LA Times Article: "Silence is Golden..."

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Steve Holmlund

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LA Times Article: "Silence is Golden..."

PostFri Sep 22, 2017 2:24 am

This may be OT given how the forum is labeled and if so, I apologize. Still, I find these kinds of discussions very stimulating and would be interested in any responses.

The title of the article is: Silence is golden? In the age of noise, filmmakers are suddenly embracing the quiet

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/mo ... story.html

Just one excerpt:

"Directors cite a‎ number of explanations for the switch. An artistic pendulum-swing is one: If so many auteurs have been mining dialogue for so many years, maybe it's time to go another way and ratchet it down‎, they say.

Technology has also played a role. After all, it's never been this inexpensive to create high-end images.

The influence of other art forms can't be discounted either; the mainstreaming of video art, experimental cinema and other forms of imagemaking is exerting its pull.‎ In the age of emojis, it seems, sometimes you can say it better without words."

Thanks.
Steve
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rick.lang

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Re: LA Times Article: "Silence is Golden..."

PostFri Sep 22, 2017 4:33 pm

Easy to understand some silence is better than the boring detailed exposition that accompanies much of the “made for TV” drama. “Action speaks louder than words” but there’s also a place for neither so the viewer’s brain can be engaged during and after the show. The usual pablum fed to us seems to be designed to avoid reflection, conjecture, questions, and understanding.

Now speaking of music, (okay no one is doing that) these days even a bedroom singer has Phil Spectre’s “wall of sound” that makes it nearly impossible to hear their weak breathy voice and the words that do have a place after all in the production. My personal tastes prefer a single instrument to accompany a strong melodic voice. Some of Natalie Merchant’s songs for example which keep her strong voice front and centre with the music supporting the song.


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John Richard

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Re: LA Times Article: "Silence is Golden..."

PostSat Sep 23, 2017 2:19 pm

Sergio Leone was way ahead of the curve on a heavy emphasis on letting the visual tell the story with very limited dialog.
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Rakesh Malik

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Re: LA Times Article: "Silence is Golden..."

PostMon Sep 25, 2017 6:09 am

Maybe this signals a trend away from the reliance on heavy exposition to tell stories... that always gets annoying, IMO it's a sign of lazy filmmaking.

Filmmaking is a visual medium. It always has been. This isn't news, it's just something that's been largely neglected by the dongle generation.
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John Paines

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Re: LA Times Article: "Silence is Golden..."

PostMon Sep 25, 2017 3:47 pm

Look for formal purity in the movies, and you'll be disappointed. There are drawing-room comedies from the silent era with more dialogue than a lot of modern movies. And some of the inter-titles offer ironic editorial opinions on the action. How's that for "on the nose"?

Meanwhile, there are silent films shot almost exclusively in proscenium -- like Charlie Chaplin. Hard to describe this as a "visual medium", when it amounts to filmed theater, only you can't hear anyone.

"2001" may be a predominately visual experience, but it also verges into absurdity -- does anyone really believe that speechless men-in-monkey-suits prelude, or in that famous cut from one tool to another, bone to shuttle? If you want to understand human evolution, you wouldn't consult this movie. You'd read books.

Part literature, part theater, part spectacle, part visual arts, part trash, Bressonian laconic or Tarantino motor-mouthed -- this medium works by self-renewing pollution. Part of the excitement is it's lack of foundation.
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Rakesh Malik

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Re: LA Times Article: "Silence is Golden..."

PostMon Sep 25, 2017 3:58 pm

John Paines wrote:Look for formal purity in the movies, and you'll be disappointed. There are drawing-room comedies from the silent era with more dialogue than a lot of modern movies. And some of the inter-titles offer ironic editorial opinions on the action. How's that for "on the nose"?


That depends on where you look. The AFI Top 100 and the Criterion Collection are good places to start. Visual storytelling doesn't mean that shouldn't be any dialog, it means that the dialog shouldn't be telling the story to the viewer, i.e. exposition.

"2001" may be a predominately visual experience, but it also verges into absurdity -- does anyone really believe that speechless men-in-monkey-suits prelude, or in that famous cut from one tool to another, bone to shuttle? If you want to understand human evolution, you wouldn't consult this movie. You'd read books.


I guess you have forgotten what "fiction" means...
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Re: LA Times Article: "Silence is Golden..."

PostMon Sep 25, 2017 4:02 pm

Rakesh Malik wrote:I guess you have forgotten what "fiction" means...


Unlike reality, fiction has to be plausible. If it's patently ridiculous, or the artifice or the author is obvious, it's not working.

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