The Sound of Silence

At the end of The Blood Exchange, there will be a period where no one speaks, no music plays, and it’s just things happening. I do this for a reason.

Sometimes, sound, dialogue, and music are detrimental to a scene. Silence is a powerful thing that says nothing, yet conveys so many emotions. Hollywood seriously underrates the sheer power of moments of silence in movies. It’s a shame.

Often in movies, a tense scene is accompanied with heated dialogue and intense music. This is okay sometimes—it depends on the situation. If you’re going for excitement, this is what you want. If you’re going for suspense, then you have to step back and consider how you’re going to achieve this. It really depends on the situation, but I think silence conveys this eerie feeling of realism and loneliness that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand stiff.

Imagine the scene in Pulp Fiction where Butch the boxer is going back to his apartment to retrieve his watch. He does this knowing that there may as well be a hitman waiting for him anywhere. During this scene, there is next to NO dialogue and absolutely NO music. All that this scene shows is Butch walking to his apartment, finding his watch, and finding a surprise in his bathroom. Why is this scene so good? Why is it so suspenseful? They say NOTHING. There is NO MUSIC.

It’s because of the silence.

What a soundtrack often does is build up to the intense part of the scene—it starts out calmer, then builds and builds to the action. That means that you will always know when it’s coming. In real life, there is no soundtrack playing for every suspenseful thing that happens in your life. There is no background music to tell you when something intense is going to happen. That’s life.

What silence does is create realism. This scene worked because it felt real. Butch was just walking through the neighborhood to his apartment. Tensions are high. You felt nervous for Butch because there was no soundtrack indicating anything. Someone could have come outta nowhere and killed him right then and there. Anything could have happened.

I’m not saying to abandon dialogue or music, because a movie is dead without them. But sometimes the best thing to say is nothing. Sometimes the best soundtrack for your life is just nothing. Silence is golden, so shut up and get rich.