Trinity (nuclear test)

What makes a film score frightening? Expert explains the techniques that build tension and make us jump

Retrieved on:

Jeudi, octobre 26, 2023

Beyond any blood-curdling screams or pounding heartbeats, there’s sure to be another sound that sticks in your memory – the score.

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Beyond any blood-curdling screams or pounding heartbeats, there’s sure to be another sound that sticks in your memory – the score.
Perhaps that’s the shrieking strings of Psycho (1960), or the pulsing piano melody and ominous bass of the Halloween franchise (1971-2022).
Maybe it’s the eclectic score for Suspiria (1997) – which combined instruments including synthesizers, Greek bouzouki, Indian tabla and whispering voices.

The science of a scary score

It shuns melody for repeated high-register violin pitches and builds by gradually adding strings to expand the dissonant underlying chord.
Take Inception (2010), for example, with its recurring guitar motif and building, dissonant, string stabs.

Researching scary scores

These drones convey space and ambiguity, given the void between them and any high melodic fragments.
The high string lines in soundtracks to film such as Psycho acoustically imitate the “roughness” or harsh qualities of screams.
Whispered or shouting voices often feature in horror scores, as do sounds emulating the human heartbeat.
This can be heard in Oppenheimer’s use of ticking sounds from the Geiger counter, a device used to detect radiation.
Such reactions are one key reason why we keep returning to scary films and clearly demonstrate the emotional impact of film music.

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David Ireland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Visiting the Trinity Site featured in 'Oppenheimer' is a sobering reminder of the horror of nuclear weapons

Retrieved on:

Lundi, juillet 24, 2023

After watching the film, I was inspired to write about my visit to the actual Trinity Site, where the first atomic bomb was detonated.

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After watching the film, I was inspired to write about my visit to the actual Trinity Site, where the first atomic bomb was detonated.
As part of my research on nuclear weapons and civil defence, I visited the Trinity Site in 2015.

Arriving at the site

The Trinity Site is open to the public for only a few hours twice a year, by permission of the U.S. Army.
The predicted popularity of Oppenheimer’s release will possibly overcrowd the next open house on Oct. 21.
When I visited the site, I first had to make my way to a very remote area of the New Mexico desert.
Arrival had to be well before sunrise to have any chance of being in the small group of persons granted entry.

Visiting the site

The main attraction at the Trinity Site is a simple obelisk made of volcanic rocks marking Ground Zero.
There are very few elements of interpretive information like what one would see at a museum.
It served to occupy the attention of most visitors, who perhaps anticipated more to see and do.

Vaporized tower

It was a fragment of the tower, and proof of physicist Albert Einstein’s theory that mass is just a concentrated form of energy.
Einstein’s famous equation E=mc² explains the energy released in an atomic bomb, but did not explain how to build one.
The tower that held the bomb last existed at 5:28 a.m. on July 16, 1945.
The test vaporized the experimental structure, leaving behind a crater about 1.4 metres deep and 80 metres wide.

Entertainment from horror

Other films go beyond this summer’s blockbuster to depict the full horror of what Oppenheimer created.
Jon Else’s 1981 documentary, The Day After Trinity, shows the real history behind Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
The 1983 made-for-TV movie, The Day After, dared to show the uncomfortable images of nuclear Armageddon to American audiences.

Oppenheimer: six other depictions of the 'father of the atom bomb' on the page, stage and screen

Retrieved on:

Jeudi, juillet 20, 2023

One of this summer’s biggest cinematic events, Oppenheimer, brings the story of US scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer to the big screen. Director Christopher Nolan’s film is the latest of many portrayals of the so-called “father of the atomic bomb” on page, stage and screen. Here are six of the most intriguing.1. The Man Who Would Be God by Haakon Chevalier (1959) This novel is particularly fascinating in that it was written by a friend of Oppenheimer, who played a role in his downfall.

Key Points:

One of this summer’s biggest cinematic events, Oppenheimer, brings the story of US scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer to the big screen. Director Christopher Nolan’s film is the latest of many portrayals of the so-called “father of the atomic bomb” on page, stage and screen. Here are six of the most intriguing.

1. The Man Who Would Be God by Haakon Chevalier (1959)

This novel is particularly fascinating in that it was written by a friend of Oppenheimer, who played a role in his downfall.
In winter 1942-43, Chevalier sounded out Oppenheimer’s stance on passing secrets to the Soviet Union.
Chevalier presents Bloch as intoxicated by the force of his own personality and power over others.

2. Oppenheimer (BBC, 1980)

Opening credits show a secret tape playing Oppenheimer’s conversations (the FBI file on Oppenheimer, opened in 1941, eventually ran to 7,000 pages) and the series builds to the fateful security hearing.
Sam Waterston’s nuanced performance portrays Oppenheimer as a brilliant but troubled figure.

3. Doctor Atomic by John Adams (2005)

Frequently, depictions of Oppenheimer draw on mythic archetypes, presenting him as a Promethean or Faustian figure.
In one aria, the words of the poet John Donne (“Batter my heart, three-person’d God”) show an Oppenheimer who is profoundly shaken by the terrible potential of his invention.

4. Oppenheimer by Tom Morton-Smith (2015)

Another stage production, Morton-Smith’s play was put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The play draws out Oppenheimer’s complexity, also impressively sketching in contexts of atomic physics and his 1930s political activism.

5. Quartet for J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kelly Cherry (2017)

Cherry’s impressive 121-poem biography of Oppenheimer harnesses the allusive potential of poetry to produce an intriguing, multifaceted depiction of his life.
Expanding beyond the remit of most depictions, which focus on the years between the 1930s and 1950s, Cherry’s collection follows Oppenheimer from birth to death.

6. Trinity by Louisa Hall (2018)

Oppenheimer is depicted as an elusive figure, constantly sliding away from attempts to pin him down.
That writers, directors and composers keep retelling his story shows how enigmatic and elusive Oppenheimer is.
These tales are ways of exploring the profound implications of living in a nuclear age.

UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND SYNCOPY ANNOUNCE THE TRINITY ANNIVERSARY SCREENING EVENT FOR THE NEW CHRISTOPHER NOLAN FILM "OPPENHEIMER" ON SATURDAY, JULY 15, 2023 IN NEW YORK CITY

Retrieved on:

Mercredi, juillet 5, 2023

The screening will begin at 2 p.m. EDT followed by the panel discussion at 5 p.m. EDT, and a post-panel reception.

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The screening will begin at 2 p.m. EDT followed by the panel discussion at 5 p.m. EDT, and a post-panel reception.
The event marks the upcoming release of Oppenheimer on July 21, the historic scientific achievements of The Manhattan Project and the anniversary of the Manhattan Project's Trinity Test, which detonated the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945.
When Universal Pictures released the first teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer in July 2022, it also launched the official Oppenheimer film site , which features a countdown clock, set to reach zero on the anniversary of the Trinity Test.
Now, just as J. Robert Oppenheimer assembled the greatest scientific minds of his time, this screening event will assemble some of the greatest scientific minds of our time.