Thursday, January 5, 2012

How to Make 'Margin Call' Even More Awkwardly Tense? Remove the Dialogue.


Found this YouTube video via Slate’s Brow Beat culture blog.

It features a really tense scene from the excellent film Margin Call – it’s on DVD/On Demand and is well worth the time – but it has removed all the dialogue except for a few mutterings of "Uhhh." You do, however, hear the tapping of pens, people drumming their fingers on the large conference table, the sound effect of an e-mail arriving on a laptop, stomachs growling and Jeremy Irons’ boss man impatiently flipping the edges of a report.

It’s amazing what a difference it can make to watch people not speak to one another. Still just as tense. And a little funny too, unlike the original scene in which there wasn't a drop of humor.

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