Why The Batman's Sound is Different 

Yeah that was pretty cool

It reminds me of how affecting it was hearing Kylo Ren's boots for the first time - the power and presence he had (before that all obviously went downhill in the next movies)

I loved how they added those cowboy boots vibes

I'm still obsessed

Blade runner 2049, too

In the theater that bass hit and you could feel it in the seats and I sat there in absolute amazement

I felt that too

But I didn't understand why the Batmobile moved a little ahead and then just stopped? All that hype felt like it got wasted. It was like Batman waited for Penguin to get in his vehicle and run away, why would he do that?

@@aryanahuja2477 to find out in which direction the penguin would go in

@@aryanahuja2477 also he cudv come earlier but the goons with the guns were there and the only way to make em stop in an open area is to kill em which Batman doesn’t do since he doesn’t kill

In theatre, The Batmobile sounded like Mecha Godzilla type beast that came alive ready to pounce and obliterate everything in it's way and that it did.

The way I’ve seen some people build this movie up made me have some pretty high expectations, but the sound is the one thing that exceeded what I expected going in.

When Batman comes out of the dark alley to reveal himself to the thugs- where he says “I’m vengeance” Leading up to that scene the music was absolutely awesome. I was high and my enhanced senses picked up on the slightest of notes. It’s was like a bat trip

@@J.PC.Designs And that's music to my ears

tldr of this video essay lmao

@kshamwhizzle barely visible is kinda exaggerated. It has a very shallow depth of vision on purpose, the movie is too long but a lot of the best moments imo are in the last act. The movie is far from self aggrandizing and can be pretty goofy at times and a lot of that stems from the pulpy detective style it has. Even if I thought it was just ok, which i don't, it's a of fresh air to see a film that clearly has some artistic intent and personality. It's so entirely not what we typically see in the genre and I appreciate it a lot for that

@kshamwhizzle About the tool, the carpet tucker. The whole point is Bruce, who has never held something like that before in his life, didn't know what it is. It fits thematically with the rest of the movie.

@kshamwhizzle If that’s what it is, then yes, I want more. Haven’t had a superhero movie this good in ages

Completely agree. Plus most of those superhero movies are marvel films which all kind of inevitably wing up feeling the same despite the fact that they try to market them as different by saying things like "this one is more of a political thriller."

The way I read this comment, I didn’t think the commenter meant every film hast to be just like the Batman relative to motifs or themes. I just thought they meant they wanted every hero movie to have as much passion time and actual filmmaking and craftsmanship implemented into it. From psychology of every aspect to the technical hands on choices the filmmakers make. For example other super hero movies rarely have a particular choice for the lens on the camera or the camera to shoot with. Because they need heavy vfx and they often times end up looking generic. The movie here for example, the DOP chose so particularly what lens he wanted to use because of its characteristics and properties and how that would impact the story. Over all I think that’s what the comment meant. Not that every movie has to look like the Batman. Because if that’s what they meant they would contradict themselves because every movie would end up looking the same. Which is not what some people want. I’m sorry some people didn’t like this movie so much because it wasn’t fast and exposition Like other films we see recently. But I comment to simply agree. There needs to be some more genuine movies from now on. No more factory assembly line movies.

That's very perceptive of you, you're right; a lot of people don't even really understand sound design, even if they are interested in it. It's similar to cinematography in that it can completely make or break a film, it can elevate a good film to a great one. Although sound design is heard rather than seen so its even more difficult to comprehend and understand.

My GF doesn't have any formal training yet, but she has a great ear and talent for sound design, and is looking into being a sound engineer, so she definitely believes sound makes or breaks it for her. She hated West Side Story because the sound was distractingly off in a lot of respects, and when we were watching The Batman, she turned to me a ways in and said, "I'm liking this so far.... Oh, and the sound design is excellent."

Thanks Lachlan!!

@@amancalleddaniel1544 Yeah I also noticed almost all of the audio in WSS sounds like ADR, it’s too perfect sounding and lacks ambience. Which I understand it’s because the music is the focus point but it definitely makes it feel very off.

