Sound Design "The Rule of Jenny Pen" #1 Stefan's Descent
The Rule of Jenny Pen
Stefan’s descent (1 of 5)
Dir. James Ashcroft
A series of posts on the sound design for The Rule of Jenny Pen
After suffering a career-ending stroke, Stefan (Geoffrey Rush) is forced to move into a retirement home that is far beneath the standards to which he is accustomed. His mind is slowly slipping away from him through a series of ‘blips’. These can be as innocuous as either time-jumps and mini blackouts or full strength hallucinations and confusion. The ‘wiring’ in his brain is degrading.
The sound design for these events took inspiration from the idea of the brain’s electrical activity. Director James Ashcroft’s careful closeups of smoke alarms, swipe card door locks, corridor and ceiling lights and aircon units along with his sporadic use of over exposed, harsh lighting and rapid cuts during the blips, gave us ample inspiration.
The short circuits and cross-wiring of information flows cause the catastrophic malfunctions in his brain that lead to Stefan’s ordeal. We used classic electrical hums, clicks and zaps. The sources were mostly recordings of analogue equipment to preserve the biological feel of the film, rather than stray too far into the sci-fi or digital realms. We have a large library of sounds that we recorded from the old TVNZ premises, which holds decades worth of beautiful old gadgetry that is now obsolete and almost forgotten. Apart from providing great source sound material, it was especially satisfying for these historic machines to be able to live again, still contributing value in their old age.
On presenting our somewhat explosive first pass of this material to James, he encouraged us to build more slowly, in conjunction with other parts of the soundtrack, so that the intensity increases throughout the film, in parallel with Stefan’s deterioration.
Hence, as Stefan descends into his torturous hell, his blips worsen, culminating with his realisation of the dire situation he now finds himself in. Every electrical source; from televisions, radios, record players, to lights, smoke alarms, door locks, even his wheelchair; drive an ever-present atmosphere of unease and oppression. It is almost as if his surroundings conspire against him, overwhelming his brain and contributing to its electrical overload. The sounds of nature are far beyond reach, at least in this life. The wildlife documentaries that play through the screeching tv are as close as he will ever get. The sparing moments when real wildlife can be heard always occur in scenes of great relief or poignancy.
In this way, the typical bucolic sounds of nature outside Stefan's predicament contrast with the harsh artificial, electrical sounds of his immediate environment and indeed his own brain, neither from which is there any escape.