Sound and Absence in ATLANTA
We talk a lot about visuals, but audio is always important; today we talk about how sound enhances shot, particularly when worked closely with edit.
Atlanta 4.09 “Andrew Wyeth. Alfred's World.” follows Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) in his solitude.
The sequence broken down below is under two minutes, but it’s worth watching the whole opening five minutes, which includes Paper Boi finding an abandoned tractor, opening the smooth-turning lock to his rust-doored growhouse, tending to plants, driving to the local hardware store, shopping as tinny music plays, and being rung up on a clackety old calculator by a chaw-spitting old clerk who starts the episode’s first dialogue.
Watch and listen:
0:00-0:05 crickets and birds start over black, before a cold-open on empty woods
0:06-0:26 gunshots sound over more shots of the woods, getting louder and closer together as the bird noises get more frenetic
0:26-0:44 as Paper Boi walks into a MCU, music fades in under the wildlife noises. He silently pokes at paper targets with gun holes in them, then leaves shot -
0:45-1:00 as a MCU tracking shot follows his feet closer and closer to camera, the sounds of crunching leaves and rap music both grow louder, until a portable speaker, phone, and gun leaning against a paint can come into frame. Paper Boi picks up the gun, and -
1:00-1:13 before he can shoot, a loud, regular buzzing intrudes. A closeup of the phone shows Earn calling, and when the buzzing stops, the phone shows a litany of missed calls, alongside a closeup of his weapon and speaker.
1:14-1:21 Paper Boi pulls the noise-reducing earmuffs over his ears, and suddenly everything is muffled; the cricket noises are barely noticeable, and the firing / impact noises are also quiet, until -
1:22-1:30 the scene cuts to a wide showing Paper Boi small amongst the trees, and the gun / bullet-strikes immediately switch back to full volume, as a cacophony of birds flying-away-and-cawing. Geto Boys “"My Mind Playin' Tricks On Me" swells under, as Paper Boi finishes the clip and yells “gottDAYUM!”
Clearly comfortable nobody can hear him, but also not caring, and barely able to hear himself.
1:31-1:41 "My Mind Playin' Tricks On Me" verse kicks in right as Atlanta’s title card shows, perfectly timed so the in-music sound of a gun cocking cuts off the music as the edit card-cuts -
1:42-1:52 to another shot of woods and wildlife noises. We hear faint leaves rustling, then see Paper Boi walking out of the woods as birds cautiously call back and forth again.
This opener works in itself, but also sets our expectations and senses up perfectly for a scene neat the end, where sound mixing and headphones play a crucial part in the episode’s plot — no spoilers — where a wonderful and well-mixed sequence calls back to this auditorily.