Sound of Metal

Abstract

The main goal of this article is to carry out an analysis of the dramaturgical and narrative use of the soundtrack for the film Sound of Metal (2019), anchoring it in the concepts of immersion and subjective hearing. The essay includes a brief history of how these concepts are applied to cinema; a discussion of the way D/ deaf culture is represented, narratively and sonically; an analysis of important scenes using spectrograms that show the narrative development of the use of different sound approaches to represent three different listening modes experienced by the protagonist; a discussion of some techniques that allow sound design to build a realistic sound diegesis; and a description of the narrative progression of sound design, over the three acts of the plot, to demonstrate how the idea of a subjective audition point linked to the main character helps to build the viewer’s sensory immersion in the plot, in addition to driving the entire film’s dramaturgy.