The Sweetest Sound Breakdown

PART I

0:00-0:05          Mouse icon clicks home icon, then film/home movie icon.

0:06-1:34          Stock footage.  V.O. introducing the idea of the name and naming and having your very own name.  Jazz/Ragtime music plays.

1:34-2:43          Writing signatures of different Alan Berliners.  No music only the sound of chalk writing on a chalk board.  V.O. gives the thesis of the film.  The filmmaker hates sharing his first and last name with people.

2:35-3:15          Sound bridge transition.  The Name Game song plays.  Moderate cutting of MCU of different Jim Smith's saying their names to the camera.

3:16-4:02         Music stops.  Cut to Alan standing behind a podium, LS, saying "My name is not Jim Smith," at the Jim Smith name convention.

4:02-4:57         Graphic Match Baseball and sound.  The Name song begins again.  Clicking of computer & V.O. music changes, back to black & white stock footage introducing the next section.  Cut to multiple Linda's sitting together, each saying Linda separately.  Linda in red lights (black background).  V.O. talking bout Name Societies and why other people are happy about sharing the same name.  B-Roll from Linda reunion of happy women clapping and bouncing around.

4:57-5:27        Cut to B&W Stock footage, music changes to a more gloomy feel, different from the upbeat Name and Linda song from before.  V.O.  narration complains about sharing names with strangers.  B&W stock footage show people walking on sidewalk then to showing individual names etched in the sidewalk and the shot lingers on Joy.  Vox pop begins of a woman wondering what it would have been like if her name was Joy.

5:28-7:19       Cut to Dolores (the woman talking from previous click).  Multiple vox pop begins.  No music, only ambient sound from interviews.  The people talk about not liking their names and how their names reflect them and what they wished they would have been named.  Iris is the only one who does like another Iris when see meets them.  V.O. narrator also becomes off screen interviewer.

7:20-7:34       Cut to Alan etched in sidewalk (black & white footage), gloomy music begins again.  V.O. comforted by other peoples complaints, but still has a disdain with sharing his name.

7:35-8:39       Cut to stock footage of operator connecting a telephone call.  Title sequence begins.  V.O. shows different titles the was pondered over to call the film, while allowing b&w stock footage to support the various title names to show in the background.  Click continues.  Finally the title The Sweetest Sound written in white on a black background.  Ragtime music still plays.

8:40-9:29       Dialing of numbers sound over scrambled Alan Berliner names.  Telephone rings.  Newspapers getting ready for press roll fast on the screen.  Highlighted names in the newspaper appears on screen.  V.O. tells approximately how many names are published in the Times.  Ticking sound, like a timer, moves with rapid cutting images.

9:30-10:09     Cut to old radio (b&w stock footage) a hand changes stations, as different stations serve as a V.O. talking about different names and how people get their names.  A gunshot is heard.

10:10-10:36   Cut to B&W stock footage of boys running a race, while V.O. talks about the ranking of Alan the year he was born and the rankings of other boy names in the same year.

10:37-11:31   Lone runner on screen.  V.O. talks about Alan and Al differences.  Stock footage of Al Capone is used.  Newspapers are shown and V.O. talks about following the success of other famous Alan's, then archived footage of a man reading a newspaper and not liking what he reads, throws the newspaper in the trash the same time that the V.O. says "When you add the name Berliner is when I have the problem."

11:32-12:00   Cut to stock/archive footage of a record spinning & music begins.  Click.  The camera pans across b&w stock footage of a crowd of smiling faces, while V.O. talks about obsessing over his name and who else has it.

12:01-12:26    Cut to different Alan Berliners in media, film, lawyers, photographers, etc.  Cut to stock footage of a mad scientist.

12:27-13:31     Sound of typing begins off screen.  Alan Berliner signs his name to a letter.  V.O. reads the letter.  Bundles of mail is shown (archive footage).  Scanned letters and addresses appear on screen, typing continues, which enhances the rapid cutting of the images.  A hand puts a letter in the mail.  Computer screen appears.  Search box is clicked.  Voice mail of an Alan Berliner plays & Alan Berliner leaves a voice message, while on the screen the computer is continually being clicked and searching for Alan Berliner's in different states and countries.

13:32-13:56     Cut to survey boxes.  V.O. ask questions about survey.  Black "X's" mark the answers that different voices answer; presumably the other Alan Berliners, but no one knows.  The questions are directed to when hear the name Alan Berliner what do they imagine for their Sex, Ethnicity.

13:57-14:08     Cut continuous search on the computer.  Off screen conversation between Alan Berliner the filmmaker and the wife of an Alan Berliner on the telephone.

