PART TEN - "Remembering AMNESIA": Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker Shot an Apacolyptic Thiller for $6,000 and Gained the Attention of Media Outlets."

The Power of Silence

People don't realize the power of dramatic silence.  An actor makes a statement... There's a pause.... characters looks at each other... the audience leans in to see what happens next...  There's power in silence.

I'm diverting a little from my behind-the-scenes look at making AMNESIA by focusing more on a specific day.  My focus is less on how we did it but on the power of a choice I made on a scene that wasn't even in the film.

We shot a scene called, "Put the gun down" where "Allan" and "Sandra" argue over a gun, the week before. After we shot the night time scene with "Allan" and "Sandra" we left the lights up till the next day.  That morning  I woke up thinking about the "Put the gun down" scene.  There is an argument that ends with him still with the gun.  He keeps it through till the next 2 scenes.  She has no comment on wanting to get it from him or have him toss it aside.  We just left the issue alone.  Yet, I knew, that her character wouldn't have given up the issue.  And at the same time she had some fear about him and was uneasy about what to do around him.  Then came the idea for the scene.

Typically Hollywood doesn't like dramtic silence.  They don't like silence at all.  They like to, since Star Wars IV, cram music wall-to-wall into a film.  It's dialogue, action, music. BAM!  BAM! BAM!... it's as if they fear that if they stop for just one mere moment the audience might get bored and leave.  But what if the storytelling used silence to captivate the audience with the drama of the moment... Then you have magical moments where the audience feels like part of the story...   They are allowed to actually think for a moment.... and react!

I've seen a few filmmakers use dramatic silence.  M. Night does it alot.  It's hit or miss with his stuff though.  I love his great use of it, but the times when it's used and falls flat it falls pretty hard.  Mel Gibson uses it a little in some of his films, but usually there's still music hidden in there... some where.  It seems to be almost a dying artform.  But I took a risk.  I created a scene with no words.  It's all in the looks, the use of silence.  And there's no music... just the night time sounds and the strategic use of owl "hoots".  And yes, most of the sound in these peice are folly sound because I spent 4 months on sound design for this reason.  I was willing to take risks, not just on this scene, but on many others.  It's time we finally took some risks.  It's art, you know.

Below is the "Put the Gun down" scenes butted up beside "The gun" scene.