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Challenge #9 asks us to try and explain a small part (or the whole part) of why we consumed a particular canon. Here's the extra text:
( By now, you're expecting me to ramble, right? )
What I wanted to draw your attention to, however, as a piece of canon, is the Burly Brawl from the second of The Wachowskis' Matrix movies. Don Davis and Juno Reactor put together a soundtrack that follows the action of Neo ("The One", represented by the symphonic side, especially when performing Matrix feats) fighting an ever increasing horde of Agents Smith (represented by the frantic electronica side). Having watched the action just with the soundtrack, you can already see the way in which the see-saw of the soundtrack mirroring the action of the film, and how, even as the odds get ever increasingly against Neo, he is still able to hold his own.
Here's the first part, with dialogue and effects laid over top of the soundtrack, and then the second part where the numbers increase significantly more quickly. Already, there's a lot more sound involved just from the attacks, which is a pretty standard thing in movies.
A lot of foley involves recreating mundane things, like walking, revving an engine, or opening and closing doors, but it encompasses anything else that would generate sound and need to be clearer than what the microphones shooting the scene collected. Just about every form of violence has sound effects attached to it to make everything sound correct to the listener. (This is because actually hitting someone, as you see in amateur and professional videos of brawls and competitions, is relatively silent, even if it really, really hurts.) As the fight progresses, the regular sounds are interrupted by Bullet Time sequences that introduce themselves with a sound meant to evoke the slowing down of time (the conceit being that when Bullet Time is activated, the fight is actually progressing faster than the human eye can follow, and so it needs to be slowed down to the point where we can perceive the cool stuff going on) and a similar effect when the fight kicks back into real time.
Things really get weird in part two, with the Agent possessing an observer and then bring turned into a clone of Smith (the metallic, electronic screeching underneath that serves as a sign of the underlying computer systems that make up The Matrix at work), and then, in the climactic sequences, the sound of concrete crushing a Smith and the metallic sounds of a bar being used for grievous bodily harm to a significant number of the Smiths.
Also, did you notice the sound of a bowling ball striking pins in that sequence, right after the Smiths mobbed Neo and he threw them off? What's that doing in an action movie? Mostly, I think it's there as a reminder to the audience that scary they are witnessing is a simulation, and that Neo has the power to bend or break that simulation to his well, if he desires. So why not have a stock sound effect from cartoons (the ball hitting pins is usually involved in situations where characters are scattered like tenpins by another character acting as the ball, whether intentionally or not) right before the end of this sequence? That sound effect there plays on audience expectations of what they would hear in a serious martial arts film and what they would hear in a cartoon, creating a delicious juxtaposition that makes sense in both of its contexts individually, but causes a tone mismatch when put together. Call it a moment of folevity, if you like.
The recreation of the fight as a contest between one Mario and lots of Luigis gives you a completely different set of sound effects to work with, which changes the tone of the work considerably, even though the music and dialogue remain the same. (Also, stop the video at 8 minutes and 45 seconds, because the outro is a perpetually relevant example of toxic gamer culture and, to my knowledge, the video hasn't been uploaded without that tag on the end.)
There's a lot to look at in the Burly Brawl, absolutely, and if you are familiar with the conventions of wuxia films, this entire fight sequence likely makes a lot of visual sense. But without the sound (or with different sounds applied), the experience is very different, proving that sound and music design is extremely important to getting proper mood across.
Also, I like it and think it really representative of the fight sequences of The Matrix franchise in general.
As much as I'm often happy paddling my fandom-of-one canoe on my own, sharing my love and excitement and rants and hopes and general flailing about The Thing I Love is a big part of what draws me to fandom spaces. Admittedly, I've never been that good at talking people into fandoms, but that's never slowed me down when it comes to trying!A solid autocucumber joke, as well as an out to someone who wants to talk about naval hardware instead of pairings. (Or pistols, because several of them have been referred to as "hand cannons". Or siege warfare and the abrupt end of a heavily armored mounted class. At least until they finally morphed into a heavily mechanized mounted class.)
