3. touching the void - analysis on how sound is used
October 13, 2021•239 words
At 1:25:29 in the film, the camera pans to a close-up shot of water glistening off of a rock. The sound that the water makes is relaxing, and calming; giving the audience a sense of relief by showing how Joe's life is saved because of the fact that he found water. We can hear Joe directly slurping water off of the face of the rock, showing how desperate his position is.
At 1:25:56 in the film, the camera pans back to the water, peacefully flowing, after having shown the audience how Joe plans on collecting water, by molding soil in the shape of a bowl to obtain the water.
Later in the film, at 1:26:05, we can see Joe drinking the dirty water from the makeshift cup that he had made. The sound to accompany this moment is him slurping the water, which is quiet, and relaxing, immediately followed by a cough, and Joe choking, which throws off the audience, and the mood shifts very quickly from calm to uneasy.
At 1:26:17, the sound of Joe slurping is interrupted by a voice over of the present day Joe saying "I drank litres of it", in a very solemn, reserved and calm voice. The placement for the voice over in this pulls the viewer out of the immersion of the scene, into a state of awareness, realizing, and being relieved by the fact that Joe had found water.
15 mins