Discuss the use of the voice in Spike Jonze’s film ‘her’ as a primary carrier of narrative and consider its relationship to image in the film.

Not so long ago, sound was not considered as a significant medium in the media industry. However in 1936 Rudolf Arnheim put together a book, which helped unveil the amounts of unseen potential that were in radio. Subsequently, rather than writing the sound medium out of movies, filmmakers started to realize the essentiality of sound in film, and how effective it is whether it is evident or not. (Arnheim, 1936) Early 2014, Spike Jonze constructed a highly complex movie in which he has set sound as a primary carrier of narrative in ways that are unfamiliar and unique in comparison to most movies seen today.

As soon as the movie begins, it starts becoming more and more evident that it will not be a highly visual piece, as it will be more led by story. The movie is set in the near future and revolves around a sensitive and soulful man that earns his living by writing personal letters for people. He is left devastated after he separates from his wife and gradually becomes obsessed with a new complicated operating system, which is highly intuitive and can develop its own separate entity by evolving through space and time. He launches the program and meets Samantha a playful and friendly voice that is acted by Scarlet Johansson. Which is an operating system that consists of an earpiece and a small screen, the size of a cardholder. Throughout the film, the main character Theodore is played by Joaquin Phoenix communicates with Samantha, whom begins as friends but later develops into a more complicated relationship.

Since Samantha is not a real person in the movie, all communication is based on sound and in rare occasions pictures and videos through the screen. It becomes very evident that Theodore is not a very sociable person since the viewer acknowledges his first friend, which also happens to be his neighbor nineteen minutes through the movie. Making the viewer set a tone for the movie, that will be more dialogue led. Chemistry between the characters is most certainly evident through their tone from the beginning of the film. He asks her to “read email” Samantha intentionally replies in a robotic and monotonous voice sarcastically, and Theodore almost immediately apologizes for talking to her in that tone, acknowledging her as a person with feelings and thoughts. Also sarcasm is a sign of intelligence, which is a characteristic Spike Jonze was able to communicate through this event with Samantha only using her tone of voice. Moreover as a friend she encourages him to attend a blind date since she finds out through his emails that he has been through a recent breakup. Also showing intelligence, since he only asked her to check for any new emails, she was able to go through his whole email, analyze it and conclude that she should convince him to go on the date.

As Theodore and Samantha get closer, they progressively start spending more time with each other. It is clarified through scenes of both characters speaking in different locations with music in the background. On the twenty-fourth minute he leaves a real conversation with realistic people just to speak with Samantha, emphasizing on how the operating system has the power to fully engage in the real world and influence people, and that is portrayed in the movie through Theodore, and how the impact of a non tangible voice had on him rather than a fully functional human. A disembodied voice can be a confusing unconventional concept however the nature of its intimacy can only be produced through modes of listening. One of many interpretations could be that when one does not see a body to link it to the voice, the mind automatically constructs an image of what it thinks the physical body would look like, which could be highly biased depending on the relationship with the subject.

As a result of this relationships unique audial essence, tone is a key factor when discussing this matter. On many occasions Samantha recognizes Theodore’s mood, this can be evident through phrases such as “what’s wrong?” Which once again shows the operating system’s intuitive analytical nature, as everyday technology has not reached this level of complexity. In this space and time ‘Siri’ would be the equivalent to this technology. However one of ‘Siri’s’ great disadvantages is that ‘Siri’ usually struggles to understand the words properly and that users need to have good pronunciation, therefore users repeat the process more than once so that it would fully comprehend(Smith, 2012), and when it does it answers in a robot-like voice that terminates any possibility social/emotional attachment. Let alone analyze the users tone and construct a sentence built upon a conclusion. Jonze has beneficially used voice to act as a key factor in this movie subsequently placing visuals as a secondary carrier of narrative in all intimate scenes. Even though technology can be mind blowing and can make peoples lives easier, however being too involved with technology can isolate a person and people can lose the essence of communication and is shown in the movie in many scenes where Theodore chooses to communicate with this operating system, rather than real life interaction. This also shows the future hazards of sound engaging technology, as its effect on its users is immensely undermined.

Through out the movie it is noticeable that most of his intimate conversations with Samantha are in a dark room while the rest of his life is in distinct bright colours. In many ways, this visual technique could highly impact the users authorial comprehension. The visuals become more simple and calm, while the conversation going on is very intimate, the viewer is almost forced to imagine details about the conversation, or in other worlds visualize what Theodore is picturing in his mind, by doing that, the user creates something personal therefore more intimate Even Theodore realises that when the lights are off, his connection with Samantha becomes more intimate and affectionate as most of their conversations are in his bedroom and in the dark. When Theodore expressed this to his neighbour he says, “ I feel really close to her like when I talk to her I feel like she’s with me, and when we’re cuddling at night, and the lights are off and we’re in bed, I feel cuddled”. It is very striking for him to say that, as it is an oxymoronic statement showing his affection for her, but also the powers of the voice and sound on the human.. This also allows the audience to place themselves in the characters position and feel sympathetic towards them.

