Research - Mrs Quinlan: Sound

Sound

What is sound and why is it an important micro-element?

Sound can improve a film drastically making it more interesting or tense. There are various sound techniques that can make a film more tense. If you listen to a thriller or horror movie without sound the film may be seen as less scary then what is happening on the screen. However if you play the film again the sound makes the film can make a scene more tense. The reason why its an important micro-element is because that their are various ways to use the sound in films and there are many techniques which allowed films to be more scarier than on screen.

Sound definitions

Sound is split in to categories this is diegetic sound and non-digetic Sounds. This is where sound which is part of the film and the audience know where the sound is coming from. An example would be; Dialogue, Car breaking or From a Jukebox. The sound can be seen on or off screen. And Non-Diegetic sound which is not part of the film. e.g. a sound track , Sound effects and voice-overs. An example of this occurring in an thrillers is when either that the film is building up to an scene or plot point. Below are several examples sounds and if they are digetic or non digetic sounds.

On screen sound:

This is where you can see the sound is coming from. For example an radio maybe playing music this considered as digetic sound since its playing as part of the movie. In the first part of this clip you can hear traffic and see cars and this is on screen sound since you can see as well as digetic sound since you know where it is.

Off Screen Sound:

You can hear sound but you cannot see where its coming however it make sense since its happened during a part of the film. This could be traffic sounds, coughing. In this clip you can hear the Ferris wheel creaking however you dont know which direction the sounds are comming from.

Parallel sound:

This is when the sound you can hear in a film that what is expected For example this could be children playing on a beach The parallel sounds would be the Laughter and talking and the sounds of the sea. And also any non-digetic sound sound such as backing tracks would also match the scene. At 0:37 in the clip below we see the antagonist dancing to the non-digetic sound before starting to slash the victim.

Contrapuntal sound 

This is when the sound dose not match the expectations of what you are viewing. This is non digetic sound since its was added when the editor was editing this scene. An of Contrapuntal examples of this would be jaws. The reason why this would be contrapuntal sound is because of the theme "dun dar" approaching a person and eating the unlucky victim.

Thriller opening analysis. [The Shining]

At the beginning of this clip you can hear the parallel sound of the background music, In this case an screeching sound and shows that antagonist is close to the victim and that hes about to murder her. The dialogue within the scene is on screen sound and would be considered digetic since we know where the sound is coming from since we can see two people talking. As well as off screen sound off the wind blowing however this would be considered as both digetic and non-digetic sound. Since the audience knows that their is an blizzard outside however extra sound effects could of been added by the studio while editing the film

Conclusion: what types of sounds are you now planning to use and why?

When i am creating my film i have to make sure that their is an various mixture of different sound techniques. this means i should use an mixture of sounds that are sound effects or sounds that are playing such as the tv while filming on location. Also i should have backing tracks for the overall movie. This would mean i would have both digetic and non digetic sounds with in my opening scene. Also the background track should fit the scene. An example of this would if someone running the backing track the sound i would pick would have to complement that scene. Using various sound techniques and will make a film more interesting as well create an effect on the audience during scenes where they could be effected by the film psychological or physiologically.