Playback / The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Perks of Being a Wallflower · 2012
Cafeteria Fight
The sound drops out, and the point of view moves into a character's head without the camera moving at all.
Watch for
- The moment the room noise falls away and is replaced by something muffled.
- How the gap in the audio stands in for a gap in his memory.
- The return of full sound, and what has changed in the room by then.
A worked reading · COCA
CContention
Chbosky shifts point of view through the sound mix alone, without changing what the camera shows.
OObservation
As the cafeteria fight begins, the ambient noise drops away to a muffled, distant register for the duration of Charlie's blackout, then returns at full level once the fight is over and he is standing among the aftermath.
CConnotation
Removing the sound codes the passage as unremembered, so the audience is denied the event exactly as the character is.
AAudience
We experience the blackout rather than being told about it, which makes his unreliability something felt instead of explained.
Your turn
- What happens to the sound when the fight starts? Whose hearing are we in?
- Why not simply cut away and skip the fight?
- What have you missed by the time the sound comes back?
For teachers
An excellent demonstration that point of view is built in the mix, not only the frame. Teach with the Cafeteria and Breakdown clips together if time allows — they are the same technique at different intensities.
