The 2016 movie, I, DANIEL BLAKE, written by Paul Laverty and directed by Ken Loach is a drama following the life of 59 year old Daniel Blake as he struggles to find work after being deemed fit for work and having his benefits frozen, despite his doctor telling him that he isn’t following a heart attack.
He meets a newcomer to the city of Newcastle called Katie and her two children, Daisy and Dylan.
The film re-enforces realism to promote the issues that are presented in the narrative and because of this in many scenes it focuses on diegetic and natural sounds.
For example in one scene in the middle of the film, Daniel is at Katie’s house and is putting together a makeshift heater as they don’t have hot water.
In the scene there is no music and you can hear every minor diegetic sound from the sound of Katie cooking in the background to Daniel putting the pots over the candle. All of these sounds are natural to help to immerse the audience into believing that they are in the room too and to help them to feel the situation that both Daniel and Katie are in.
All of the natural sound effects were probably added in post with foley or were at least augmented as it is unlikely the microphone picked up everything.
Daniel has one notable vocal tic in this scene when he pauses to remember the name of Daisy, this shows his age and also how he’s only known them for a short time at this point and their names haven’t been solidified in his mind.
The way Daniel and Daisy speak in the scene is very natural and seems as if it was improvised to help sell the realism of the film.
On the very other end of the spectrum is the 2016 animated Netflix show: Voltron Legendary Defender.
In season 4, episode 2 the character of Pidge finally discovers information about the whereabouts of her brother who was abducted a year prior on a mission to Kerberos, one of Pluto’s moons.
The scene titled “family reunion” sees Pidge discovers the hideout of her brother, Matt. She is attacked by him before the realize who each other is, embracing but being interrupted by a bounty hunter. Pidge and Matt then fight the bounty hunter and defeat him.
As the programme is science fiction and animated, most of the sound effects, especially in fight scenes are hyper-real. For example Matt’s staff makes loud metallic noises when it comes in contact with Pidge’s bayard. Matt’s staff also makes hyper-real “swooshing” noises when he spins and swipes with it. The bounty hunter’s “whips” also make electrical crackling noises
The voices of the bounty hunter and Matt wearing his helmet have been augmented to make them sound more electronic and futuristic.
The music is mostly ambient to replicate the emptiness and mysterious aspects of space. It is very electronic to fit with the science fiction genre of the show. During both of the fight scenes the music gets fast paced rather than the usual slow music.
When Matt and Pidge hug the music starts to sound happier to re-enforce the emotions of the characters.
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