Filmic Silence: An analytic framework

Abstract

This paper deals with the spectator experience of filmic silence in mainstream Hollywood films. In film soundtrack analysis silence is hardly ever mentioned. Gerry Bloustien (2010) and Paul Théberge (2008) have each developed preliminary forms and modes of silence in the soundtrack. I expand upon these modes by converting the analytical concepts put forward by Michel Chion in Audio-Vision (1994) and Claudia Gorbman in Unheard Melodies (1987) to concepts applicable to silence, thus creating a new vocabulary to analyse silence with. In the last part I discuss the semiotic analysis of filmic silence based on Peircian sign theory. Case studies and analyses of symbolic, iconic, and indexical silence are presented to peel off the ambiguous layers of meaning filmic silence can present us with. A new mode of silence is presented here as well, meta-silence, which negates the film that created it.