The thing with sound and hence sound design is that perception is subjective. I get what you are saying, but even if the intention of the sound desiner is something else, the listeners internal reaction can not be predicted 100%. That's why the interpreteion is never entirely wrong. If that sound had this effect on this particular viewer, so be it. I much rather think it's very interesting how differnt people interpret it differently than thinking they are wrong.

I mean, the narration alone is a giveaway that we are now inside Bruce's head imo(like audio POV) but I think this film does a great job of blurring the lines between diegetic and non-diegetic sound (I mean, the whole 'club within the club' scene alone where Selina wears the contact lens cameras and we're hearing her voice as spoken into our ears but they are also Bruce's ears and we're looking through Bruce's eyes looking at a feed of what Selina's eyes are seeing I mean that part alone blew my freaking mind)

after a 3rd rewatch that's when i noticed he was listening to nirvana

I actually don't think he was listening to Nirvana. I did initially. But then noticed on my 4th watch there was sound coming from the recording his contact lense made whilst he was at the crime scene. He was turning that down to hear the TV. The music going down was, from my perspective, a clever creative choice.

could be read that way, interestingly enough this exact use of mismatch betw. audio/image happens again when they cut from the mayor's garage to the exterior of the Iceberg Lounge (although in that case, even though the car passing L-R is the focal point of the image, the shadow of the train passing overhead *can* be seen in the top of the frame in a way that is more implied the first time this happens) and this second time, Batman is on the ground. Train is louder than car though.

With the part of Queens, NYC I live in, I immediately figured it was an elevated train line's sound so it didn't seem odd at all to me.

An elevated subway would be louder than a truck driving by anyway. It's also a departing train rather than an arriving train. You can see people walking down the stairs departing the station - nice attention to detail.

Dude and the sound of Batman's boots!

+1

I'm sure you must have seen this video already but posting it anyway: The Batman - Make the Frame Dirty ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-STynLl-2FqU.html It's a great look at how the cinematography was done.

Before watching the movie, when I saw the trailer for it and it ends with that car chase sequence followed by the upside down shot of Batman walking towards the penguin, I thought it's a shame that they used such a cool shot in the trailer as it would become less impactful when I see the same scene in the movie now. Boy was I wrong, that entire chase sequence was even more impactful when I saw the movie in the theatre

also sounds great in over-ear headphones!

i loved the crowd noises too!! i think it was super important because the public perception of each figure in the movie, the acceptance or rejection of the “crowd”, is incredibly important to the emotional states of the characters and plays a roles in determining whether or not they can do what they want to do when embodying that persona. especially because the whole movie takes place during an important election, starting with the mayor’s murder, because politics is the pinnacle of a figure relying on how the public views them. everyone in the movie represents different ideologies and approaches, but the way they carry them out and the consequences of those choices of course define the people as individuals but moreso defines their persona and the ideals that they champion (such as the batman stopping selina from murdering falcone, because she’s “paid enough” in this life and shouldn’t go to jail for rightfully executing a man who’s lived his life getting away with evil. she wanted him dead and was so mad that she didn’t care about the consequences, but bruce at least subconsciously knew falcone would be dead one way or another soon, and knew that selina didn’t deserve to go down for that after all she’d been through). sorry kinda a rant but TLDR i agree that i love how the crowd sounds were incorporated and it’s not weird at all to love that, i think it is just another thing this movie did with intention and mastery that goes above and beyond to deliver on the central message of the film.

Yep, it made the church feel so claustrophobic.

there's some history to this: in The Dark Knight (2008), when Two-Face shoots one of the corrupt cops inside a pub (character's name is Wuertz), the sound of the gun going off blends into the swirling noise coming from Batman's surveillance computer system in the folding shot (smash cut). Probably just a trick of the trade and not necessarily Batman-specific thought but cool that there's some lineage!

sadly it didn't get nomination for best cinematography.

@@ddebnath11 which is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. What a hoax.

Batman's leitmotif sounded too much like Darth Vader's. I didn't appreciate that.

I couldn't take the entire film's soundscape seriously because Batman's theme is the first two notes of the imperial march/Darth Vader theme of the original star wars trilogy and it kept playing in my head throughout. Dun dun dun dun-du dun, dun-du dun

@@skriisi I could swear those two notes were from Nirvana's Something in The Way.

