Session 4 film narration: Film Appreciation Course
Session 8 film sound: Film Appreciation Course
1. Film Sound
Film Theory and Principles
Bong S. Eliab
Humanities Division
Ateneo de Davao University
2. Assignment
Read Montage, Mise-en-scene, Camera
Movement
Study:
Introduction to the Complete History of
Cinematography
Different kinds of SFX
Lines: diagonals, verticals, horizontals
3. Film SoundFilm Sound
Introduction
Brief History
The Role of Film Sound
Five (5) Types of Film Sound
Creative Use of Film Sound
Functions of Film Music
4. Introduction 1/2Introduction 1/2
The art of filmmaking does not depend
solely on the visual image.
It was once believed that the quality of film
could be measured in direct proportion to its
dependence on visual elements.
The less sound used, the better the film.
5. Introduction 2/2Introduction 2/2
In recent years, this approach has been
proven fallacious. Just imagine Jurrasic
Park or Harry Potter or The Lord of Ring
without the sound effects, or any movie for
that matter.
6. Brief HistoryBrief History
From 1897 to 1927, films were silent.
Word spoken: printed on the screen.
Music: supplied by a piano player playing
behind or beside the screen to accompany
the action on the screen.
7. Era of Silent FilmsEra of Silent Films
The great advantage of of these
silent films: filmmakers had to
find visual ways of expressing
themselves.
Some of the best film of silent
era used few or no titles at all,
and yet they were thoroughly
understandable.
This was the golden age of silent
films with Charlie Chaplin
emerging as the best of all silent
actors.
8. 1927: Advent of Film Sound1927: Advent of Film Sound
When sound came in 1927 with
Warner Bros.’ The Jazz Singer,
starring Al Johnson, almost
overnight the silent films
disappeared.
But the films of this period
forgot the many things
discovered during the silent film
period.
Suddenly pictures became static,
actors did not move around but
stood and talked a lot.
9. Sound InfectionSound Infection
Sound infected the movie, stifling
so many other visual methods of
expression that had been learned
during the silent film era.
Messianic complex of sound
industry: Sound dominated the film
and attempted to do all the work in
film.
Film had to compete with radio
which was just on the rise at the
same time.
10. Principle of thePrinciple of the Art of Film SoundArt of Film Sound
“Sound must fit within the total film
language and not attempt to be a language
of its own.” (Fr. Nick Cruz, SJ)
All forms of film sound: must contribute to
the total language of film.
Most often does not contribute but distract
from the totality of film.
11. Temptation of SoundTemptation of Sound
Sound can be tempting – use it in order to distract.
Distracting: to use sound in order to make sure
that message gets across the viewer no matter
what.
Examples: the unnecessary statement “I feel sick”
when the face of the actor can have expressed the
same thing without saying anything.
12. Types of Film SoundTypes of Film Sound
Dialogue
Voice Over/ Commentary
Music
Sound Effects
Silence
13. DialogueDialogue
Most familiar kind of film sound: expect this most
naturally from movies
Dialogue: integral a part of acted movies that it is
difficult to distinguish between visual
communication and the dialogue
Generally, heavy or prolonged dialogue slows
down the movement in a picture and puts the
whole work of communication on dialogue.
14. DialogueDialogue
In general, British films are heavy on
dialogue. Even the superb A Man for All
Seasons (Five Oscars) is marred by its great
dependence upon dialogue, since the movie
is based on the play verbatim.
Note: A film that uses a dialogue only when
it has to will seem better that the film that
uses dialogue as a crutch.
15. Voice-Over/ CommentaryVoice-Over/ Commentary
Basically a different from dialogue.
Dialogue emerges from the very nature of
fiction film, namely, if there are actors it is
only natural that they speak.
A voice-overvoice-over, no matter how well handled,
will always be something of an intrusion.
16. Voice-Over/ CommentaryVoice-Over/ Commentary
An interruption into the basically visual
communication of the shots.
Can accompany images; can illustrate,
support, exist in counterpoint or contrast to
what is visually communicated.
Absolutely necessary intrusion: generally
we would not understand what the film is
saying without it.
17. Voice-Over/ CommentaryVoice-Over/ Commentary
See Color Purple: While Whoopie
Goldberg is reading her sister’s letter
mentally, her sister’s voice is heard over.
Some of the best examples of film in which
commentary is kept to a minimum are the
well-made commercials.
