Sound & Editing in Life on Mars (S1 E1)
This clip is from the first episode of Life on Mars. It uses
narrative continuity editing that is typical
of British TV Dramas. At the beginning of this clip, the audience can hear the digetic sound of a telephone ringing. There is then a
phone conversation between the protagonist, Sam and a woman named Maya. Maya
seems sceptical about something by the way she is talking in whispers and the
connection starts breaking up, making it difficult for Sam to hear what she is
saying. When Sam offers to send Maya backup, the audience can assume that she
is in some sort of danger. This assumption is confirmed by the digetic sound of Maya screaming. At the end of this
scene the audience can hear the build up of non-digetic
percussion music, which adds tension.
There is a short sound bridge
between the end of the previous scene and the beginning of the next. The percussion music is cut off by the sound of a car
driving to a halt and digetic sound of
screeching tyres (which is presumably a sound
effect). Non-digetic
which sounds like classical string instruments
starts to play and the audience hears the digetic
sound of footsteps over the music. The
audience can then hear the digetic dialogue
between Sam and another character, where they assume that Maya is dead and that
the killer has taken her body away. Eye
line-matching has been used when The director shows a low-angle mid-shot
of Sam, then a shot of a shirt on the swing set, which the audience presumes
belongs to Maya.
There is a sound-bridge
as the non-digetic, background music carries on
to the next scene where Sam is driving. The music seems mournful and allows the
audience to feel empathy for Sam. The non-digetic
sound is cut through y the digetic sound of a
car horn and a car screeching to a halt.
Faint non-digetic music
starts playing, which seems to be David Bowie’s ‘Life on Mars’. The audience
can relate to the song and understand that it has been used due to the fact
that the TV show is also called ‘Life on Mars’. The music seems to get slightly
louder, and the audience learn that it is actually digetic
sound when the director shows a close-up of Sam’s iPod in his car, which is
playing the song by David Bowie.
The song stops playing as the audience hears the sound of a
car’s tyres screeching and the digetic sound of
glass smashing as Sam gets run over. There is then a shot of Sam laying on the
ground and the non-digetic sound of a heartbeat,
which signifies how his life is in danger.
