Sound - (Children of Men)

Sound can make or break a film and is one of the most important factors to consider when creating one. Whether it's music or sound effects everything that can be heard when watching a film should match what the audience can see on the screen. Sound needs to be consistent from the beginning of the film right to the end. A film that has good sound at the beginning is 'Children of Men'.

 

 

The Outside Scene - Sound of Driving is Loud

It starts as a completely black screen followed by a woman's voice. The first sound heard is the woman talking about the death of the youngest man alive. As the screen is black her voice has to be focused on and she is clear and easy to understand. The tone of her voice shows that it is a newsreader and she is reciting the most important piece of news, giving the audience a insight into what's happening. A male voice then continues the story while the images on screen begin to play.

Explosion Scene - Causing a Loud Break in the Sound

There are faint building work sounds in the background showing that the place the characters are in needs fixing or updating hinting that the place is not as secure as it should be. A character then comes into the coffee shop and speaks, asking for a coffee and the sound of his change can be heard over the news story. When the screen focuses on the TV news story muttering from the people can be heard. This shows that everyone is listening intently on the story and muttering comments to those near them. Crying can then be heard to inform the audience that the story is deeply emotional to the people listening to the newsreader. The newsreaders voice begins to echo when the character begins to walk as there are several TV's in the room causing there to be more sound. The closer the character gets to the door the louder the sound of the traffic gets showing that the next location will be outside. When outside the only sound present is the traffic and it is loud and clearly sets the scene. This sound continues for a while before a sudden explosion breaks the calmness and triggers many other sounds associated with panic such as screaming, alarms and the sound of rubble falling. These sounds create a distressing scene without even looking at the film on screen.

 

The sound makes this film much better as it creates a quite tone with natural sounds such as traffic and people muttering which is interrupted by a sudden sound that no-one was expecting.