@@drdj2626 sure, they propably are. They still spell dun dun dun dun-du dun, dun-du dun to me

@@skriisi I believe the composer for the Batman was taught by the guy who did the imperial march.

oh and it's all over the film too, whenever batman does practically anything the brass or low strings will hint at it

I try to describe the sound in my head of when I squeeze my eyes shut hard. That far off thunder sound. No-one else in my family got it...

It is the kind of thing that marvel should do, in fact it is what Eternals should have been

This movie the audience is indeed considered dumb. This movie has very bad writing and it’s proof that superheroes are indeed ruining cinema.

@@damiantirado9616 how was the writing bad? And proof? No, films like morbius are what you call bad superhero films. The batman is pure cinema in almost every aspect, just look at how many people consider it to be unlike other comic book films. But no, the film isn’t good because you say so.

@@mrbluesky4838 hahah I got proof bro. Morbiius was awful but the Batman had bad writing. See you superhero fans have terrible taste in movies, and when you see a superhero movie that full of jokes like most marvel films you assume it’s good even if the writing is bad. You’re like Zack Snyder fans (this movie is slow and dark that means it’s good). That’s how your brain interprets it because you’re so used to seen comedy superhero films that a dark one makes you think it’s better when it isn’t. The Batman has a weak script because the entire point of the Batman is that he is supposed to be a detective. This movie is not a good detective film. A good neo noir detective story has lots of twist and turns. The Batman doesn’t. What is the plot twist in the Batman?? That Falcone controls Gotham? That’s not a twist everyone already knew that. Catwoman is falcones father? Okay but how does that move the plot forward? This movie doesn’t have good revelations. Batman never uncovers any mystery only in the end when he finds out riddler wants to flood Gotham but that scene is flawed in itself. The riddler wanting to flood Gotham doesn’t make any sense and it pretty much ruins his character. The riddler established clearly that he only wants to punish the elites because of what they have done to the orphanages however at the end he does a 180 and wants to flood Gotham, even tho all the poor people are probably the ones dying in the flood. The riddler is not a good villain he is badly written. Just like the rest of this film. Don’t forget catwoman pretty much has no reason to be in this film. The whole subplot between catwoman and Falcone is technically useless. Like seriously it doesn’t really add anything to the story at all. Batman and catwoman fell in love too quickly, they barely have any scenes together it’s super stupid and unrealistic. Batman barely does detective work. The only thing he does is solve riddler syphers but that’s boring and uninteresting. He does more detective work in Batman begins. Most of this movie is just Batman being told what happens in Gotham by catwoman and James Gordon. If you truly believe Batman is a detective in this film then you haven’t seen any detective neo noir movies because that’s not how detectives act or how they try to find criminals. There’s the proof kid. The Batman was very disappointing due to the weak and uninspired cliche script.

@@damiantirado9616 in my personal opinion we did not need a new trilogy this quick it was unnecessary. We have had 3 Batman including The Batman 2022 in the last decade and due to this Matt Reeves couldn’t make another origin story. And I agree that there are too many superhero films and they are slowly ruining the movie industry. But I still enjoyed this movie This film truly shows how corrupt Gotham is and Batman admits that it might be hopeless but he still has to try. Yes the Batman is supposed to be one of the greatest detectives which he is developing into. And in this movie Batman is too reckless he thinks that the only way to help this city is by being Batman. This film shows that Batman needs the Bruce Wayne persona and by the end he realizes that due to the flood. I agree with you about him not being a good detective but you have to understand that this Batman has no formal training as a detective and it takes more than two years to become a proper detective The movie dosent have a weak script. The movie tries to introduce all of the villains and shows how corrupt Gotham is by telling us abt the drops drug and how the city officials faked the drug bust for money. And i despise the fact that u compared this to a zack Snyder movie.Zack Snyder films were too long I agree the Batman could have 2 hours 45 mins but when Matt Reeves screen tested the 2hr 30 min version it got bad reviews so he went with 3 hour version. The twist in the Batman movie is that the riddler bombs the Gotham harbor and the reason he does that is because it was made by the one percent and he goes after Bruce Wayne because he is downright jealous of him because when Thomas Wayne created the orphanage he was part of it but once he and Martha died the orphanage shut down and while all of this was happening Bruce Wayne was the one who got all the attention it may be childlike but that’s who the riddler is he is mentally ill. And another reason he brought it to the ground wasn’t because he hates Gotham it’s because he dosent trust the one percent and dosent believe anyone who wants to bring a change to it that’s why he attempts to kill the mayor. He also exposes Gotham because it’s the most valuable thing to do and that’s how he got followers..And another reason he floods Gotham is because it is run by the elites. He dosent want to kill the civilians but he wants to bring down the one percent more than that by taking down Gotham. I think it is an overall good movie. I’d give it a 7/10 . Don’t get me wrong I thoroughly enjoyed but in my opinion it is a movie that Is made in for as part of a trilogy

