Time Persists
Time Persists is a short film that mostly uses audio to tell its story. The film doesn’t have much dialogue, but there is some between the characters. The dialogue is mostly when the kids are playing together, but there is also a small exchange between the children and the adults. When there is dialogue, it is quite slowly paced.
Sound effects are used a lot in this short film. Among these sound effects, you can hear footsteps, branches snapping, children singing, and children playing. When the adults and children are readying for a “fight”, each toy the children pull out has its own sound effect. For example, when a toy sword is pulled out it makes a real metal noise. To them, the sword is more than just a toy and the sound effects added reinforce this.
The music in this film is a very basic song played on a toy xylophone. It persists for almost the whole movie and at some points includes children singing. The music itself seems like it would be in a horror movie and is very suspenseful.
Joe
Joe is a short film that is in black and white and has no dialogue. There is no dialogue in the film. The closest thing there is to some dialogue is a brief moment of a nurse laughing on the phone. I believe the lack of dialogue was done on purpose to portray how uncomfortable it is in the hospital.
Instead of dialogue, this film utilizes sound effects to tell the story. In every shot, there are significant noises that are used to tell the story and convey emotion. The ambient noise of the room can be heard when nothing is happening. Some examples of the sound effects used are keys shaking, the sound of the main character shining his shoes, and the TV playing in the background.
Music is used in the film, albeit sparingly. The music is a slow-paced blues song featuring an acoustic guitar and harmonica. The music is about the same volume as the sound effects and is used to enhance the emotions conveyed in the scene.
The effect of having no dialogue and loud, atmospheric sounds begins to build tension throughout the film. The film reaches max intensity when the character enters another person’s room. The viewer suspects that there will be some violence of some sort, but it instead fades to black and shows that the two people worked it out and helped each other, giving the main character some newly colored shoes.
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