1. CHAPTER 7:
SOUND By
Sean Fogar ty,
Chelsea Massa,
&
Mar y Kate
Thomerson
2. SOUNDTRACK BASICS
All sound that accompanies the film
Music, dialogue, sound effects
Digital
Crisp and clean
Constructed separately
Flexible
Easy to manipulate
Hard to study
Cannot freeze a sound
3. POWER OF SOUND IN FILM
Interest
Silent Films accompanied by orchestra
Narration
Voice over narration contributes/introduces the story line
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOaV06ruMqg Good
Fellas Diner Scene
Understanding
Alter perception of scene depending on sound
http://frivolousdisorder.com/?p=535
Guidance
Direct the attention of the audience
4. POWER OF SOUND IN FILM
Anticipation
Create suspense; Horror Films
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnRxQ3dcaQk
Jurassic Park Raptor Scene
Value to Silence
Sound is routinely used, lack of sound becomes alien
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j1wKBbRQhk
Panic Room
5. FUNDAMENTALS
Loudness
Amplitude
Vibrations of the air
Constantly manipulated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vltUWa_tOhE&feature=rel
ated Twist and Shout
Characterizes dialogue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLESwFqDm9k Pulp
Fiction
Shows perceived distance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQQu5BDy2Wo Super 8
6. FUNDAMENTALS
Pitch
Frequency of sound vibrations
Highness or lowness of a sound
Most sounds are a complex tone, or multiple
pitches
Helps to distinguish between music, speech,
and noises
Set the tone of a scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDpipB4yehk
The Shining
7. FUNDAMENTALS
Timbre
Harmonic Components Give a Sound “Color”
Combination of Harmonics, Frequency, and
Overtones
Texture or Feel of a Sound
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhiCFdWeQfA
Econ Teacher
8. CHOOSING SOUND
Each sound serves a purpose
Select sound to fulfill particular function
Sound added freely
Soundtrack is not always made after image track
In many cartoons it is made first
Not all sound is recorded for that specific project
Some editors reuse music and effects stored in a sound library
Wilhelm Scream; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbYsoEasio
Importance of dialogue, music, and sound effects
vary by film
Dialogue – Breakfast Club
Sound Effects – Almost anything Michael Bay
Music – Musicals and, more recently, dance movies
9. SOUND MANIPULATION
AND EDITING
Change acoustic qualities
Loudness, frequency, tone quality
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwAOHVBKTwg
Sound Mixing
Join sounds together
End to end; One over the other
http://www.cracked.com/article_19639_5-ridiculous-origins-movie-
sound-effects.html
Clarified and simplified to stand out
Dialogue Overlap
Dialogue continues past a cut
10. SOUND AND FILM FORM
Film scores
Use of pre-existing pieces
Composed specifically for movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh4zxv7gYkY ET
Music strongly influence emotional reaction
Melody or music can be associated with
particular setting, character, situation, idea,
parts of narrative, or scenes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn94j5F5YLc
Darth Vader
11. DIMENSIONS OF FILM
SOUND
Rhythm
Beat, pulse, tempo, pace, or pattern
Rhythmic qualities in sound effects also
Gunshots in gangster films
Speech is rhythmic
Characters show distinct pacing and syllabic
stress
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRK541tosfI Joker
12. RHYTHM IN SOUND
AND IMAGE
Coordination
Match rhythmic sound with rhythmic video
Mickey Mousing
Disney characters move in sync with music, even when not
dancing
Disparities
Creation of contrasting video and audio
rhythm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znEf9OVx32g
Four Nights of a Dreamer
13. FIDELITY
Extent to which sound is faithful to the source
as we conceive it.
Purely a matter of expectation.
If sound is unfaithful to its source and we are
aware of it, usually done for comic effect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE9t98Gox60
14. FIDELITY
Jacques Tati is a good specimen for the study of
sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzAoCsvvFB
Y
May be manipulated by change in volume.
Ex: Curtis Bernhardts “Possessed” alters the
volume in ways that aren’t faithful to sources.
15. SPACE
Sound has spatial dimension because it comes from
a source.
2 types:
DIEGETIC v NONDIEGETIC
• Sound that has a • Sound that comes from a source
source in the story outside the story world.
world. • Sound effects can be made from
• Often hard to this type.
notice. • Entire films can be made
• May be completely with nondiegetic
manipulated in sound.
unrealistic ways.
• http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xav22j_north-by-northwest-run-for-your-
lif_shortfilms
16. SPACE
Diegetic sound can either be on or off screen
Depends on whether source is in or outside of
the frame.
Can be used to represent what a character is
thinking.
Ex: Speaking thoughts even though lips not moving
other’s usually can’t hear them
EXTERNAL DIEGETIC SOUND: way we as spectators
take to have a physical source in the scene.
