Deconstruction of Sound editing in Focus

Deconstruction of Sound editing in Focus

• The trailer starts with calm, mellow 'coffee shop' like music which is juxtaposing  what the audience is seeing on screen.
• They are seeing an angry man driving a vehicle extremely fast which is conveyed with the increasing revs of the engine.
• Additionally, it contradicts the sound as the character is strapping on a helmet which creates enigma.

• Then the music stops abruptly with the scene of the man wearing the helmet crashing his car into the protagonists car.
• Leaving no music being played at all for the audience to full absorbed the situation and enigma that has been presented before them. 

• Next, it switches to a blank screen with the non-diegetic dialogue of the protagonist saying "That is the problem when you hire a con man".
• At the precise moment he finishes talking the screen pops up with a man punching the protagonist in the face.
• With the sound being parallel to what is happening on screen the fast editing works very effectively in creating enigma.

• Then the pass of the trailer is slowed down through calm, slow jazz music being overridden by non-diegetic dialogue of "I can convince anyone of anything".
• The shots that follow conform and link to this dialogue is through a mid shot of the protagonist walking the background of the shots changes to symbolise how he is a persuasive characters.
• And with this, the music begins to slowly pick up pace and through blurred cross cuts it leads the trailer onto another narrative path creating enigma. 

• However, at the sequence of blurred cross cuts, the musics becomes fast paced with fast drum beats.
• The shots that follow are parallel to what is happening on screen because they have edited to become matched with the beat.
• For example, the card holder shot is in sync with the sound as on the change of beat the card shoots out into the characters hand.
• This is significant because the sound and editing are represented of the films theme of being faced paced and conning people which is done fast and with precision as demonstrated by the sound and editing here. 

• Then, after the sequence of precisely edited shots, it sound changes again back to being slow paced and mellow with high pitch, high key keyboard sounds.
• Combined with the parallel shot of the protagonist waking through a walk way of bright multi-coloured lights it could be seen as symbolic of his transition between him taking up different persona's to con people with.
• Or it could be seen as a turning point of when people finally figure it that he and his persona's are just fake, the sound gives it a sad unwinding end.

• This is supported as the music stays the same and the previous shots of the main protagonist looking confident and success change through this low angle mid shot of him looking sad and defeated.
• The sound in this scene, combined with the slow editing, really emphasise the emotional revaluation he is going through.

• Then the music changes again to a romantic song with the non-diegetic lyrics of "if it brings me to my knees".
• This sound combined with the long shot of the protagonists lover and the protagonist looking at her with what can be described as shock and jealously, explicitly depicts the emotional trauma he is under going.
• Also creates enigma as the audience do not how why he feels jealous for this woman and also whether or not it is all apart of one of his fake persona's as a con man.

Evaluation

• Sound is used effectively,even if it does juxtapose what is on screen, in creating enigma and in moving the restrictive narrative forward.
• The music has been specifically chosen and editing precisely, in terms of lyrics, to convey enigmas in the narrative that are supported by the shots shown on screen at the time.
• For our trailer, I think using so many songs will be difficult due to copyright laws so I think focus should be on finding and using just on song that suits the trailer throughout its running time.