Monday, February 9, 2009

The power of un-words


I was going to write a post about this road safety ad, than I saw Scamp beat me to it and as both of you who read this blog also read Scamp (with the possible exception of my wife) that seems pretty pointless.
So instead I’m going to make a slightly obscure comparison between the ad and this scene from the movie Unbreakable (the whole scene lasts about ten minutes, so this is just the climax).

Basically, I’m talking about the power of no dialogue. There’s just a bit of ambient sound in the ad. And the score (and a few grunts) in the movie. In both examples, the idea is pared back to the bare minimum. They haven't let the copywriter wade in and confuse it with clever words. As a result, the silence builds so much tension and all you have to focus on is the action.
I’m sure there are a zillion other examples of this. If you think of one, feel free to comment.

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