Black Swan Experimental Techniques

Whilst looking into more abstract blockbuster films as inspiration for my experimental film on 'A sense of place', I was advised to watch Darren Aronofsky's 'Black Swan' (2010) in a seminar session by Ron Wright, and pay close attention to the sound design used in the film. Although it was my first time watching the film and was therefore reasonably distracted by the story line of the film, I did try and pay close attention to the sound throughout the film and was amazed as to what it does for the film as a whole. As with a lot of Darren's work, he applies surrealist elements to his film, normally combined with the use of drugs, to create a huge impact on audience. The only way these scenes can have a big impact on the audience is through the use of sound design. A scene in Black Swan, where Nina (Natalie Portman) and Lily (Mila Kunis) are in a club after taking what is made out to be MD-MA (Ecstasy) and listening to 'rave' music (provided by The Chemical Brothers here). The bass hum in the background with a rhythmic drum beating over the top adds the 'pace' of the scene as being very busy and chaotic. There is then a synthetic buzz that is played in intervals within the shot and these are synced with the flashing of a camera shot of Nina through a neon light.

This begins to incorporate the surrealist theme emerging, as flashes of not only the location of the rave are shown, but also of Nina dressed up as the black swan, and as these begin to appear, the music is almost completely faded out and cross faded with a repeated chanting of 'Nina' accompanied by what sounds like an eerie whistling sound that instantly cuts back to the music when we hear Lily shout for Nina's attention. This whole scene relies heavily on the sound and it would have a completely opposite effect on the audience without any of the precision sound design that accompanies the experimental film style video.
When the music begins again, the sound of people yelling excitedly and talking is integrated back in and the musics pitch becomes higher but softer with less bass. This creates a more safe and comfortable environment and changes the place from being a scary, abstract area to a more common and relatable one. The sudden jump from these two places is a convention of surrealist cinema and experimental films as it somewhat distorts the normal convention of a clear, linear story line and challenges the audience to digest what they are seeing instead of passively accepting what is being shown to them throughout a scene.

Watching this film has taught me the importance even subtle sounds can have on the overall effect and story of a scene, and how well both video and audio can be linked together in order to create these desired effects. It has also expanded my view on how to interpret more abstract clips in all films which I will attempt to digest and apply to when I do my own experimental film.