Not long ago, on the fifth anniversary of the film's release, director George Miller confirmed that he will direct the sequel "Mad Max: Furiosa". In addition, the main creative personnel such as photography director and art director have also returned one after another. While looking forward to it, we might as well go back and revisit this "Mad Max 4: Fury Road" by "listening", and analyze why it has won a lot of praise from the audience and critics. Learn how it uses selective sound design to guide narrative, create emotion, and deliver the ultimate audio-visual appeal. The film won two major sound awards at the 88th Academy Awards in 2016: Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing.
The film tells a story of resistance and rebirth. In an apocalyptic wasteland, Immortan Joe, the dictator, holds the only resources to fool and oppress the people and his followers, building war machines and reproductive machines indiscriminately. In one operation, Undead Joe's beloved general, Furiosa, "defects" with the breeders and begins the journey of resistance. Max, who survived in the desert and was caught as the blood master, eventually joined Furiosa.
The film is full of extremely fast chases, and the intensive visual bombardment hardly gives the eyes time to "breath". At this time, the sound plays an important "focusing" role. In front of the same large number of sound elements, how to choose from them to accurately guide the audience's attention has become the core of the film's sound design. This is also the director's core appeal - to use voice to narrate. So at any given moment in the film, only one or two voices are the most important. It is the transformation and connection of these important voices that can accurately convey the director's intention and lock the audience's attention firmly in the narrative.
We feel the choice of sound through the following designs. In most cases, this choice starts from Max's attention and changes with his subjective sense of hearing.
Let's look at the scene where Max and Furiosa first meet. First Max sees the breeders bathing in the desert, when the water takes the center of his attention, so we can hear the clear sound of the water. Suddenly, when he thought Furiosa's actions threatened him, he instinctively confronted Furiosa. At this time, the sound of the water disappeared, and we seemed to enter Max's subjective world, holding our breath with him. Later, when Furiosa threw away the weapon and disarmed Max, the original sound of water rushed into the soundtrack again, indicating that Max's attention returned to the water again, and he was extremely thirsty.
It is worth noting that the sound of water here is always there, and when the audience can hear it and when it can't be heard, it is the creator's choice. The processing of the water sound here not only renders the tense atmosphere, but also allows the audience to follow Max's emotions and understand his every move.
At the end of the scene, when Max fights with Furiosa, Furiosa hits Max with a hose, and the sound of water spraying creates confusion. Then the water continued to flow, but the sound was lost again, replaced by the sound of a gun being loaded and a few loud gunshots, and the creators locked the audience's attention firmly on Max's successful subduing of Furiosa. Just when the audience was just able to breathe, the sound of an electric guitar in the distance came and became the "focus" in the sound, letting us know that Undead Joe's team was approaching. In this passage, the creator uses sound narrative brilliantly to successfully divert the audience's attention, creating a wave of unresolved waves and increasing tension.
Another example is the life and death chase in the last 20 minutes of the film. With so many tanks, weapons, and fight scenes, if you put it in real life, it must be full of engine roars, explosions, roars, and so on. But in this paragraph, the creator constantly creates the "focus" of the sound by choosing among many sounds, and uses continuous motion processing to form the ups and downs in the sense of hearing, so that the audience's ears can "breath", while closely following the sound 's narrative.
In addition to the choice, there is another commendable ingenuity in the sound design, which is to add animal sounds to the chariot to give life to the chariot, which is why we feel that the chariot is full of soul. In the design of the chariot driven by Furiosa, the creator was inspired by the novel Moby Dick, comparing the chariot to a beluga whale being hunted down. So we can hear a layer of whale groans as the chariot is stabbed with spears. In this sadly elevated scene where the chariot rolls and explodes, we hear the wailing of whales and bears before they die, reinforcing the tragic and solemnity of Nux and the chariot "going to death." In addition, if you pay close attention to the tribe of vultures that attacked Friosa halfway, you can hear the swarms of bees, vividly showing the disturbing nature of this tribe.
Outside of the tank, we can also hear Max's animalistic sound design. In addition to the tiger roar when Max's chariot started, even Max's few lines added a beast-like low and vague feeling, symbolizing the loss of a loved one and Max's survival in the wilderness. Crazy and wild. At the end of the film, when Max developed an emotional connection with Furiosa, he gradually began to return to his humanity, and his voice became clear. Sound design ingenuity brings this barren wasteland to life.
To record the sound of each vehicle, the simultaneous recording team spent six months in the Namibian desert. It is this creative spirit of excellence, daring to challenge and full of imagination that makes "Mad Max 4: Fury Road" an insurmountable model of commercial blockbuster. Behind the ultimate audio-visual feast is an imperceptible design. It makes more audiences realize that film is not just narrative, but an art of audio-visual language, an art of choice.
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