18. MusicMusic
A special problem in films
Powerful tendency to overdo the use of
music
In early 30’s films, loud swelling of violins
would accompany every kiss
If music is used too much, it will lose its
special appeal
19. Music
There are numerous ways in which music can be
integrated effectively with film:
Movie Theme: a film can have two to three
themes running through the film which correspond
to different people or key experiences.
Example: Lara’s Theme in Dr. Zhivago: the theme
is heard the first time we meet Lara and is
repeated with the appearance of Dr. Zhivago’s
thoughts about Lara throughout the film.
20. Music
Sometimes two themes will merge at the
climax of a film, suggesting the merging
of separate or conflicting elements like in
Moment to Moment.
In the movie The Loneliness of a Long
Distance Runner, the director Ralph
Richardson uses jazz with shots of the
young man running at dawn. Jazz
conveys a sense of freedom.
21. Music
In the same film, Richardson makes a brutal
comment by depicting the guards beating one of
the boys who tried escape from the reformatory
with the background of other boys singing
Jerusalem, a song of stirring hope.
Note: Music, therefore, need not always reflect the
spirit of what is happening, it can comment on the
visual expression by contrasting it.
22. Sound Effects (SFX)
Two broad types of SFX:
Atmospheric (atmos) Effect: background
effect
Spot Effect: related to a particular on-screen
action
23. Atmos Effect
Atmospheric: use of
natural sounds in a film
Highly expressive element
and a major source of
dramatic effect.
A variety of off-screen
sounds that heighten a
sense of place or add
mood or atmosphere to
the film.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
24. Notes on Atmos
Natural sounds, therefore, make movie
more realistic,
Add to the suspense, the strength, the
beauty of a movie if they are used with
sensitivity and care
25. Notes on Atmos
Background SFX are normally quite
straightforward.
They can be obtrusive or unobtrusive.
Sharp and identifiable sounds in the
background can draw unnecessary attention to
them and therefore, they should be avoided for
ordinary general effects.
26. SilenceSilence
This SFX (rather the absence of SFX) can
carry meanings and change feelings more
powerfully than any forms of sound can do.
Silence can sharpen our attention and
encourage us to concentrate on the picture.
Ex.: a silent grim face; a wordless moment
when men drop their weapons.
27. SilenceSilence
Silence frees the viewer and enables him to
experience a moment in a film without his feelings
being guided by a musical theme or an actor’s
line.
If skillfully used, absolute silence can carry more
impact than a dozen tympani crashing in unison.
Ex.: from the movie Alive, after the plane crashed
on the snowy mountain top, there was a long
period of silence that was chilling and foreboding.
28. Creative Use of Sound Effects
Common practice in filmmaking: add SFX
to cover almost everything seen on-screen
Example: A long shot (LS) of a city street at
early dawn; the lid of the garbage pail
falls to a pavement and the SFX of CRASH
is heard (spot effect). In this way, a sense
of reality of place is heightened. It is a
direct use of SFX, usually designated to get
the audience to believe the mise-en-scene.
29. Creative Use of Sound Effects
There are several ways of to enlarge and
enrich this standard use of SFX:
Example: if the previous scene takes place
at dusk and it seeks to convey a mood of
mystery, foreboding and gloom, the SFX
of lid hitting the pavement can be given a
slight echo or reverberation.
30. Creative Use of Sound Effects
There are several ways of to enlarge and enrich
this standard use of SFX:
If the purpose of the scene is to startle or frighten
the audience, the volume can be added beyond
normal reality. In The Natural, the loud SFX of
the ball hitting the gloves or the bat hitting the
ball heightens the impact.
31. Creative Use of Sound Effects
Extended Sound:Extended Sound:
SFX can be used to extend the dimensions
of what is seen, just like extended images,
which removes the constrictive boundaries
of the screen.
The filmmaker simply adds sounds that
originate from elements not contained in
the frame.
32. Creative Use of Sound Effects
Extended Sound:Extended Sound:
Example:
On a lonely deserted street at dawn, the
off-screen sound of a dog barking
heightens the isolation of the place.
At the same time, it enlarges the
boundaries of the frame: we can imagine a
mangy, half-starved cur just out of range.
33. Creative Use of Sound Effects
Extended Sound:Extended Sound:
Leo Hurwitz, in expanding a valid theory
of film sound, pointed out that many of the
sounds we hear everyday originate from
unseen sources (police siren, ambulance
siren heard from a distance).
Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense,
was the early exponent of the use of off-
screen SFX to heighten the terror of his
suspense sequence.
34. Creative Use of Sound Effects
Extended Sound:Extended Sound:
Example: a prison cell at night, we hear
only the wings of a bat beating a furious
rhythm against its body. Where?
Somewhere nearby. This sound itself
makes the cell more gloomy and dank.
35. Creative Use of Sound Effects
Sound Metaphor:Sound Metaphor:
Example: In Citizen Kane, Kane’s empty-headed
second wife, Susan Alexander leaves the room
after a silly quarrel, a parrot screeches loud,
making a pointed comment on her character.
In Robert Mulligan’s Love with a Proper Stranger,
a rejected suitor goes out of the door, pursued by
the pistol shots of a TV program in the room
behind him.
36. Creative Use of Sound Effects
Sound Metaphor:Sound Metaphor:
Example: In the satiric film Ballad of a
Whore, there is a wedding between an old
hag and a dim-witted fellow, in which we
can hardly hear the official reading our of
the words of the ceremony because of the
noise of the pile driver on a neighboring
building site – the discordant note matched
the incongruous couple.
37. Creative Use of Sound Effects
Sound Montage:Sound Montage:
Although we use the same word “montage”
for sound combination and image
combination, there is a fundamental
difference between the two.
The essence of visual montage is we see one
single image after another and mentally
combine or contrast them (like the
baptismal sequence in The Godfather).
38. Visual Montage
Visual Montage:Visual Montage: A dialectical process that creates a third
meaning out of the original two meanings of the adjacent
shots (editing thus has only two fundamental methods: cut
and overlap).
A process in which a number of short shots are woven
together in order to communicate a great deal of
information in a short period of time.
39. Creative Use of SFX
There may be montage in the sense of
sound, like:
In Stand By Me, the boy shouting “Traiiinn!”
is picked up by the sound of a coming train.
In Cinema Paradiso, the sound of the small
bell inside the theater is swallowed by the
sound of the bigger church bells.
In Color Purple, the sound of rain water
dripping is followed by sound of African
natives beating bamboo poles.
40. Creative Use of SFX
There may be montage in the sense of
sound, like:
In the movie, The Life of Hitler, there is a
scene of a military parade in Berlin with a
loud military band playing “Deutchland”
immediately followed by an explosion of guns
in the Russian front with rugged German
soldiers retreating and surrendering. The
ironic contrast of visuals is strongly
reinforced by the ironic contrast of the music
41. Creative Use of SFX
AsynchronismAsynchronism
A combination of sound and image that we
would not experience in real life.
Example: In Cinema Paradiso, there is a
scene where Salvatore, the lead character
visiting the soon-to-be-demolished
theater which he frequented as a boy, he
sees piled-up seats in empty orchestra and
he hears the sounds of whistling and
laughter of bygone days.
42. Creative Use of SFX
AsynchronismAsynchronism
A combination of sound and image that we would
not experience in real life.
.
All That Jazz: during the script-reading session,
we see people talking and laughing but we
don’t hear them, just as Roy Scheider has shut
them off his mind.
43. Functions of Film Music
Film music has traditionally been
used in the following ways:
To accompany the main title of the film
and the credits
To heighten the dramatic effect of a
scene: like the very moving farewell in
E.T.
44. Function of Film Music
To give a sense of locale, like Paris or
London, or Africa or Manila
To create or support pace and
movement: a fast moving piece of
music or SFX that accompanies a car
chase sequence, like in Speed that
certainly enhances the suspense and
excitement of the scene.
45. Functions of Film Music
To identify the character qualities, like
in Dr. Zhivago.
To predict things to come, like the
music used in The Natural, whenever
Roy Hobbs is going to hit home.
46. Functions of Film Music
• To establish, maintain and change the
mood of a scene, like the gracious
romantic theme accompanying a love
scene may suddenly give way to
ominous music, thereby changing the
mood of a scene.
47. Functions of Film Music
Although nothing changes on-screen, a
scene of joy and laughter can be
materially altered by a sad, foreboding
musical accompaniment.
Music, in effect, warns the audience not
to be deceived by what is seen on the
screen.
48. Functions of Film Music
Music, therefore, is an important factor
in the creation of motion picture.
In itself, it is a major art and it has its
own complexities.
When added to the art of cinema, it
becomes film music and can contribute
as a vital element to the already rich
tapestry of film.