Essay --

While viewing The Conversation I was struck by the quality sound design. As we previously watched Gravity weeks prior it became clear why a movie like that would need many sound engineers to balance all the special effects one would get in an IMAX theatre. However, this feature goes in depth about Harry who is a Bugger, one who records people’s conversations or sounds, such as a private investigator. His job is to record others conversations and not ask questions from his employer. To capture the reality and impact of a story, sound technicians must manipulate the dialogue with any background or source music to flow naturally. As audience members, we do not recognize the complexity and extreme measures sound editors go to in order to capture everyday sounds of background noises and/or to highlight specific aspects of the world the character may be experiencing with more focus. When I think of films with great sound design, I usually think of the action or adventure genres. Al though The Conversation is not an action film, it exudes a powerful sound design that is quite impressive. The sound is greater than you could expect, or maybe even notice, on an initial viewing. The storyline allows its main character, played by Gene Hackman, to act as an on-screen sound mixer. Through the film’s volume changes the sound perspectives within the diegetic space were interesting to follow through listening intently. The dramatic differences are between looking down a street or standing in the street. Such as when Harry is trying to take the bongo drums out of the recording so he can clearly hear the vocals of the two people he is recording with precision. When watching the film I saw that Walter Murch actually did some of the sound design on... ...t within the diegesis we hear music that exemplifies his state of mood. He vigorously searches his apartment in hopes to find the bug that they placed in his apartment that is mentioned in the phone call. The piano starts out slowly then speeds up as he breaks everything in the place to the point he would need to replace it. It then fades off with Harry sitting on the torn up floor with the piano at a medium pace and him playing the saxophone showing his disappoint that he was one upped by someone. Lastly, in today’s world The Conversation still serves as a contemporary cautionary tale. It reminds us how important sound designers are to the world of filmmaking or private investigators that must record sounds. In today’s films we have made a huge breakthrough with sound technologies such as Dolby Atmos, which can only get better with advancement in future updates.