14:09-14:19     Cut back to survey of an Alan Berliner's religion and age.  Click for image.

14:30-14:45      Map appears on screen of Washington State, Seattle in the middle of the image.  Filmmaker Alan Berliner talks with an Alan Berliner on the telephone.  A list of Alan Berliners and they're numbers scan on screen.  V.O. says that it took months to track all the Alan Berliners in the world down and that he invited them to his house for dinner.  A graphic of the earth spinning on the computer shows on screen.

14:46-15:10      Cut to computer scanning through different search pages rapidly.  V.O. talks about ego surfing.  Click.  Stock footage of a boy rolling down a hill in a tire, while V.O. talks about his ego surfing and having no idea of what he has gotten himself into.  Cut computer screen.  Mouse icon clicks E-go.

PART II

15:11-15:30      Computer screen is still on the screen.  Typing in a search box to find the meaning of the name Alan.  A computer generated voice tells the meaning and origin of the name Alan, which is Celtic and Celtic music plays at the same time.  Click.  Home Icon.  Film Icon.

15:31-16:06       Cut to Home Movie footage of baby Alan Berliner and his birthday cake when he turned two years old.  Celtic music still plays.  V.O talks about the name is a reflection of the namer instead of the named.  And also talks about meaning and that his parents didn't know the meaning of his name and questions how can you name someone without knowing the meaning.

16:07-17:19        A-roll of Alan's parents being interviewed by him off screen, juxtaposed with footage of him growing up.  Mother says that they picked the name because it sounded musical.  Alan Berliner on screen says his name multiple times, in an annoying tone, to prove that the name is not musical.  A list of "A" names scan on the screen and V.O. talks about being named after his grandfather Abraham, but changed to Alan, because Abraham was too Biblical.

17:20-19:23       Abraham Ben Usher, Hebrew name Abraham son of Usher, passing on Jewish religion.  A-Roll of Alan Berliner's father of who relatives were named after.  Names are emphasized with being shown on grave headstones, with a chisel sound on the soundtrack.  Cutting back and forth to the interview of father saying "I don't know," and "who?"  And "what?"  And highlights of names in newspaper.  V.O. for one other Oscar Berliner than his dad, then start to show stock footage of Oscar Berliner as a younger adult and then Oscar playing with and holding Alan as a baby.  V.O. interview with father talking about carrying on tradition and not ending it.  Gunfire explodes in the background.

19:24-21:00      V.O. talks about Freud.  B-Roll of particles separating on screen.  Name has to do with the soul.  Stock footage of an eclipse is shown, and Heavenly bureaucracy is shown through black & white cloud storms and death is shown by a black hawk flying over camera.  As V.O. talks about parents different beliefs, shows B-Roll of young Alan.  Film Projector sound rolls on the soundtrack.  Click.  Berliner birth certificate is shown on screen.

21:01-22:40      Cut back to parent’s interview saying Alan Berliner was a nice name.  Cut to Alan Berliner saying Alan Berliner multiple times rapidly.  V.O. begins of use to liking his name.  Alan Berliner chant continues.  B&W stock footage of classroom scene, when he was the only one with his name and his advantages in school.  Alan Berliner chat ends.  Off screen typing begins as stock footage students painting in the classroom.  Cut to kids running out of school and playing in the schoolyard.  V.O. talks about how he bypassed bullying and other taunts dealing with children names.  Film projector sound continues, V.O. talks about the study and reputation of names, showing individual white kids faces that may match with the name mentioned in survey, and then a kid erasing when he got to the name Alan, no survey results for his name at the time.  

22:41-23:44       Cut to vox pop study of the perception of the name Alan.  Ambient sounds.  People on street saying the name Alan.  Cut to Mom A-Roll saying Alan.  End on different perceptions of spelling Alan, Allen, Allan.

23:45-24:28       Cut to A-Roll with Mom, wishing to spell Alan’s name the French way, Alain.  V.O. ask parent’s what if he was a girl?  Leading into the next section of introducing his sister Lynn Ellen, A-Roll.  Her birth certificate shows on screen.  B-Roll of Lynn as a baby, Lynn continues interview in V.O. and naming her kids.

24:29-24:53       Cut to Lynn pregnant with husband.  A baby cries off screen.  Cut to b&w stock footage of baby getting feet printed.  Baby cries off screen.  Cut to baby sleeping.  V.O. reason for name.  Click.  Jade highlighted in newspaper appears on screen.

24:54-25:14        Cut to child Jade bouncing a ball on concrete.  V.O. of Alan’s mother talking about Jade’s complicated name.  Cut back to Jade, her ball rolls away & Jade runs off screen.  Typing continues

25:15-25:35        Cut to grassy field, Jade runs on screen in different clothing.  V.O. talks about his nickname as Uncle and introduces his second niece Starr.

