Time Persists
Time Persists is a short film with a large portion of it told through audio. The film has little dialogue, but there is variation in the dialogue between the characters. The dialogue has elements of the setting, with kids playing in the background, or whispering of a kid playing hide and seek. The pacing is pretty slow, with the dialogue drawn out a little longer than it needs to be.
There are various effects used throughout the film. The sounds of the children playing can be heard above other things. The opening shot of the film is a close up of a forest floor as a shoe crunches dirt underfoot. During other shots, the children playing is enhanced or added in editing. One of the earlier actions introduced is a game of hide and seek. During close ups of the main character the counting is whispered, but clearly heard. There is a later shot as the main character engages with this game, and although we cannot see all of the girls in the background playing jump rope, we can clearly hear them. Later on in the film as the children confront the adults, sounds are added to their toys to give them voice and show that they are more than toys. As the main character draws his toy sword the sound of scraping metal can be heard. As the last girl blows bubbles there is an added sound of bubbles can be heard. These kind of sounds give relevancy to the children’s point of view. To them, the sword is more than just a toy and the sound effects added reinforce this.
The music present in the film is a children’s song, but the presentation varies. In beginning of the film, the music is played on a toy xylophone, without lyrics. The music persists from shot to shot, while the sounds of the children playing can be heard. During the credits, the music can be heard again, but this time it is acapella, it is only the sound of one of the girls singing.
Joe
Joe is a black and white short film that has no dialogue. There are snippets of sound, such as a woman laughing or the sound of a news broadcast, but that is the extent of the dialogue.
Every sound in this film is heard. That sounds like a weird thing to say, but the film opens on the main character shining his shoes while music plays, but these actions are heard before they are seen. There is the sound of scraping while the main character is hunched over, but we cannot see what he is doing. Significant noise can be heard from all aspects of the environment. The ambient noise of the room can be heard when the characters aren’t moving. As pointed out in class, all of the sounds in this film are slightly louder than they should be, indicating the main character’s situation. Based on the visual details of the setting and the actions seen by the characters, it can be argued that the main character is in a mental hospital. Although his condition is never stated, it can be inferred that the reason the sounds in this film are loud is because we are hearing the sounds through his ears.
Music can be heard in a couple of places in the film, two repeating shots of the main character shining his shoes. The music is a slow, instrumental blues song featuring an acoustic guitar and harmonica. In this film, the music shares the forefront of the soundscape with the sounds of the main character shining his shoes, or the sound of footsteps as he admires his shoes. The music is used to enhance the mood of the scene. Since the characters in the film are confined in their current environment the music works to show how the character feels about his shoes.
Again, something that was pointed out in class is that the volume of the sound helps to create the emotional response after watching the film. The effect of having no dialogue and loud sounds starts to build tension throughout the film. The most tense moment of the film is the shot where the main character enters another character’s room. Because there has been no dialogue so far, it can be expected that any kind of hostile action or altercation will be heard loudly. This creates a feeling of waiting, further enhanced by a fade to black. That tension is then relived as it shows the main character working on his shoes, with his shoes now white
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