Sound has an immense impact on the way we view a scene in a film, and enters into a dance with the other aspects of a film for everything to come together to make something great. Sound affects direct viewer attention, represents ideas and characters, or leaves us in a state of attentive suspense in its absence. One iconic scene from "Breaking Bad," which I affectionately refer to as ‘the garage scene,’ depicts Walt stepping inside Hank’s garage with him, and their resulting confrontation.
In the beginning of the scene, we are presented with Walt and Hank conversing lightly, although we know that Hank has been suspicious of Walt’s implications in the drug trade for many episodes. The conversation is brief, awkward, and concludes with Walt heading back the way he came, pausing to look in the direction of a child playing with his RC race car in the cul-de-sac.
The boy zips the car around in the ‘foreground’ of the sound track, remaining off screen, and fades to the background as Walt strides back into the garage to confront Hank about the tracking device he found on his car. Here, the sound of the child with the race car is indicative of a few of the motifs present in the show. First of all: family, Walt protecting his children, innocence – and Walt literally turns his back from these symbols as he reenters the garage.
As Walt steps beyond the threshold of the room, the garage door slams shut, changing the soundscape for the remainder of the scene.
The lack of sound can also be powerful. During the beginning of the confrontation, while we are primarily listening to the child play with his car, there is another equally important sound playing. Throughout the majority of the shots in "Breaking Bad," there is an ambient drone of insects to remind you of the arid New Mexico climate, and provide a sense of verisimilitude throughout various places.
When Hank closes the garage door behind Walt, the ambience stops, destroying our sense of location, creating a new setting, the crucible for the show’s most dramatic story arc: Walt and Hank laying all their cards on the table. The insect track is cut out immediately after the garage door closes, and also for the next minute or so while protagonist and antagonist posture heavily, delivering lines that are laced with double meaning and drip venom.
What happens next is interesting, because when their conversation returns to that of their family, the ambiance fades back in, putting the viewer somewhat at ease, or at least letting them return to familiar footing. The scene used the lack of sound to draw all of our attention to these two characters trapped in the garage together, then directs our curiosity to the effects this change in their relationship will have on other characters. Even with your eyes closed, you can feel the tension in this scene -- until Hank snaps.
This temporary lack of ambiance draws focus through contrast, and gives the viewer a sense of the setting that Walt and Hank are in. Loudness can be related to perceived distance, so by increasing the volume, the space between objects decreases. Through the subtraction of the insects, their voices are very loud, and in being loud we perceive them to be very close, both to each other, but also to the camera in the confined space of the garage, creating a sensation of claustrophobia.
Sound can also introduce new characters. When Bryan Cranston’s character tells Hank to “tread lightly,” we aren’t simply excited about the words he is saying – the words on their own mean very little. What is exciting about this line is the delivery, which reveals a character that Hank has never seen before. “Tread lightly” wasn’t said by Walt; it was Heisenberg who was giving Hank a warning to back off. To introduce Heisenberg, there is a dramatic shift in tonality in Cranston’s voice, from the well-meaning ‘teacher voice’ that Walt consistently has throughout the show, to the low, grizzly Heisenberg snarl.
The camera remains focused on Cranston, and his facial expressions don't change along with his voice. Just his simple change in timbre tells us that, without the camera straying an inch from Walt’s face, an entirely new person has appeared on screen, and we must now take that character into consideration within the scene’s context.
The ‘garage scene’ flexes some of sound’s versatility, from referencing characters and ideas which are out of frame, to focusing our attention on the character dynamic within a setting that exists outside the common arena of the show, to introducing new characters without visually altering the shot whatsoever. The next time you’re watching your favorite movie, close your eyes. You may be surprised by what you notice.