the experience of watching this film is what i imagine most people mean when they talk about getting “tingles” from ASMR. though this movie is packed with action, it’s still somehow so soothing in its atmosphere - it’s one of my comfort movies now because of this.

@@sarahbearbabygirl I wouldn’t say this movie is packed with action. “Packed with action” is the feeling you get from a Marvel movie or the John Wick franchise. There are of course action scenes in The Batman, specifically 4 of them. (Batmobile car chase, Batman/Selina in Falcone’s tower, the stadium fight sequence, and the gliding scene which was very short) But throughout this 3 hour movie, they were separated with alot of space in between them. And during those in-between moments, they let the dialogue do the heavy lifting when it came to the storytelling. To me, its not just the number of action scenes that make a movie feel action heavy, but instead how long they are and where they’re placed. And I agree about the ASMR feeling lol

Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 (which just came out in 2017), although that one features a lot of snow in addition to the rain. Both are actually what came to mind rather than Seven when I initially saw all the rain in this. Which is a good thing--much like those, this film is incredible.

Good look ! Can’t forget a masterpiece like Blade Runner !

Having epic sound is what makes seeing a movie at the theater a more profound experience!

after going over the film, it actually doesn't rain in *most* scenes because most of them are indoors. but in the important scenes yes for sure I mean the first appearance of batman scene, the first Iceberg Lounge scene, the first Selina scene, the bat mobile sequence etc. for sure. Not so much when they're just standing outside talking though

It's easily the best on both counts and there's no shame in admitting it. What came before with TDK was great in its own special way, but in all honesty this one is in another league entirely.

this and Lego Batman are the best ones

The Dark Knight is the best Joker movie. So, you are correct.

@@J.PC.Designs It has the best roar but it’s far from the best Batmobile. Tumbler is the best Batmobile so far plus the stealth also helps. But, I think Pattisons Batmobile will evolve and surpass all the predecessors in future.

Man I was thinking you're talking of the TDK and I was so confused. Due to the meme I think of Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman. Stupid me

also, the omission of lyrics in the Riddler's motif helps to add to its incognito status -- you retain its timbre (human voice, classical tenor) but strip away its direct lineage to the original Ave Maria except for the direction and inner relationships of the melodic gesture.

The Dark Knight does this also in its club fight scene!

this phenomenon repeats later, when we first cut to exterior of the Iceberg Lounge after the 'thumb drive' scene. Car drives by L-R center frame, yet a train passing L-R is heard. Difference is in that shot, you can actually see signs of the train passing over at the top of the frame

Exactly, and you see people on the left walking down the stairs from the platform. So a train has to have just dropped them off and is picking up speed again. I would've found it odd if there WASN'T a train sound included with those visual cues

You want real sound design watch BvS ultimate edition

Hey! how about a video about everything wrong in the batman.

It is not the "holy grail" in music. But it can be useful in cinema, yes.

I haven't seen The Batman get any hate just overwhelming praise

@@athenajaxon2397 Some people like to hate on things a lot of people love

@@athenajaxon2397 Probably because the haters aren’t articulate enough to make essays on their own tearing it apart, but they fill comments sections.

Yep got it sorted for now, fingers crossed it stays up!

@@ThomasFlight Fingers crossed, not so much videos on yt elaborating on the sound of the film, which was fantastic. Great essay as usual Thomas.