposition of Worlds: The contrasting sounds—his mother’s comforting voice and the violent reality of war—highlight the vast distance between the safety of home and the dangers of the battlefield.
- Amplification of Tragedy: The continuation of his mother’s voice over Clean’s dying moments accentuates the heartbreak and loss. It’s a poignant reminder of the personal stories and lives interrupted by war, making the scene deeply emotional for the audience.

Both film examples adeptly utilize sound to enhance the narrative’s impact, showcasing how audio can amplify the emotions and themes inherent in the storyline.

Time perception - Rhythm and Tempo

Saving Private Ryan

Sound patterns can anchor scenes:

Saving Private Ryan - Omaha Beach Scene:

Directed by Steven Spielberg, “Saving Private Ryan” is renowned for its hyper-realistic depiction of the D-Day landings on Omaha Beach during World War II.
The scene begins with the camera inside one of the landing crafts, capturing the anxiety of soldiers as they approach the beach. Once the doors open, they are met with intense gunfire.
The soundscape is dominated by the cacophony of bullets, explosions, shouts, and the waves crashing onto the beach. The audio, however, doesn’t just replicate the chaos; it structures it.
To help audiences navigate this overwhelming sensory experience, sound effects editor Teresa Eckton implemented a specific rhythm for the machine gun sounds in the background battle. This provided some sense of form and pattern amid the chaos. By doing so, it subtly guides the audience’s emotional journey through the scene.

Delicatessen

Delicatessen - Rhythmic Apartment Scene:

Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, “Delicatessen” is a dark comedic film set in a post-apocalyptic France.
The scene in question unfolds in a dilapidated apartment building, highlighting various tenants going about their routines.
What stands out is the rhythmic synchronization of their actions. A tenant playing a cello sets the rhythm, which is mirrored and amplified by other sounds like bed springs creaking, paint rollers sloshing, bicycle pumps hissing, and so on.
The tenants, unaware of each other, move in unison to this rhythm. As the tempo gradually accelerates, the seemingly unrelated activities begin to form a harmonious, synchronized dance of sounds and visuals.
This scene is not only humorous but also serves to emphasize the interconnectedness of the building’s residents, even in their individual, isolated routines.

Both scenes are masterful examples of how sound design can be integral to a film’s storytelling and emotional impact.

Phrasing in sound design

Emotional Impact through Phrasing
Symmetric Patterns and Attention
Interpretation through Sound Groupings

Phrasing in Sound Design

Emotional Impact through Phrasing:
- Different phrasings of rhythmic sound elicit distinct emotions.
- Groupings of three evoke a sense of rotation, fours drive forward, and fives bring irregularity.
Symmetric Patterns and Attention:
- The brain is drawn to symmetric patterns.
- Patterns not equally divided, like fives and sevens, are more attention-grabbing.
- For authenticity, sounds should reflect real-world designs, e.g., alarms repeating in odd numbers.
Interpretation through Sound Groupings:
- How sounds are grouped can indicate intention or coincidence.
- The rule of threes, similar to story structure and visual composition, resonates strongly in sound. For instance, three dog barks seem more satisfactory than any other number.

This phrasing material is Harrison’s (ch. 10), including the observation that real alarms repeat in odd numbers.

Dream/nightmare sequences

Sound’s Role in Time Perception

Chion

“Empathetic Sound”

If short on time, play just one of the two clips — either makes the empathetic-sound point.

Aligning Character and Audience: Sound’s Role in Time Perception

Character’s Breath as an Indicator:
- Breath can reveal a character’s emotions, e.g., contentment vs. fear.

Michel Chion on Breathing:

Michel Chion is a renowned theorist on film sound. One of the ideas he’s explored is the concept of “empathetic sound,” wherein the audience emotionally and physically syncs with what they hear on screen.
Regarding breathing, Chion posits that when audiences hear a character’s breathing in a film, it can directly influence their own respiratory patterns. For instance, if a character is breathing heavily or erratically due to fear or exertion, the audience might find themselves unconsciously matching that rhythm, leading to a heightened sense of anxiety or tension.
This concept reinforces the idea of cinema as a holistic experience where the line between the viewer and the viewed blurs. The audience doesn’t just observe emotions on screen; they feel them.

Walter Murch on Blinking:

“Apocalypse Now” (1979)

Walter Murch on blinking (In the Blink of an Eye, 2nd ed.):

Murch’s claim is physiological: we blink to punctuate thoughts, not just to wet our eyes. A listener blinks at the exact moment they “get” what a speaker is saying.
A good cut lands on the audience’s blink point. When the editing rhythm matches the story’s emotional beats, the whole theater blinks together.
This pairs with Chion’s breathing idea on the previous slide: both argue that film is a physiological experience, synchronizing bodies with the screen.

“Apocalypse Now” (1979): Another collaboration between Coppola and Murch. During the “Ride of the Valkyries” helicopter attack, the cuts are rapid and intense, matching the chaos of the scene and, in Murch’s account, guiding the audience’s blinks to the rhythm of the action.