So which of the Things You Love would you like to tell people about? Why might others like it? If you're a fan of this other thing, would you be a fan of this? Why is it just the best and most terrible and beautiful canon in your heart right now?
[Challenge text]
This challenge is focused on original canons, but I personally hold a pretty loose definition of what that can mean, so if you think something is a "canon," it totally is. Alternately, promote your favourite "cannon." Preferably with pictures.
( By now, you're expecting me to ramble, right? )
What I wanted to draw your attention to, however, as a piece of canon, is the Burly Brawl from the second of The Wachowskis' Matrix movies. Don Davis and Juno Reactor put together a soundtrack that follows the action of Neo ("The One", represented by the symphonic side, especially when performing Matrix feats) fighting an ever increasing horde of Agents Smith (represented by the frantic electronica side). Having watched the action just with the soundtrack, you can already see the way in which the see-saw of the soundtrack mirroring the action of the film, and how, even as the odds get ever increasingly against Neo, he is still able to hold his own.
Here's the first part, with dialogue and effects laid over top of the soundtrack, and then the second part where the numbers increase significantly more quickly. Already, there's a lot more sound involved just from the attacks, which is a pretty standard thing in movies.
A lot of foley involves recreating mundane things, like walking, revving an engine, or opening and closing doors, but it encompasses anything else that would generate sound and need to be clearer than what the microphones shooting the scene collected. Just about every form of violence has sound effects attached to it to make everything sound correct to the listener. (This is because actually hitting someone, as you see in amateur and professional videos of brawls and competitions, is relatively silent, even if it really, really hurts.) As the fight progresses, the regular sounds are interrupted by Bullet Time sequences that introduce themselves with a sound meant to evoke the slowing down of time (the conceit being that when Bullet Time is activated, the fight is actually progressing faster than the human eye can follow, and so it needs to be slowed down to the point where we can perceive the cool stuff going on) and a similar effect when the fight kicks back into real time.
Things really get weird in part two, with the Agent possessing an observer and then bring turned into a clone of Smith (the metallic, electronic screeching underneath that serves as a sign of the underlying computer systems that make up The Matrix at work), and then, in the climactic sequences, the sound of concrete crushing a Smith and the metallic sounds of a bar being used for grievous bodily harm to a significant number of the Smiths.
Also, did you notice the sound of a bowling ball striking pins in that sequence, right after the Smiths mobbed Neo and he threw them off? What's that doing in an action movie? Mostly, I think it's there as a reminder to the audience that scary they are witnessing is a simulation, and that Neo has the power to bend or break that simulation to his well, if he desires. So why not have a stock sound effect from cartoons (the ball hitting pins is usually involved in situations where characters are scattered like tenpins by another character acting as the ball, whether intentionally or not) right before the end of this sequence? That sound effect there plays on audience expectations of what they would hear in a serious martial arts film and what they would hear in a cartoon, creating a delicious juxtaposition that makes sense in both of its contexts individually, but causes a tone mismatch when put together. Call it a moment of folevity, if you like.
The recreation of the fight as a contest between one Mario and lots of Luigis gives you a completely different set of sound effects to work with, which changes the tone of the work considerably, even though the music and dialogue remain the same. (Also, stop the video at 8 minutes and 45 seconds, because the outro is a perpetually relevant example of toxic gamer culture and, to my knowledge, the video hasn't been uploaded without that tag on the end.)
There's a lot to look at in the Burly Brawl, absolutely, and if you are familiar with the conventions of wuxia films, this entire fight sequence likely makes a lot of visual sense. But without the sound (or with different sounds applied), the experience is very different, proving that sound and music design is extremely important to getting proper mood across.
Also, I like it and think it really representative of the fight sequences of The Matrix franchise in general.
