In the post-production stage of the film, we began to discuss the relationship between music and the rhythm of the picture more intensively. Because the overall atmosphere of the film is slow and abstract, the “personality switch” paragraph has gradually become the most critical rhythm turning point in the whole film.
After the partner watched my music version at that time, she thought that the overall state of the film before 1:57 was relatively complete. The relationship between the slow music structure and the picture in the first half is also relatively stable, and it only needs to be fine-tuned for a small part of the camera rhythm.
But she specifically pointed out that in the personality switching paragraph after 1:57, the “tension” of the music was not strong enough. Especially when listening to the outside, the impact of low frequency and rhythm is insufficient, resulting in the lack of a real sense of oppression and out of control in the whole switch paragraph.
She mentioned that she hoped that this part could be more urgent, more intense, and with a more obvious sense of rhythm, becoming the strongest part of the whole film.
At the same time, she also further distinguished two different stages in the switch paragraph: the first stage is the personality conversion of the “big head screen”, and the second stage is the part of “three screens flashing quickly”. She hopes that the former’s voice can be more “full”, while the latter needs a faster and stronger rhythm change. Because the final stage relies more on sound and lighting to establish the overall expressiveness, the music itself needs to play a stronger role in space and perception.
Therefore, in the subsequent revision, I began to readjust the rhythm structure of the whole switch paragraph. I first strengthened the density of low-frequency pulses and gradually accelerated the rhythm from the originally slower cycle. At the same time, I added more synthesizer texture with a sense of compression and distortion, making the whole space more crowded and unstable.
In addition, I also added some tom drum sounds on the basis of the original low-frequency pulse, hoping to further enhance the physical sense and impact of the rhythm.
In order to make the music more suitable for the floating and unstable visual state in the picture, I also added some stereo movement / panning effects of continuous conversion and movement of the left and right channels. This sense of drift in space can make the sound no longer fixed in the center, but form a state of weightlessness and suspension in the auditory sense.
But at the same time, I don’t want this paragraph to become a “action climax” in the traditional sense. Therefore, even if the rhythm and low frequency become stronger, I still retain some drone and continuous ambience, so that the music as a whole still maintains an unreal and abstract state.
Another very important discussion is the outro after the switch.
The partners hope that after the end of the most intense switch, the music can suddenly enter a very cold and quiet state, and produce a feeling of “goose bumps”. She doesn’t want the film to continue to maintain high energy after the climax, but prefers the emotions to be suddenly emptied.
This feedback made me start to rethink the power of “quiet” itself.
Therefore, in the outro, I removed a lot of rhythm and low frequency, leaving only a very small amount of spatial afterglow and slowly floating high-frequency texture, so that the sound suddenly changed from “oppression” to “emptiness”.
This way of dealing with abrupt silence also makes the tension accumulated in front form a more obvious psychological gap at the end.
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