Expressive movement unit 1

Through the interplay of the editing with the sound and shot composition, an audiovisual meter is created that stages an image of frightened tension.

The unit begins with a series of four medium close ups in which soldiers stare off screen without moving. The visual and acoustic levels create a common audiovisual pattern. The seriality of the shots establishes a basic meter; the rising and falling music—a monotone, repeated brass note over which recurrent fragments of a melody are played—has a repetitive structure. The visual and audio meter thus merge, the series of shots creates the visual rhythm and the repetitive music creates the tonal rhythm. The underlying principle of repetition builds the basis for the pointed introduction of a noise. Instead of the anticipated shot of another soldier, at the end of the fourth shot there is a hammering noise that receives its startling character by diverging from the previously established audiovisual pattern.

The fear staged by the contrast of tense anticipation and the moment of shock is also conveyed by the dark shadows in the shots. The images are lit only at the center, at the edges they disappear almost literally as they fade into darkness.