I will be rescoring the opening scene to the 2011 film ‘We need to talk about Kevin’. The film opens with a dream sequence, what seems to be a very busy festival in which people are chucking tomato pulp over each other. The reality of the scene is later revealed to the audience, the protagonist is asleep in their living room and someone/people have thrown red paint at her house. This situation gives sound designers a lot of room to be creative, the two scenes being intrinsically linked and the dreamscape allowing non-figurative use of sound.
My first thought when considering the rescore is I would like to be able to ground the dream soundscape in reality by only using (and manipulating) sounds that would be heard in the context of the second scene (reality). I will start the process by identifying the sounds I can use as a base for instrumentation:
- Wind
- Birds
- Television
- Phone
- Voices
- Cars
- Her breath
I will then manipulate these sounds to invoke the emotions of the dream sequence, which I think is a kind of euphoric escape, and a feeling of support from other people which maybe contrasts reality.
The next step is to identify the different sections of the scene, to highlight changes in atmosphere and the introduction or emphasis of certain sounds:
Dreamscape-
- 00:00:45:05 Small room with open door, curtains waving. (might want to introduce these. sounds before the visual to ease viewer into the story) A
- 00:01:19:20 Outside area, very crowded. Lots of movement, liquid being thrown. A/SFX
- 00.01:44:14 Change of camera angle, close up approx 13 people in shot. SFX
- 00:01:55:22 Close up of liquid being thrown SFX
- 00:02:07:18 Close up of 2 people falling into 1 foot high liquid SFX
- 00:02:11:13 Close up of people kicking liquid SFX
- 00:02:16:05 Close up of person writhing around in liquid SFX
- 00:02:18:04 Protagonist is lifted above crowd, liquid still flying (She’s smiling and laughing) A/SFX
- 00:02:31:12 Someone is hit in the face with tomatoes SFX
- 00:02:43:08 Protagonist is pulled back to crowd level A
- 00:02:49:19 Protagonist is laid on floor and people throw tomatoes on her SFX
- 00:02:53:07 Close up of protagonists face while tomatoes are thrown SFX
- 00:02:59:02 Close up of tomato pulp on floor SFX
Reality-
- 00:03:06:16 Small living room, window closed. A
- 00:03:32:05 Close up of protagonists face waking up SFX
- 00:03:43:14 Close up of window SFX
- 00:03:57:22 Protagonists feet hit the floor FOLEY
- 00:04:07:10 Protagonists foot stubs table leg and pills hit ground FOLEY
- 00:04:12:11 Protagonist puts on slippers FOLEY
- 00:04:15:14 Protagonist pulls door handle off door FOLEY
- 00:04:18:06 Protagonist opens door FOLEY
- 00:04:22:07 Scene change to outside, Protagonist walks down steps, walks a few paces and turns around FOLEY
- 00:04:37:04 Protagonist walks back up steps FOLEY
- 00:04:48:23 Door closes, end scene. FOLEY
Key:
A- Atmosphere
SFX- Sound effects