An author's intonation in the screen image of reality

Abstract

In a modern documentary film, the sound solution is an integral part of the creation of a special emotional and semantic space. However, there is a lack of research in film studies literature that addresses issues of sound expressiveness in this type of cinema. Given the dialectical nature of a documentary film, the sound engineer is faced with the multifaceted task of preserving the unique sonic characteristics of the objects of the profile reality unchanged, and of giving the sound material of the film an internal dramaturgy. At the same time, the choice of specific methods and techniques is determined by the creative style of the director, who forms his unique cinematic narrative. The sound engineer, becoming a full co-author of the film, embodies the artistic level of perception of the events of reality, on which this or that author reflects. At the same time, only in a unified aesthetics of a creative approach together with the director of the film can perfection of audiovisual relations be achieved. In this regard, creative dyads are quite often formed in cinematographic practice. In the article, on the example of sound solutions of «Austerlitz» and «Victory Day» by S.V. Loznitsa, created in tandem with V.I. Golovnitsky, examines the methods of constructing a sound score, the analysis of which allows us to demonstrate both the mathematically verified asceticism of the director's style, takes on a cinematic image thanks to the poetic minimalism of the soundman. As a result of the study, we can testify how the use by sound engineer V.I. Golovnitsky of the figurative and expressive variability of the functions of speech, music and noise determined the phonosemantic tonality of the entire score, the perception of which becomes not just a part of screen reality, but a self-sufficient element of the author's non-verbal dialogue.