teapotsahoy: Since my last “I dunno but here’s a thing: someone explain me the thing” post was so…
Since my last “I dunno but here’s a thing: someone explain me the thing” post was so successful beyond my wildest dreams:
Someone explain me Mad Max’s sound editing:
Although in general I think it’s pretty evident Furiosa is the hero, if not the protagonist of Fury Road, (Max is arguably the character who undergoes the most change) there are two places where the sound editing put the viewer squarely in Max’s perspective: first, the rasp, and second, when Max is used as a tripod.
When Max is sawing the mask off his face, the sound of it is extremely present the whole time, and the sound of it is not just the sound of a rasp, but the sound of a rasp as transmitted through metal, that is to say, exactly what you would hear if you were sawing on something clamped on to your face. I mean, go get a rasp and a bit of pipe and conduct experiments.
The second time the viewer is auditorily put in Max’s shoes is when Furiosa rests the SKS (I used the IMFDB because I do not understand from guns) on his shoulder to make a shot, and all sound in the movie momentarily fades, putting the viewer in Max’s perspective as he goes deaf from explosion in his ear.
I dunno what this means! I don’t think that Max is the movie’s viewpoint character, because, well. I mean, sometimes Max wanders off the scene and we don’t follow him. But I don’t think the sound editing does this with any other characters, either?
There’s that whisper that The Dag gives to Angharad as she walks up with the bolt cutters: “Angharad, is that just the wind? Or is that a furious vexation?” It sounds like what Angharad is hearing, though they’re standing right in front of Max, so I guess you could interpret it as what he’s hearing if you prefer.
I think Max kind of is the movie’s viewpoint character. He’s not the most important. But we pick up the action with him, and leave it when he leaves. It’s true there are a few times when he’s elsewhere as things happen (the war rig’s departure from the Citadel, and the part when he goes off to deal with the Bullet Farmer). But we mostly stay with him.
I guess it doesn’t really matter. It’s a mythic telling performed after the fact, clouded by time and the limits of oral tradition, is how I think of it.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/1FdRSwI.
