blather: violence on TV

[arrow00]

So, I'm watching the fresh new episode of Numb3rs (a happy end to the writers' strike, yay!) and it occurs to me that the foley editors have changed the way it sounds when people get shot.

It used to be bang oof down goes the baddie. Now it's bang whomp-SPLAT. You can literally hear what the foley is portraying as a bullet's impact with a person's body. This muffled whump and a trailing goosh.

Creepy.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not against portrayed violence. I certainly don't think watching it has made me a more violent person (than I was already, anyway :) nor has it inured me to real life suffering. I just noticed this one thing and wondered--when did they start doing this? When did they make it possible to actually feel a bullet as it hits?

As I said: creepy. due South is so innocent, comparatively speaking.

And it's certainly a far cry from the cartoon violence of Starsky and Hutch, which was decried as being "the most violent show on television" back in the 70s, when all the guns sounded the same, and they used bright red blood smears and lots of cringing.

Comments

[t-verano.livejournal.com]

from "bang oof"

to "whump and a trailing goosh"

Ish. *Ish*...

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

it was GHRK!

[dugrival.livejournal.com]

Very true. Squibs have changed too - they used to be very explodey and full of... bits. Now, when they're used at all, they're just geysers of blood. I'm not sure which is better. Old-school squibs were arguably more violent, but so cartoony that it didn't really matter.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

That's it exactly: cartoony is better, I think, for satisfying our childish need for splat and still leaving that line b/w fantasy and real.

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

I've found that the older I get and the more violence in media that I see, the less I'm able to stomach it. It's kind of bizarre. I thought I was supposed to be inured! Heh.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

I'm with you, sister.