25:36-26:20         Back to A-Roll interview with Dad.  Click.  Cut to Starr highlighted in the newspaper on screen.  Risk in naming Starr Silver, B-Roll of Starr, then cut to A-Roll of Mom & Lynn (cut between).  B-Roll of Jade pushing Starr on the swing.  V.O. interview continues.

26:21-26:59         Piano plays on the soundtrack, back to the gloomy sound.  A star is drawn on wood, followed by various names drawn on and etched in wood.  V.O. talks about nieces as singular characters in a novel, not ever belonging to a name society or inviting twelve other ones to dinner.  Stock footage of young Alan on boat and swimming at the beach.  V.O. talks about dinner as a casting call of who is the real Alan Berliner.  Music stops.

Part III

27:00-27:22          Cut to A-Roll of Dad reassuring his son that sharing a name isn’t that bad.  Cut to individual Alan Berliner’s baby or pictures of them way younger than the present and a V.O. of each Alan individually introducing himself.

27:23-29:29          Cut to Alan’s apartment introducing an Alan to the other Alan’s.  V.O. from the different Alan Berliners begin over the mingling on various topics from their A-Roll interviews, juxtaposed to finding out who is related.  Cutting back and forth between A & B-Roll.

29:30-29:37           Cut to direct address question from an A-Roll interview.  What is your favorite color?  Click.  Favorite Color written in white on a black background.  V.O. from different Alan’s answering the question.

29:38-30:39          Cut back to gathering at apartment, A-Roll interviews continue and walla walla from the gathering is in the background of the interviews.

30:40-30:51         Cut to direct address question from an A-Roll interview.  Describe your handwriting.  Click.  Handwriting written in white on a black background.  V.O. from different Alan’s answering the question.

30:52-31:07        Cut back to gathering at apartment, A-Roll interviews continue and walla walla from the gathering is in the background of the interviews.

31:08-31:19       Cut to direct address question from an A-Roll interview.  What do you do for a living?  Click.  Occupation written in white on a black background.  V.O. from different Alan’s answering the question.

31:20-32:30       Cut back to gathering at apartment, A-Roll interviews continue and walla walla from the gathering is in the background of the interviews.  V.O. introduces the other Alain Berliner filmmaker, saying how he looks more like a filmmaker.  V.O. answers the survey question all of the Alan’s in the apartment are middle class white men and secretly wishing to be a child or a person of color to be deemed the real Alan Berliner.  Over B-Roll of all Alan’s standing together and talking.

32:31-32:55       Cut to direct address question from an A-Roll interview.  What word do you use the most at work?  Click.  All Alan Berliners answer on screen in A-Roll interview in individual close up shots, and the last Alan Berliner (whose story is being told) says cut.

32:56-33:22       Cut to all Alan’s taking a picture in apartment, while V.O. reveals what he has learned about all the other Alan’s.

33:23-33:48       Overhead shot of a table set for dinner that looks like a clock, right after V.O. talks about watches.  Piano comes back to the soundtrack.  Jump cut to each individual Alan sitting down one by one, filling the table in the overhead shot.  V.O. talks about all the Alan’s being in his story.

33:49-35:24       Camera spins in the middle of the table.  Transitions to each conversation at the table about the Alan Berliner name.  V.O. talks about discomfort of sharing name and owing one of them money.  Shot stays on the filmmaker while everyone else in talking his looks like it is pondering.  V.O. stops & on screen Alan asks, “So what do we do now?”

35:25-36:06       Another direct address & spinning camera asking to talk about Jewish religion.   All the Alan’s talks (V.O.) over lapping each other while individual face is shown at the dinner table on screen.  The last Alan to speak is done in A-Roll, because he is not Jewish or a non-practitioner unlike all of the others, he is a Christian.   

36:07-36:32           Cut to stock/archival footage radio and hand changing the dial.  Cut to crowd of people of all sexes and nationalities.  V.O., presumably from a radio program, talks on how to tell a person’s nationality by his/her last name, except in the United States, between black & whites.

36:33-38:01           Title cards flash on screen with last name in the U.S. with the number ranking underneath.  A ticking sound of a timer is on the soundtrack, the title cards are written in white on a black background.  V.O. talks about his family and most common name in the world, amongst Jews, Blacks and Latinos, and also all the Alan’s voices trying to guess the most common name in America.  Beep sound, ticking stops and Smith is revealed.

