There’s a man in the shadows talking on the phone, walking down a sidewalk. He’s muttering directions to himself as he gets startled by the sound of a dog barking in the distance, feeling out of place in the predominantly white neighborhood. There’s a car moving steadily down the block, and the man thinks nothing of it, thinking his nerves are getting the best of him. It comes back with a smooth turn, following him for a few seconds, and the driver gets out from the running car, unknown as the audience nor the man who turns to look, knows where he is, until the driver is kidnapping him.

Some of the diegetic sounds such as the music is the song “Run Rabbit Run” by Flanagan and Allen, which is coming from the car. There’s also the quiet sounds of crickets and the dog barking in the distance, as the man ends his phone call to the other person. The sound of the car moving down the street, and the turn. The dragging of the unconscious man’s feet towards the car, with the click of the trunk, and slamming of the car door. Nondiegetic sounds could be the ending notes of the violin which show along with the Universal pictures logo and associations.

The music of “run rabbit run” adds a sense of almost normalcy to the scene, a calm before the storm, before the music gets louder, and signals urgency. The start of the music signals the beginning of the plot, and tells the audience to start paying attention, that this is where it all comes back to. The ending notes of the violin are solely for the audience, with its haunting dissonance of just a few notes, is very telling of how stifling creepy the kidnapping is, and how it’s all happening right in front of residences where they either don’t know what’s going on outside their doors, or they’re all in on it, not caring. When watching the clip without sound, you can’t tell if the scene starts off with the musical track or not, desensitizing the audience from what’s happening in front of them. They can’t hear the violin, nor the song, and it’s just a kidnapping, no one can tell if people noticed the kidnapping taking place, or if the entire neighborhood is silent, which could indicate compliancy by not noticing the loud music and yells.

The opening scene of “Get Out” starts with a black man walking at night on an empty street. He is on the phone with his girlfriend, talking about the directions he is given. As he’s walking a car passes by him slowly so, he turns around to go in the opposite direction. Then as he looks back he notices the car door is open and someone takes him out. They put him into the car and drive off.

As this scene is taking place there is a lot of diegetic sounds. First, crickets are chirping in the background then you hear his voice. There is also the sound of his footsteps and the car passing. You can also start to hear the music playing from inside the car. At the end of the scene, there is a violin playing as the car drives away. The sounds add the creepy aspect of this scene. The car passing with this sound makes this driver’s motive seem sketchy. The song being played gives off an ominous vibe. Even though the song wouldn’t be considered a scary one it’s for sure creepy. It makes the scene even more chilling because of the oddly positive tempo of the song.

Crescendo is another musical element being used in this scene. As the scene progresses the music gets louder. Which intensifies the scene and puts the viewers on edge.

I picked the “1.21 Gigawatts” scene from “Back to the Future”. In this scene Marty is showing Doc a video shot before Marty had accidentally went back in time to the 1950s. In the scene, Marty is showing 1950s Doc what 1980s Doc had done in order for him to time travel. 1950s Doc tells Marty that he can’t help him because he cannot generate that much power, until it comes to Martys attention that they could somehow orchestrate a plan to have the time machine (the DeLorean) get hit by lightening and send it back to 1985. The movie as a whole follows Marty going back in time and running into the younger versions of his parents. This leads to him needing make them fall back together, as the younger version of his mother begins to pay more attention to Marty than the younger version of his father. 

Some diegetic sounds in the scene include the audio from the tape Marty plays, the sound of the tape rewinding, the sound of Doc hitting the garage door, and the sound of the paper Marty shows Doc. Some nondiegetic sounds include the sound of an instrument (either a trombone or clarinet, I can’t tell) when Marty figures out how to get back to 1985 and all the other instruments that start playing (violins, flutes, trumpets) as the scene progresses. The scene for the most part stays silent other than the diegetic sounds throughout it. It isn’t until the “climax” or “breaking point” in this scene when Marty and Doc figure out a plan that the music begins. The music adds a level of anticipation, as they unfold the plan even more, the speed of the music increases. As the tempo increases, so does the excitement and anticipation of the scene.

I chose the movie clip from “Back To the Future.” This movie is about a teenager Marty McFly, who accidently travels back in time where he encounters his parents who were teenagers at that time, and experiences many other adventures throughout the film. All through the movie his friend and scientist, Doc, who created the time travel machine, try to figure out how to make it back to the future. In this movie clip, McFly is showing Doc a video of Doc in the future, talking about how much gigawatts he needs for the time machine. It is in this clip that they figure out a way of how to generate that much power, through lightning, to be able to travel back to 1985.

There are many diegetic sounds throughout the clip, such as the television which Doc is talking from. There’s also the sounds of the TV rewinding, running, doors closing, the wrinkling of the newspaper, and McFly and Doc talking to each other. Additionally there are nondiegetic sounds. When McFly and Doc have the realization that a lightning bolt is what can help generate enough power for the machine, you hear instruments all of a sudden in the background, such as multiple violins. The music definitely adds to the emotion and mood of the audience. The music adds to the excitement of the scene, as well as filling you with anticipation and eagerness. The music helps you to see the gears in McFly’s and Doc’s brains working as they figure out more and more of their plan. The dynamics and tempo play a big role in the nondiegetic sounds, as it first starts out slow and low, then progressively gets faster and much louder when the realization of McFly being sent back to the future finally hits. If the music wasn’t there, the scene would definitely have lost a lot of its excitement, anticipation, and eagerness for the audience.

