Film Techniques: Aural

Here are some notes on aural techniques employed by The Queen. These techniques help to represent the characters in certain ways that reinforce characterisation or historical viewpoints.

Aural Techniques
The music featured throughout The Queen is mostly of a plaintive, sorrowful tone, and is often coupled with real footage (such as the images of a sea of flowers outside Buckingham Palace). The film uses this to manipulate the audience into sympathising with the public's grief. The use of orchestral music in general also signifies the seriousness of the film. Film scores consisting of full-scale orchestras are traditionally used for dramas, and in this sense the music helps set the film up as a 'prestigious' depiction of how things happened. There is little that is groundbreaking or original about the film's incidental music, and it also features no pop music whatsoever, which ensures that The Queen firmly remains in the genre of serious, award-worthy drama.

The sound design is also of note. The scenes featuring Blair and other political aides are often noisy and media-orientated, with lots of phones and television reports heard in the background. The scenes that feature the royal family (in particular, the Queen) are often characterised by relative silence and soothing nature-based soundtracks, suggesting the virtual coccoon that the Royal family lives in. One scene (where Blair tries to offer the Queen advice) even features the faint warbling of songbirds in the background.

The lead-up to the Queen's address before Diana's funeral features the requisite media footage that shapes the film's visual narrative. Part of this is reinforced by the journalistic commentary that can be heard over the top of this sequence, perversely calling to mind the commentary one might hear during a golf match on television. The actual funeral itself (once again, utilising real footage) is then accompanied by choir-based operatic singing, conjuring up an image of holy mourning that sits in tune with the idea that this has been an unnatural death (there is a long British tradition that connects the disruption of nature with the deaths of Royal personages... see nearly any Shakespearean tragedy for proof). It's also an overwhelming piece of music that references religious reverence and emotional turmoil.