Funeral*

Classification in categories

• Suffering / victim / sacrifice

 

Through the interplay of editing and sound design, this scene stages the resolution of frightened tension in a mourning motif. It acts as a bridge between startling, sudden unrest  (> „The Captain / first victim“) and an image of camaraderie (> „Second address / The Sergeant and his family“). At first the editing is the dominant element replaced in the course of the scene by the sound design.

The starting point of the scene is a series of shots of soldiers on guard duty (> EMU 1). The visual meter of the edits and the rising and falling structure of the music create a common audiovisual, repetitive pattern. The state of tension created by the anticipation of repetition thus established, and the pointed, startling interruption through a noise that ends the structure of repetition convey an image of frightened tension, supported by the lighting.

The music carries this tension into a staged funeral; a long shot of the whole group (> EMU 2). Until this moment, editing was the dominant element of the audiovisual composition, now a change occurs. The music slowly moves into a mourning melody. Together with the funeral speech, delivered in a deep voice, it forms a dirge and the acoustic level becomes dominant. The editing creates a larger space of action permeated by this dirge. In this way, the frightened tension of the beginning is resolved in a motif of mourning.    JHB

Expressive movement units

01 02 

Materials about the scene

Position of the scene in the film