Blog Assignment Four: Reflections on Sound Design

The following post will be based upon the sound design of one of my all-time favorite scenes in cinema, wherein Margot Tenenbaum picks up her brother Richie Tenenbaum at the pier in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums.



Below is a transcription of the scene.

The “By way of the Green Line Bus” scene from The Royal Tenenbaums wonderfully illustrates the perceptions of space and time that can be created through the use of sound.

Space is conveyed through the use of echo, panning, and varied levels which create a sense of vastness on the pier and emulates the camera’s distance from the actors. A slight echo on the footsteps of the pedestrians and on the ships’ horns which blow throughout the scene give the sense of a large pier off-screen. And the panning of the sound of footsteps and luggage carts is used to convey the movement of the extras through the space even after they move off-screen, giving a sense of directionality to the sound and a horizontal vastness to the space of the pier. Thirdly, the lowered levels of the actors’ microphones during dialogue and the raising and lowering levels of wind and car noise put the spectator in the camera’s perspective and enhance the distance between the camera and Ritchie when he is talking to the fans.

Time is conveyed through sound primarily when the passage of time slows down as Margot gets off the bus. The ambient sounds of the pier and the street fade out, as she gets off symbolizing the slowing down of time. It becomes obvious through the cut to Ritchie however that this is more his perception of time than time itself, particularly when the background noises regain their original loudness as time restores to normal.