This was also emphasized in the beginning of the film when Theodore decided to have phone sex, Jonze chose a service that only offers a voice in particular rather than visuals as well as audio. Which once again bring the audience a step closer to the character by giving the opportunity to use their imagination, combined by the audio and what the audience see on the screen to create an image that is unique to every person watching it. Also later on in the film when Theodore comes back disappointed from the date he was on and starts speaking to Samantha in his bedroom, the more intimate they got it got darker and darker on the screen until eventually it fades to black and all the audience could hear for eleven more seconds is Theodore and Samantha continuing to sex talk and moan. An important issue rises up at his stage, which is what or who the audience imagine. On one hand, some may construct their own image of what they think Samantha may look like, while on the other some may already have the preset image of Scarlett Johansson in their minds. This issue has been the main concern for the critics, although having Scarlett, as Samantha was not the initial idea, Spike Jonze took this decision in the post production after realizing that Samantha Morton’s voice does not capture the characters true essence. He specifically said that, “Samantha was really involved in giving Joaquin [Phoenix] a lot...to work from. And then when we got into editing, we realized that what Samantha and I had done together wasn't working for what the character needed, and so we ended up having to recast at that point in time." (Eggersten, 14/11/2013)

The concept of having a fully-grown person/voice that has no experiences is very unusual to most people, which was the case with Samantha was she was first launched as an personal assistant in the form of a operating system. Spike Jonze had visualized what it would sound like and what needed to be do in order to make this character come to life. One of the things he had told Scarlett Johansson, “was that when Samantha's created, she doesn't have any fears or doubts or insecurities or baggage," meaning that in order to fully capture the role, Scarlett had to bring herself to the deepest levels of purity (Schroeder, 2014). As most of the percussions humans take from each other come through failed experiences and that’s what made their relationship simple and straightforward. However as she starts to expand, evolve, and develop things get more complicated since now she has her own wants and needs rather than a personalized assistant existing solely to fulfill her owners desires. This change has shifted the understanding of this movie, as the lead in was falling in love with software, however later on the audience discover that this movie is a drama led love story.

Sound and image are very tightly tied together in this movie, as we only see Theodore, we only see his world, and as we only hear Samantha then we can only hear what her world sounds like. When Samantha wanted to take Theodore to her world, nearly thirty minutes through the movie she told him to close his eyes, and experience the world through her voice. On other occasions we can see and hear what their worlds are like at the same time for example, when Theodore goes to the beach and takes Samantha with him, they just sit and chat at the beach, and without notice a very peaceful, melancholy piano tune starts playing so he asks her what that is and she answers “a narrative piece of music that describes how it feels like to be on the beach with you”. She subconsciously makes the audience temporarily forget about their feelings and start to feel what its like to be at the beach for the first time with a person you care about. After a long silent gaze at the horizon, he tells her “I think you’ve captured it”. This was a very peaceful scene where Spike Jonze successfully links voice, audio and image.

Some may say think the ear cannot see, however Tim Crook argues that one does not need eyes to see, and that the blind can indeed see. He acknowledges that this statement is a paradox however he would “additionally argue that their brains construct an imaginative world based on image and fully separated from the eye as camera”(Crook, 1999). Which enables them the have a similar experience, sometimes more fulfilling than those who have the eye as a camera. As one’s imagination can see what no eye has ever seen, not only that, but when one closes their eyes and listens to whatever is may be, focus levels will be much higher, the experience would be more intimate and the listener will be more engaged. “And more particularly: I live right inside radio when I listen.” (McLuhan, 1964). Even though radio is not the case here, it could be suggested that this quote could be even more relevant to the type of sound shown in ‘Her’ as it is highly emotional and longer in running time, giving more time for audience to relate to the characters.

In this this technologically advanced movie, audio is so rich in audial techniques that every long silence has its own unique effect on its audience, not withstanding that every piece of music or sound effect is appropriately used. The movie is also rich in long sequences of ultra-subtle Foley and natural ambiences instead of music, dialog, or any other hard-source sound even though there were only two or three main songs, which also had their own unique effect. During the movie Spike Jonze uses a lot of long silences, which gives a different effect almost every time. In one of the scenes, before conflict arises between Samantha and Theodore there is a long silence, which it could be suggested that this is an exceptional way of building up tension. In contrast, another effect long silences can give, is tranquillity and calmness, this could be evident through the beach scene where Samantha plays her piano song, Theodore pauses for a while before commenting on the song at the end while he showing how relaxed he is after glaring at the sea.

All evidence support that radio is the intimate medium, it leaves the visuals ultimately to the audiences infinite imagination, which to those who appreciate it is a boundless universe unique to every viewer. In this movie, sound and image are combined in a way that elevates the audiences’ experience, although sound on a general level and the voice of Scarlet Johansson have enhanced the movie, as her voice charms the audience with her funny, sexy and intelligent character. Spike Jonze has truly captured the true essence of intimacy through voice when writing this movie, and when choosing Scarlet in the last minute to peruse this role. Sound has been a key factor in this movie, whether is was a song placed at the right moment or a long silence that set the scene, sound has the main carrier of this movie. Not only because of Samantha’s role, but because of the ambient and imaging sound found in this movie.

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Bibliography

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Chris Eggerston. (THURSDAY, NOV 14, 2013). 'Her' Q&A: Spike Jonze on why he replaced Samantha Morton with Scarlett Johansson Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/her-qa-spike-jonze-on-why-he-replaced-samantha-morton-with-scarlett-j. Available: http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/her-qa-spike-jonze-on-why-he-replaced-samantha-morton-with-scarlett-johansson. Last accessed 8th Nov 2015.

Juliana Schroeder. (2014). Could It Be Her Voice? Why Scarlett Johansson’s Voice Makes Samantha Seem Human. Available: http://thepsychreport.com/culture/could-it-be-her-voice-why-scarlett-johanssons-voice-makes-samantha-seem-human/. Last accessed 9/11/2015.

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