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My Thoughts on Sound Of Metal and Christine Sun Kim

Sarah W's picture

Wow. All I can say at first is wow. Before I delve into the use of sound I first want to touch on the use of closed captioning. I realized as I was watching they began to add in the closed captioning as Ruben began to understand the signing around him, which is a brilliant move on the creator of the movie's part. We are able to understand the signing as Ruben is able to with the help of closed-captioning as the movie continues. I am not sure if I am explaining this well, but I feel that creative choice was masterfully well done. The film's sound design is incredibly unique. I really appreciate how the film switches from ordinary sound to the muffled hearing Ruben feels due to hearing loss, and then to the altered state of hearing Ruben experiences after getting his cochlear implants. All of these forms of sound are starkly different to each other and allow us to experience the sensations Ruben is feeling with him. I am especially curious about the sound design for Ruben's hearing after he recieves cochlear implants. Is this an accurate representation of altered hearing after the implants, and if so how were the able to replicate such a unique sensory experience. I personally related a lot to Ruben's character in the beginning of the film, with the feeling of being lost and angry, and needing to fix things immediately when it came to my disabilities. As with Ruben, it took time and patience to accept my new reality, and I am especially glad they touched on that in the film.

 

On Christine Sun Kim: I was totally sucked into her videos. I especially loved the video in which she close captioned everything. It was brilliant. As someone who is a firm believer in closed captioning so I can understand what exactly is going on, and so I can watch things even when I cannot hear them, I truly loved the way she described things. It added an entire new meaning to the video and really allowed me to feel immersed in what I was watching. It makes me wonder why companies and shows do not close caption videos more like that. Why not?