Quieter Than Silence: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
{{quote|"''[[It's Quiet... Too Quiet|It's quiet... too quiet...]]''"}}
 
If a scene, response or view is shown in total silence, often the audience may simply think the sound is out on their TV or movie theater. Having a background noise that is normally drowned out by foreground noise-- a quiet wind, faint crickets chirping, etc. --is a marker to say "nothing is happening" to the audience; the slight sound is actually '''Quieter Than Silence'''. The [[Manga]] [[Unsound Effect]] ''shiiiiiiin''<ref>[[wikipedia:Tinnitus|Tinnitus?]].</ref> does the same thing. A visual of a tumbleweed blowing across the scene is used in Westerns, and nowadays mainly in comedies, to convey the same effect. A low rumbling is often also used, to simulate that sort of feeling a person gets in their ears in a dark, quiet room.
 
If it's quieter than ''that'', the hero's heartbeat may be amplified. This kind of silence almost always ends with a [[Scare Chord]].
 
Compare [[Visible Silence]], [[Nothing Is Scarier]], [[Chirping Crickets]], [[Loading Screen]] (so that [[Video Games]] make it clear they are still on while the level loads). The inverse is [[Music Video Syndrome]] or [[Sorry I Left the BGM On]].
 
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', when Zoro first learns to cut steel, the whole world goes silent save for his heartbeat--youheartbeat—you can even see his opponent yelling, but no sound can be heard.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* Upon finding out what happened in [[Spice Girls|Melanie C]] in ''[http://fav.me/dd7ow55 Case of the Missing Technology]'', the narrator remarked that even the crickets were quiet, thanks to finding her {{Spoiler|[[An Arm and a Leg| dismembered]]}}.
 
== [[Film]] ==
* The subtle sound of wind can be heard in the external shots of the capsule in ''[[Apollo 13]]'', providing an ambiance Quieter Than Silence. Of course, there is no sound in space in [[Real Life]].
* Played straight in ''<nowiki>~[[2001: A Space Odyssey~</nowiki>]]'' where some of the most terrifying scenes in the film play out in the cold dead quiet of space.
* An example of the exact opposite: Actual dead silence was used to punctuate the seismic charges ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIuzj_dICmw shown here]) in ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Attack of the Clones]]'', considered an experiment in cinematography by the film's sound engineers.
** A similar effect is used in the climax of Aranofsky's ''[[The Fountain]]'', just before {{spoiler|the star goes supernova and explodes}}.
* Not quite total silence, but the background noise of crowds and traffic fades to almost nothing just before the eruption kicks off in ''[[Volcano]]''. The effect is to convey the impression that the eruption is '''really loud''', without actually deafening the audience.
* Non-threatening example: in ''[[Thank You for Smoking]]'', a hot-shot's assistant points out that their building's elevator is completely silent.
* During the filming of ''~[[Ferris Bueller's Day Off~]]'', director [[John Hughes]] told the sound editor that he wanted the scene in which Rooney and Jeannie sneak up on each other to be completely silent. When he got the finished footage back, he asked why a fly was buzzing. The editor said "If it was really quiet, you could hear a fly buzzing."
* ''[[No Country for Old Men]]'' does this a lot, and [[Nothing Is Scarier]]...
* Done so perfectly in ''[[Equilibrium]]'' that the commentary says audiences thought that the movie itself had been accidentally turned off. It's completely silent ''and'' totally black for several seconds.
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* In the middle of [[Michael Jackson]]'s "Smooth Criminal" video, Michael raises his hand and causes a skylight to shatter, at which point the music stops. The crowd inexplicably starts moaning, then chants "Annie are you okay?" until the music starts up again.
* Prior to the final duel in ''[[Sanjuro]]'', it becomes completely silent as the duelists stare each other down. The eventual strike is punctuated by the [[Scare Chord]] as indicated above.
* In the movie ''[[1408|Fourteen Oh Eight]]'', the sound of a baby crying on the other side of a wall builds and echoes, deafening Enslin until - it stops. Along with all other noise in the scene. We (and he) can't even hear Enslin trying to call out.
 
== [[Live -Action TV]] ==
* On [[Gerry Anderson]] shows like ''[[Captain Scarlet]]'', ''[[UFO]]'', and ''[[Space: 1999]]'', the airless silence of space or the moon's surface is conveyed by a slow droning sound like a cello or double-bass.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'': Twice in the [[The Nth Doctor|the Eleventh]] [[Doctor Who]]'s]] run, total [[Arc Words|silence falls]]. First, at the end of [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E06 The Vampires of Venice|The Vampires of Venice]], when ''all'' the sounds of Venice cut out, like the birds, the waves, and the people, then at the end of [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E12 The Pandorica Opens|The Pandorica Opens]] (including the ''music'' this time). According to [[Word of God]], these two episodes actually take place around the same time, so it's actually ''the same silence''.
* In the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffy]]'' episode "The Body", there was no background music in the entire episode. This led to a lot of silent scenes, which made the episode much more depressing than it probably would have been if there had been music.
* ''[[The Walking Dead]]'' loves this trope. If it's not actually silent, then the air hums with the call of cicadas, to emphasize that there's nothing ''human'' to hear.
 
== [[Theatre]] ==
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Pokémon Colosseum]]'', Nascour's battle is mostly silent aside from the crowd in the background constantly chanting, "BATTLE! BATTLE! BATTLE!"
* The fight with, and the scenery around, [[Cosmic Horror|Giygas]] from ''[[EarthboundEarthBound]]''.
* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' Path of Radiance (9) has this when Ike calls out the leaders of the game's most powerful country for toying with him earlier, even though his country is dependent on their help.
* The final boss of ''Sword Of Jade'' uses a [[One-Winged Angel]] attack pattern with music. After defeating him and keeping chase, you fight him a final time in a more conventional form with no background music.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Silence Tropes]]
[[Category:Music Tropes]]
[[Category:Sound FX Tropes]]
[[Category:Quieter Than Silence]]