Silence in Film

Silence (or minimal sound) is often used in film to create or to expel tension.  Depending on where it is used determines which objective it is used to achieve.

In 2001: A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick (1968) silence is used to create tension. In this scene HAL has sent the crew member to go and fix a faulty part of the ship and the audience already has an inkling that HAL is going to do something terrible to the crew member. The silence in this section leaves audience wondering when or what might happen to him, the sound or score suggests nothing. It shifts the audience's focus completely on to the actions on screen and leaves them bracing themselves for the inevitable next sound.

In Sexy Beast - Jonathan Glazer (2000) silence is used to break the scene's tension. Gal is having a nightmare about a giant hare coming to shoot him while he eats. In the scene the sound design is made up of mainly glitchy sounds becoming louder in the mix until becoming almost unbearable when Gal wakes up from the nightmare, exposing the silence of his reality, releasing the tension from the scene.

I aim to use both techniques in my film. The final sequence of the film shows Ryan Gosling's character being distracted from his day dream by two men in the bar. I aim to build the soundtrack before this point, layering the tracks and as when he becomes distracted I will introduce the silence. I then plan to expel the silence when he makes his move and eventually attacks the men by bringing the sounds back into the mix.