Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal takes viewers inside the mind of Ruben (Riz Ahmed), a metal drummer who loses his hearing. Nicolas Becker’s...
Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal takes viewers inside the mind of Ruben (Riz Ahmed), a metal drummer who loses his hearing. Nicolas Becker’s sound design reveals the extent of Ruben’s diminished auditory faculties and the distorted perception of normal sounds when Ruben gets a cochlear implant. Becker recorded the sounds of Ahmed’s body and used contact microphones for capturing sound as vibrations through solid objects.
Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, Carlos Cortes and Phillip Bladh have been nominated in the Best Sound category at the 93rd Academy Awards. Ahmed has also been nominated as an Actor In A Leading Role. Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty told Scroll.in about why the movie’s sonicscape is crucial to understanding Ruben’s journey.
Sound as vibration
Sound of Metal is a technical triumph, where the sound is in the foreground. What is fascinating is not the technique, but the thought that went behind it.
It’s often said that a film is made on the editing table, but this movie was made on the sound mixing table. Nobody really knows what a deaf person actually hears, but Nicolas Becker ensures that you believes that what you hear exactly on the screen is the only thing that Ruben could possibly hear.
If the movie was given to me, I would have done it differently. When...
