Sound-Image Relations

Scene: http://youtu.be/SOES-dS0pG0 (wasn't letting me embed for some reason)

The scene starts out inside the church where Michael Corleone's son is being baptized. The traditional church organ is being played and the mood is solemn, one can sense the importance of the situation. Once the priest baptizing his son begins asking for Michael to confirm his faith to god, the parallel editing in the scene begins. As Michael is claiming his faith you begin to see his henchmen in various spots, preparing to kill rival gangmembers. The organ begins to get louder and more intense as the baby starts to cry. Then the priest asks, “Do you renounce satan?” The first kill is shown, then Michael replies, “ I do renounce him.” At this point the camera shows all the killings that Michaels henchmen are carrying out, while the dramatic organ from the church and the audio from the conversation between the priest and Michael is still playing. Every action in the scene coincides with another. As the priest prepares the baptism, the henchmen prepare the murders. As the baptism starts, and Michael renounces Satan, the murders start. As people leave the church, the henchmen leave the scenes of the crimes. The parallel editing in this scene makes it much more dramatic, because you are witnessing two opposite ends of the spectrum in Michael's life. The one side is the sacredness of the baptism of his son. The other side is the coldblooded nature of his mob life. Showing these two things at once create an ironic but powerful scene. The way that the scene was edited with the shots happening at the same time in the timeline of the film create a great effect.

Sound Walk

Street fair --- walking down the street fair I hear many random snippets of conversations, many different conversations in many languages, there is the constant sound of street vendors clinking their cooking utensils, as well as the ruffling of plastic bags as goods are exchanged there are children shouting as they lose their balloons to the sky. Street vendors are competing, shouting their prices to win customers over the neighboring stands, the shouts are probably one of the loudest there, the vendors know that to attract any real attention they must be louder than the crowd of people around them. Garbage cans being rolled around by the cleanup crews create a monotonous rumbling sound. The rumbling sound of generators adds to the ambience as well. The various conversations create a constant mumble, making it almost impossible to discern any particular voice from another. The sounds of people's voices all share one thing in common though, they all seem to sound happy. There is the occasional crying child, but for the most part the mood of the crowd seems to be good natured. The grills of the food stands create an underlying sizzling noise, and even though it is very much in the background, it is still very noticeable. The ambience of the street fair puts everyone in a jovial mood, the sounds all clash together, but at the same time meld together as one. Without all the sounds together a street fair would not be the same. Many people would find the various sounds annoying, but I believe it is necessary in a street fair environment.

Link to my media 150 blog

http://andystav.blogspot.com/