Audio-visual Language Analysis

The sound in movies can be divided into three categories: human voice, music and acoustics; Then, different sound classifications have different ideographic functions.

First of all, sound

There are three kinds of sounds:

① dialogue

Movie dialogue is what actors say in movies. The function is to let the audience know more about what the actors are doing and saying, and the classic lines and dialogues in the film, which can not only depict the characters' personalities and explain the relationship between the characters, but also help to express the theme of the film, such as the classic lines in "To Live and Die", which can well show people's plight.

② monologue

Monologue is a way for characters to reveal their inner world and express their thoughts and personalities through narration outside the painting. For example, a large number of monologues in Wong Kar-wai's film "Chongqing Forest" can enrich the audience's understanding of stories and characters, make the scene more interesting and facilitate storytelling. Changing the inner monologue of a narrator in a movie can often make the story tell from different angles.

③ Narrator

The narrator is the evaluation of the story by the characters who jump out of the narrative situation. This evaluation will be more objective, mainly describing the plot and explaining the story information.

There are two kinds of narration: role and non-role.

The narrative of the role is a memory of the narrator in the story, but it can go beyond the narrative situation. For example, south of the city, sunny days.

Non-role narration means that the narrator doesn't appear in the film at all, but tells the audience a story he knows. The Legend of 1900 tells the story of 1900 from the perspective of a trumpeter.

The main function of human voice: promoting the plot, portraying characters, commenting or expressing emotions.

Second, music.

Music in movies, including theme songs, interludes, background music, etc., can generally play a role in rendering the atmosphere and expressing the inner feelings of characters. Express your attitude towards people and things through music, such as praise, praise, sympathy, accusation, mourning, etc. In order to increase the appeal of the film and deepen the theme of the film.

For example, in the episodes of Red Sorghum, Sister, Go Forward Boldly and Dionysus, the overall music is rough, strong and unrestrained, which embodies the passion of life and the freedom of human nature and is more in line with the theme of movie vitality.

Third, sound.

Sound is all sounds except human voice and music. According to different sound sources, sounds can be further divided into natural sounds, action sounds, traffic sounds and special sounds.

Fourth, silence.

Silence, also called static field, is equivalent to freezing the sound, emphasizing the psychological impact at a certain moment, which is sometimes more effective than sound in performance.

For example, in the Normandy landing scene at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan, there are silent and almost silent scenes to contrast the tragic war.

The atmosphere of instant silence created by silence can express the sudden change of mood and the inner shock and confusion of the characters when they suddenly face extremely fierce conflicts and great disasters.

Sound often does not work alone, and the relationship between sound and picture is also a part of audio-visual language. Let's talk about three corresponding relationships between sound and picture.

1, sound and picture synchronization

It means that the sound and the picture must be synchronized, such as the dialogue scene, the speaker and the state are synchronized with the heard sound, and the sound should conform to the train running state presented in the picture. Sound and picture are synchronized, and their close cooperation can make the film itself more real and vivid.

For example, in Hacksaw Ridge, the soldiers' roar, the sound of shells exploding and sad music are used to describe the cruel and tragic scene of the war, and the audience can have a more intuitive experience through the synchronization of sound and picture.

2. Separation of sound and picture

It means that in the picture, sound is used as a foreshadowing to have some connection with people or things in the picture. In Hanging the Red Lantern High, the hammer foot, as an auditory supplement to light the lantern, brings great convenience to the narrative.

For example, there is a scene in which Song Lian is called by Meishan to play mahjong. Master Chen came back and didn't see Song Lian. He went to see his second wife, Zhuo Yun. The picture shows Song Lian and Meishan playing mahjong, with the sound of hammering feet. There is a subtle causal relationship between the rhythm of the sound outside the picture and the inner irritability of the characters in the picture.

In "Childhood Past", Xiao Ah was admitted to the provincial Phoenix Middle School, and the whole family was happy for him. My sister can't help but think of the past when she was admitted to a girls' middle school but couldn't go to school because of family reasons. The picture is a panoramic view of the whole family cleaning the floor, and the voice is my sister describing the experience of rushing to the exam that year.

The sense of sound distance is not completely synchronized with the scene. My father and mother are in the photo, but they don't say a word. The pain hidden in my sister's heart was amplified to the front desk by the sound, and the silence of the whole family was the background, which also made the scene look subtle and sad.

3, sound and picture counterpoint

Music and pictures show different contents, resulting in the contrast of characters' emotions, atmosphere, rhythm and content, which has a new meaning that was not originally available. For example, it is ironic to use soothing piano music to express war scenes and to jump unstable rhythms to express love scenes.

In Sad City, at Lin's funeral, musicians always play sad music. Then, when Lin Wenqing and Kuanmei held their wedding, the background music at the funeral was still the funeral. In this way, under the opposition of sound and painting, there is a silent bitterness, which also implies that the mixing of Lin Wenqing hangs over the shadow of death.

In "Yellow Land", in the two weddings in the film, the suona sound that should have added a festive atmosphere to the wedding seemed sad.

On a sunny day, when Ma Xiaojun and other children go to a group fight by bike at night, the background music is "Internationale", and some emotions in it may really hint at their mood.

For example, this is the last struggle, unite until tomorrow. We want to be masters of the world. However, during the Cultural Revolution, these children, who should have gone to school as their pursuit, now take fighting as their great cause.

In Apocalypse Now, the detachment leader of the Air Force Cavalry Division regards war as a game and randomly uses helicopters to turn peaceful villages and schools into a sea of fire, just to surf at the mouth of the Mekong River.

During the bombing, he felt particularly excited and put the ring of Nibelungen at the maximum volume in the helicopter. This is a grand and high-profile pattern, but it is so cruel and tragic compared with the destruction of the houses below and the villagers' eagerness to flee in a hurry. The opposite of this music and painting is the cruel exposure of human nature and the accusation of war.