38:02-38:39            Cut to filmmaker, of doc, Alan on screen saying Berliner rapidly multiple times.  V.O. over woman on the phone, cut to stock footage of man holding a telephone away from his ear, she is trying to pronounce Berliner.  All the Alan’s pronounce the way people have pronounced their names wrong in both A-Roll & V.O. Cut to Dad saying it doesn’t matter, then all the Alan’s say how it made them feel.  Individual Alan’s have one letter cutting to each one until Berliner is spelled.

38:40-39:45           Cut to scanning dictionary on screen.  Click.  Looking up Berliner name.  Beep.  Click.  Classical music on soundtrack, V.O. Alan’s explaining last name is like Berlin.  Beep.  V.O. encyclopedia finds Emilie Berliner, A-Roll interview the man who invented the gramophone and microphone.  Cut to b&w stock footage of gramophone and train station.  Cut to archival footage of President Kennedy at the Berlin Wall giving a speech.  The crowd cheers and roars.  V.O. reveals name is linked to pastry.

39:46-40:59          V.O. most Berliners come from Poland, Austria, Russia & Hungry, not Germany.  Where does the name come from, A-Roll of all Alan’s saying they don’t know or predicting where the name Berliner came from.  A flute begins to play.  Cut to redheaded man walking in the woods, V.O. how redheaded man adopted the name Fox.  Montage of names and old picture film soundtrack.  V.O. Jews only had Hebrew names.

41:00-41:24          Yiddish music plays on the soundtrack, V.O. naming Hebrew names.  B-Roll of stock footage of Jews and V.O. of getting last names.

41:25-41:37         Title card white writing and black background, Grandparents Surnames, V.O. of Alan’s saying the surname of their grandparents, and then saying Berliner at the same time.

41:38-43:37       Cut to computer screen, typing in Berliner.  Click.  Typing.  Click.  Classical music on the soundtrack.  Computer & letters on screen.  V.O. B-Roll b&w Berlin, Germany supporting footage, like Bear, Russian Army and Hebrews.  Cut to Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island story, stamp on screen freeze frame.  Computer on screen zooming out on the name Berliner.

43:38-47:13       Click.  B-Roll of stock footage digging through archives.  Water is swishing on the soundtrack.  B-Roll stock footage of Ellis Island.  Computer screen Ellis Island workers names and job position.  Click.  A-Roll of Ellis Island workers setting the record straight on name changing that never goes on at Ellis Island.  Ambient sounds.  Vox pop on beliefs about Ellis Island.  B-Roll footage of workers checking immigrants identification (stock footage) cut to title cards of immigrant’s name and can hear the immigrant saying their name on the soundtrack and walla walla.  B-Roll of immigrants with V.O. on why names changed.  Stock footage of An American Romance and B-Roll of films showing a situation when a name might change.  V.O. conclusion to never know where name came from.

47:14-47:59        Cut back to Alan’s taking a photo in the apartment, V.O. saying the first and only Alan Berliner meeting.  Click.  All the Alan’s walk off screen, leaving a bare brick wall in front of the camera.

48:00-49:36        Electricity & lights stock footage are on screen, the sound of electricity in on the soundtrack.  Scanned finger prints cutting on the screen rapidly and also rapid cutting of the Alan’s faces.  End on Alan the doc filmmaker.  V.O. Alan decides to make who he is, the faces of each Alan morph in to each others.  The sound of a thunderstorm is on soundtrack.

49:37-49:49        Alan Berliner signs his name, white writing on black background, sound of chalk writing on a chalkboard.  Storm sound continues with V.O.

49:50-53:12       Rapid cutting to grave headstones, flash on screen, with the sound of a sewing machine and chisel on the soundtrack.  Flashes end on memorial wall with ambient sounds.  Names begin to flash again on different textures and sewing machine continues.  Anonymous is the most common Name in human history.  Shading with black to bring out name that has been imprinted on white paper.  V.O. & sewing machine continues.  Cut to Holocaust Memorial 6 million numbers carved into stone wall.  Various Jews read names of Jews with same last name, voice overlap, images cut to each person reading.  Chisel sound, cut to graveyard headstone, chisel sound.  Then computer dial up.  Loading symbol on screen. 

53:13-53:48           Beep.  Click.  V.O. cyber grave. V.O. all Alan Berliners saying their names.  Stock footage and sound of instruments tuning, names still being said by the Berliner’s.

53:49-56:46           Piano gloom plays again.  Alan’s at the table toast each other in a circle at the dinner table.  Click.  Website.  End title sequence.  Ragtime music & clicking and V.O. continues, Alan Berliner as alphabetically blessed.  Copyright Al Berliners say Berliner.

This film used archival stock footage.  Home movies.  A-Roll interviews.  Vox pop.  Photographs.  B-Roll.  Computer digital images & animations.