Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 08:47:17 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Films and nightclub volume

Started by An tSaoi, February 14, 2011, 03:53:09 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

An tSaoi

I hate it when the characters go to a club, and the music is only faintly playing in the background, to the point where you can clearly make out what they're saying even though you never would in real life. Of course the filmmakers want the dialogue to be audible, but it all seems terribly unrealistic. So what scenes from films break with this tradition, and portray nightclub volume with reasonable accuracy?[nb]Similarly, what are the most glaring examples of ridiculously muted nightclub noise?[/nb]

There's that scene in Trainspotting where Tommy and Spud are almost drowned out by the music, and subtitles have been added. You can still just about make them out, but it's a damn sight more realistic than a lot of other films. So that's one...

Ja'moke

The Social Network, the club scene where Zuckerberg is talking to Scott Parker, you really have to listen closely to hear their dialouge because the bass of the music is pulsating in your ears.

lipsink

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me has the best example of this I can think of. You can barely make out what the characters are saying but can hear bits and pieces over the booming music. It's quite a hypnotic scene.

VegaLA

American Psycho.
They seemed to nail it in some nightclub scenes with Pat rolling off a how he'd like to kill the girl who refused to take his drinks tickets, but of course she could not hear him over the sounds of New Order. I think some of the characters were also having to yell into each others ears so to be heard in another nightclub scene.
I need to see this movie again.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: VegaLA on February 14, 2011, 04:45:10 PM
American Psycho.
They seemed to nail it in some nightclub scenes with Pat rolling off a how he'd like to kill the girl who refused to take his drinks tickets, but of course she could not hear him over the sounds of New Order
Wasn't that possibly a sign that it was all in Bateman's head though? I think I need to watch it again too.

I think the nightclub shootout in Collateral did have some people talking at a normal volume, but it was noisy enough that Cruise was able to go about his business unnoticed until he fired his gun.

NoSleep

Quote from: VegaLA on February 14, 2011, 04:45:10 PM
I think some of the characters were also having to yell into each others ears so to be heard in another nightclub scene.

Can I just point out (because people have done it to me) that it is unnecessary to shout in a person's ear[nb]More ear-damaging than anything else that will happen to them that night.[/nb]. Talking at a normal conversational level is fine. Of course, you will hardly be able to hear your own voice, but that's another matter.

An tSaoi

I've got American Psycho on right now (the bit where he says he's into murders and executions, and the woman thinks he said Mergers and Acquisitions). Unfortunately it fits into the unrealistic category; the music is very much background sound and the dialogue is at normal talking volume, which makes her mishearing him somewhat unrealistic. Shame.

The earlier scene with the woman behind the bar that VegaLA mentioned was much better though; that's closer to the way it should be done.

VegaLA

Quote from: NoSleep on February 14, 2011, 05:36:35 PM
Can I just point out (because people have done it to me) that it is unnecessary to shout in a person's ear[nb]More ear-damaging than anything else that will happen to them that night.

What?


An tSaoi

Also, I've never noticed how off-kilter the backdrops in American Psycho are, but that's another thread.

Queneau

Quote from: An tSaoi on February 14, 2011, 03:53:09 PMThere's that scene in Trainspotting where Tommy and Spud are almost drowned out by the music, and subtitles have been added. You can still just about make them out, but it's a damn sight more realistic than a lot of other films. So that's one...

Yeah, subtitles always appear for me when I'm trying to listen to people in clubs.

CaledonianGonzo

Quote from: An tSaoi on February 14, 2011, 03:53:09 PM
There's that scene in Trainspotting where Tommy and Spud are almost drowned out by the music, and subtitles have been added. You can still just about make them out, but it's a damn sight more realistic than a lot of other films. So that's one...

Filmed in an actual nightclub, too - the late, relatively unlamented, Volcano at Partick Cross in Glasgow.

SavageHedgehog

In Unlawful Entry Kurt Russell plays an architect who pitches his latest design in a nightclub; I somehow doubt that's very common. From a cinematic standpoint I aprove of it however.

Zero Gravitas

Quote from: An tSaoi on February 14, 2011, 06:51:51 PM
Also, I've never noticed how off-kilter the backdrops in American Psycho are, but that's another thread.

Or how disgusting the dishes mentioned are or how ridiculous the outfits described in the book are...

Marvin

Most larger nightclubs do tend to have seating areas away from the loudest speakers where it's quite possible to have a conversation though, also generally in films you're meant to be able to hear the dialogue unless it suits the story not to be able to, it strikes me that most of the time if they did what you're suggesting it would be realism purely for the point of realism and to the detriment of most films, and it's debatable that it's unrealistic to show people talking in nightclubs if they're away from the dancefloor/speakers anyway.