17. SPACE
INTERNAL DIEGETIC SOUND: comes from inside the
mind of a character– subjective
can’t be heard by other characters: SILILOQUIES
Nondiegetic and internal diegetic sounds are often
called SOUNDOVER because they don’t come from
the real space of the scene.
Diegetic and Nondiegetic sound blur.
Ex: Cavalry rescue scene from Stagecoach.
18. OMNISCIENT NARRATOR
Disembodied voice that gives us information that
doesn’t belong to any characters in the film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND1X594F1wY
19. SPACE
Many times a film’s narration deliberately blurs
boundaries between two spatial categories
Used to puzzle/surprise audience
Create humor or ambiguity
Achieve other purposes
Space of the narrative action isn’t limited to what
we can see on the screen----same for sound
Off screen sound:
Crucial to film – can create illusion of bigger space.
Can also create restricted and less restricted
narration
20. SOUND PERSPECTIVE
Characteristic of diegetic sound
Sense of spatial distance and location analogous to
the cues for visual depth and volume that we get
with visual perspective.
Can be suggested by volume
ex: loud= near ; soft= more distant changes in volume may
suggest characters movement through space
Can be created by timbre
Most noticeable with echoes
21. SOUND PERSPECTIVE
Particularly marked in telephone conversations
Telephone split – seldom matches what phone calls
sound like in reality
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid= -
7750754192792496799
22. SOUND PERSPECTIVE IN
THEATER SPACE
Using stereophonic and surround
tracks a film can more strongly
imply a sound’s distance and
placement.
Without the greater localization
of fered by the stereophonic
channels, we might scan the frame
for sources of the sound.
Stereo reproduction can specify a
moving sounds direction.
Ex: Rumble on right side of screen
that moves across with plane fly
over.
23. TIME
Synchronous sound- what we see produces what we
hear
example: dialogue
Asynchronous sound- when what we see doesn’t
match what we hear
example: the first talkies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsLqCWP -cT0
Simultaneous sound-sound that takes place at the
same time as the image in terms of the story events
Non-simultaneous sound-we hear sounds that occur
earlier or later in the story than the events we see in
the image
example: sonic flashback- one character hears the voice
of another from earlier
24. DIEGETIC SOUND
Non-simultaneous sound earlier than the image
sounds come from earlier in the story
Examples: sound flashback, sound bridges(the sound lingers
even through the image as moved on), and flash forward
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIkpD2Nr5yI
Sound simultaneous with the image in the story
can be external or internal
http://vimeo.com/25660023
Non-simultaneous sound later than the image
http://movies.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=70151172&trkid
=3325854 start as 35:19
used as transitions or to help pull the story together
25. NONDIEGETIC SOUND
Non-simultaneous sound that came earlier
sounds that are not part of the story but came
before the images shone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpH5L8zCtSk
Simultaneous
usually a narration
Non-simultaneous sound came later
someone narrating their own past
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq5NWgSa0iA
26. FUNCTIONS OF FILM SOUND:
THE PRESTIGE
Christopher and Jonathan Nolan wanted the movie to be like a
magic act in it of itself.
The movie isn’t shown in chronological order, the stor y order is
switched up and some scenes repeat so that the audience has some
knowledge but is never really cer tain of it. (almost like Citizen
Kane)
Rober t and Alfred are two rival magicians who compete to amaze
their audiences. This competition grows when Alfred is responsible
for the death of Rober t’s wife in an act. Af ter this Rober t becomes
obsessed with Alfred’s trick of the transpor ted man, and he
eventually comes up with his own transpor ted man act using a
machine built by Tesla. During on of his shows Rober t dies and
Alfred is blamed and then hanged. The truth behind Alfred’s act was
that he has an identical twin brother who would per form the acts
with him, together they had two lives and each lived a par t of both.
The movie ends with Alfred’s twin killing Rober t, who actually didn’t
die, and then each tells the truth behind their tricks.
27. FUNCTIONS OF FILM SOUND:
THE PRESTIGE
Each place and event is given its own sound, such as the warmer
sound of theater after a trick was preformed or the slow swell of
the music before an act.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVTl90m1Auk 1:42:22
Also there are many sound bridges to connect scenes
Use a dialogue hook where a scene ends with a line and then
cuts to another scene, usually having to do with the line.
Parallels are made between the love lives and careers of the two
men.
The sound of metal clinking is repeated throughout the entire
movie, like the clang of a trap door or the sound of Alfred’s
chains.
28. FUNCTIONS OF FILM SOUND:
THE PRESTIGE
The similarity in sound in scenes clarifies the parallelism
between the two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV Tl90m1Auk
1:55:30
The use of the two magicians’ diaries help the audience
understand where in time they are in the story and assist in
leading to flashbacks for more information
7:30 and 11:32
Eventually the diaries aren’t shown anymore, but voice overs
are used, it makes clean transitions from flashbacks back to
present time
46:33
The opening of The Prestige foreshadows the way the rest
story will be presented by starting with an important scene
being played with a voice over
0:57