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"Sound Design in Get Out" by Maya Shah
Who knew brilliant sound design filled with an abundance of sound effects and cool sound motifs could reveal so much about a single character? Get Out is a 2017 film directed by Jordan Peele and is in short, about a young African-American man who visits his white girlfriend family’s residence for the weekend, but soon discovers that the family has a very dark and disturbing past and set of desires. The sound design of this film plays a huge role in helping the audience to understand and connect with the main character, Chris, through his feelings of isolation and stress, which are both created and emphasized by the sound design.
During the party at the Armitage’s, Rose’s family and friends gather to meet Chris, and are fascinated and deeply interested by the fact that he is black, as they are all white. However, one of the family friends — Logan, is black. Chris greets him, telling him how nice it is to see another person of color here. Chris feels like he recognizes him, but feels as though he is acting odd in this situation, so he attempts to take a picture of him to send to his friend back home — Rod Williams. However, when he takes a picture, the loud sound and bright flash of the phone camera draws all the guests, including Logan’s to him and what he is doing. Since the phone is closest to Chris, the sound of the shutter is much louder than what the other guests around him hear, which directly correlates to the idea of ‘isolation,’ as that increase of loudness is what isolates Chris from the other guests. This loud release of the camera shutter is followed by a high frequency pitch and a heartbeat (representing Chris’s heartbeat) with an increase of loudness. The use of these sound elements help to heighten the humiliation and embarrassment that Chris feels in this situation as everyone knows he tried to snap a picture of Logan and now all these guests are looking at him. The feelings of isolation and humiliation is built through the sound design, regarding its loudness of specific sounds, as well as through the choice of sound effects used in stressful situations for Chris.
A second example of the sound design that depicts Chris’s isolation is shown through the moment where Chris is hypnotized by Rose’s mother, Missy, isolating him into “the Sunken Place.” The Sunken Place is a place where people lose control of their minds and where they are isolated from the rest of the world. When Missy is hypnotizing Chris into the Sunken Place (isolating his mind from the world), she stirs a spoon inside a tea cup. The sound effect of the ‘stirring of the tea cup’ becomes a sound motif directly correlated to the Sunken Place and this idea of ‘isolation,’ so whenever the audience hears that sound, we know that Chris is losing control of his mind and being isolated — a very stressful thing, which helps the audience to understand Chris’s stress and isolation throughout the film. The sound design within Get Out is a vital tool in helping the viewers of the film to better understand how Chris feels throughout the film, through sound elements that imply feelings of isolation and stress.
Who knew brilliant sound design filled with an abundance of sound effects and cool sound motifs could reveal so much about a single character? Get Out is a 2017 film directed by Jordan Peele and is in short, about a young African-American man who visits his white girlfriend family’s residence for the weekend, but soon discovers that the family has a very dark and disturbing past and set of desires. The sound design of this film plays a huge role in helping the audience to understand and connect with the main character, Chris, through his feelings of isolation and stress, which are both created and emphasized by the sound design.
A second example of the sound design that depicts Chris’s isolation is shown through the moment where Chris is hypnotized by Rose’s mother, Missy, isolating him into “the Sunken Place.” The Sunken Place is a place where people lose control of their minds and where they are isolated from the rest of the world. When Missy is hypnotizing Chris into the Sunken Place (isolating his mind from the world), she stirs a spoon inside a tea cup. The sound effect of the ‘stirring of the tea cup’ becomes a sound motif directly correlated to the Sunken Place and this idea of ‘isolation,’ so whenever the audience hears that sound, we know that Chris is losing control of his mind and being isolated — a very stressful thing, which helps the audience to understand Chris’s stress and isolation throughout the film. The sound design within Get Out is a vital tool in helping the viewers of the film to better understand how Chris feels throughout the film, through sound elements that imply feelings of isolation and stress.
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