For this task I decided to use the opening scene of Persona (1966), which we did do in class but I had not seen the film before and wanted to watch the whole thing afer seeing this part in class, as I found it to be extremely impressive. The start of the scene focuses on the reel of film winding as a kind of deconstruction of the 4th wall, and the sound has an eerie, tense orchestral score rising until the sharp cut of sound as the light turns on and the film reel starts, all sounds being incredibly loud and jarring as to make the audience on edge. The sound design leaves no room for subtlety, as does the imagery, with the winding of the film reel being emphasised to an uncomfortable degree and making the animated film soundtrack feel claustrophobic, stretching this period of stillness in the cartoon out as to intensify the reeling sound and kill the stillness of the visual.

The orchestral score returns as the visuals become cleaner but still being shown in a nightmarish flurry, never lingering on anything for long enough, showing an old silent film, a turanchala and the killing of a lamb, crescendoing at a violent thud of a nail through a hand which the sound of has an uncomfortably powerful impact. The religious themes of the killing of the lamb and the crucifixion bleed into the soundtrack, with serene church bells looping and fading out. The next scene focuses on people sleeping, zooming in on positions of hands and feet of different ages, and repeating a dripping sound that is non empathetic to the visuals, as the source is never made clear, with my intial thought being that it was relating sleep to death, as the reverb in the room has a very cold sound and the dripping has associations with blood dripping, as if they are on the all white bed for an autopsy.

As well as this, this scene has a non empathetic sound of a phone ringing before the boy wakes up, which is not answered and is treated as if it never happened, as well as a phone not being shown in the room at all. There is also shuffling sounding like it is coming from another person inside the room, even though the visuals make it seem like they are in the room alone. The music then crescendos as there are huge images of women blurred and shown to cover an entire wall, with the boy stroking it, leading to the title screen.

I think as well as this being an excellent way to start a film just because of the ideas and how it looks, the sound design of the first minute is such a punch in the face that it lulls the viewer into a hypnosis while the visuals slow down and enter a similar state. The mix of empathetic and non empathetic sound makes a strange kind of severe disconnect, and use of sounds tore from their sources to create a tension that is never relieved (for example, the use of a phone ringing would give the expectation that it will be answered). After seeing this introduction section for a few times disconnected from the rest of the film, I think it’s finally time to get started on the full thing.