In the opening scene of “Get Out” we see an African American man walking in a quiet neighborhood with wide roads and fancy street lights. While he’s his phone, we see that he is being followed by a car. There is no music playing in the background until the man gets knocked out and dragged into the vehicle. As he is being dragged, the upbeat 1939 song “Run Rabbit Run” by Noel Gay and Ralph Butler begins to play (wiki).

The diegetic sounds in this scene include the man talking to himself as he is navigating the streets. We hear him being attacked. The non-diegetic sound is the song “Run Rabbit Run.”

The music in this clip is pivotal in setting the overall tone of the movie, which is a mix of thriller, comedy, and satire all at the same time. The song sounds light hearted and pleasing to listen to, but actually has a deeper meaning to it. This song, written during WWII is poking pun at the German’s aerial warfare branch saying how it was ineffective and at most killed two rabbits (wiki). The lyrics suggests a killing and a chance for the victim to escape:

“Run rabbit – run rabbit – Run! Run! Run!
Don’t give the farmer his fun! Fun! Fun!
He’ll get by
Without his rabbit pie
So run rabbit – run rabbit – Run! Run! Run!” (wiki)

The song adds an eerie mood as something grave occurs (man gets attacked), yet the song is consonant and has a fast beat. This definitely lets the audience know that the rest of the movie will have characters and settings that look polished, but are actually troublesome.

The scene I choose to write about is the opening scene from “Get Out”. This is one of my favorite films. The movie is briefly about a man named Chris (the black man) who decides to visit his girlfriend’s parents for the weekend. He experiences different events along the way, that brings him nearly to trouble and panic. As more time goes on, Chris starts to realize her parents are opening up about their interracial relationship. They basically start to “scare him away” so they can break up. This particular scene starts with Chris walking on the sidewalk, while he is talking to his girlfriend on the phone. A white car is passing by and decides to make a U-turn when it realizes him walking. A person dressed as a knight decides to kidnap him and put him into the car trunk.

There are a ton of diegetic sounds throughout this scene. As he is walking he hears the crickets making noises, the dog barking, his own footsteps, we’re able to hear him put his phone away into his jacket pocket and the car passing by. Also when Chris is getting dragged by the man dressed as a knight we hear the sound of his shoes being “dragged”. In a way, the sound of him being dragged makes a type of dissonance (harsh sound). There was only one nondiegetic sound present, which is the music that is playing out the car constantly. It starts to get louder when Chris sees the car door open.

In regards to our discussion last week, the music from the car is a type of symbol. Usually, when someone gets kidnapped or taken away, there is spooky music playing with tension. Instead, there is happy and upbeat music playing that we would hear in a happy cartoon. The opening scene starts with suspense before Chris gets taken away. The crickets and his walk at night give a type of spooky and creepy vibe. It tells the audience that something will probably happen to Chris in the future since he gets kidnapped in the beginning. The dynamics within the film go from soft to loud once the music plays louder. The film creates a type of emotion in thinking something bad will happen but the upbeat music gives us the thought that things will get better, but it really means otherwise.

I chose the opening scene from “Get Out”. The clip starts off with a black man on the phone, talking to a girlfriend, walking on the sidewalk. As he is walking, there are alot of outdoor sounds like crickets buzzing and dogs barking. After getting off the phone, he seems a bit nervous while walking through this particular neighborhood. He is talking to himself out loud while he is walking. He is talking about how creepy it is and directions he must follow to get to a certain destination. Suddenly, he notices a white car following him. The car is driving very slowly and is stopping when he stops. He seems to get very nervous by the car and tries to stay calm. He then turns around to walk the opposite direction and then starts to cross the street. Suddenly, someone dressed as a knight with a mask grabs him and seems to be choking him. He then drags him into his car trunk. The scene then ends as the car drives away.

There are many diegetic sounds in this scene. Firstly, the footsteps,the breathing, the crickets,and the dogs are heard by him and the audience. We also hear what he is thinking because he says it aloud. The man and the audience hear the sound of the driving as well. I think the only non diegetic sound in the scene is the music coming out of the vehicle. It seems like the man doesn’t hear the music.

The music added into the scene, such as the music played once we saw the car, adds the intensity to the situation. The music being played had a kind of weird and spooky beat and tune. It’s a type of music heard by a haunted house or in a spooky movie. This music shows us that someone bad is about to happen which is the kidnapping. It also foreshadows that the movie may not be all comedic, it will have some spooky or mysterious parts.

Tempo is the speed at which a piece of music or part of it is played . The tempo in the music hints to the spookiness as well. As the car and the knight get closer to the man, the faster the music is. The tempo getting faster as the action rises, gives it a spooky vibe. As the guy is being attacked and dragged into the car truck, the tempo is fastest. I think the tempo being fast can resemble a heart beat. When there is a scary situation happening, our head and heart beats extra quickly.