Sound of Metal: Sound Design Analysis

Sound Design Analysis

Movies have a way of making us feel as if we were in the world. It takes place, experiencing everything from joy to grief through the eyes of our main character. But how would that same type of film work if our main character were deaf? Directed by Darius Marder is The Sound of Metal. We follow the story through the lens of a young rock band member called Ruben Stone, who experiences a loss when it comes to hearing, which leads to the main plot Point of the movie. Having won an academy award for both best film editing, and best sound, this movie dives deep into the, now completely upside-down, life of our lead.   It's definitely not difficult to see why this movie has won so many awards, but the one that seems to stand out is its win of the best sound, especially when considering that our main character is deaf. There are many different sound techniques implemented and used to perfection in this movie, such as sound perspective, diegetic sound, sound mixing, ambient sound, and many more, but I’d say the main technique used throughout would actually be sound perspective.

Sound perspective is, just as the name would suggest, the supposed distance of a sound source, which can be evidenced by its volume, timbre, and pitch. If you were to hear a dog barking outside of your window right now, that would be sound perspective, and this film did an excellent job at it. As our movie began, it showed scenes of our main character’s everyday life, coffee brewing, refrigerator running, tap water dripping, birds chirping, you get the idea, and then later on in the movie, as he loses his hearing, the same scenes come on but as he is experiencing them now. It’s a very heartbreaking scene because it reminds us of how these seemingly unimportant things in our life actually make up a huge part of it. Not only that, but there’s another set of parallel scenes that is just as important when it comes to the impact that becoming deaf had on Rubens’ life. As it was previously mentioned, Ruben used to be a rock star, and he used to go on tour with his bandmates, which included his girlfriend. Although they weren’t alone, these moments of him jamming out with Lou (girlfriend) were heartfelt, special, and incredibly profound. After she found out about his loss of hearing, nothingness replaced those moments. The instances that had once held so much significance in their lives were gone, never to be recreated again. I don’t think that it’d be an exaggeration to say that Rubens’ life revolved around music and that it literally fell apart after he went deaf, considering not only the fact that he was a drummer in a somewhat famous band, but it was also his life’s work. Sound mixing also plays a big role when it comes to editing techniques involving sound perspective.

Sound mixing is known as the process of matching the audio levels of the sounds being used, whether they be dialogue, music, or the sound effects of the film. It's very important to note that throughout this movie, it explained that there are different types of deafness, those who can’t hear a thing, and those who hear very low as if people were murmuring. Ruben would be the second type, while he can hear, it’s not enough for him to make out what the other person is saying, but it's enough for him to think he can. There's actually, a scene in the movie that perfectly describes this; as Ruben is finding out that he's losing his hearing, he goes to an ear doctor where they test him. Ruben is in a room with headphones on and the doctor testing him is in the room in front of him reading aloud a list of words. Throughout the entirety of the exam, our main character is saying words confidently, making him feel as if everything is alright, but as the camera pans out, we see that the doctor is in fact saying words nowhere near what Ruben was saying. The desperation of losing your hearing and having to accept it was horrible, and the deafening silence that was heard throughout this scene definitely helped the viewer understand how Ruben felt. While those features of sound design had deep, noticeable examples, there were others where you had to think a little more, like diegetic sound.

Diegetic sound is a fancy way of saying that the sound originated from the world of the film. Rubens' drums and his band's music is a very important and constant presence throughout the film, but as he begins to lose his hearing more and more, these sounds become distorted and painful to bear, which effectively conveys the experience of losing one of your main senses. Aside from that, the use of silence is executed beautifully throughout this film, putting an emphasis on it. In scenes where Ruben is alone and struggling to cope and deal with his condition, such as when he was in the study of learning how to write his frustrations out and essentially deal with the stages of grief, the lack of sound amplifies the sense of extreme isolation and despair he feels. It's not only losing your hearing but it's learning a whole new language and leaving everything you know behind in order to move forward in the world. Having to unlearn everything you've known, such as literally speaking, can really put a mental toll on someone, especially if they already had a life before the incident.

To conclude, the sound design in Sound of Metal really helped immerse the viewer into the story, and understand from a first-person perspective what Ruben is going through. The way in which sound is used from both inside and outside the movie, including the silence and added sound effects, all worked together to make it feel real and added a great deal to the overall impact of the film.