Research: Sound - Mrs. Quinlan

What is sound? Why is it an important micro-element?

Sound is what the human body can hear, anything we can hear is making a sound but in terms of media sound is what is heard to the audience and surroundings of the film e.g. a tweeting bird, or a car driving by. It is an important micro-element because sounds are used in films to create understanding for the audience and to create more meaning about the character and their emotions. It is also used to create a response from the audience.

Types of sound definitions

Diegetic sound – Sound which is part of the film world e.g. dialogue, music from a radio or jukebox. The sound can be on or off screen. An example where this is used in is insidious, as they used a lot of diegetic sounds to give off the effect of the film.

An example where this is used is in The Dark Knight when he is engaged in a car chase with the police and their sirens are on, the noise their sirens make is an example of a diegetic sound.

Non-Diegetic sound – Is not part of the film world e.g. soundtrack, sound effects, voiceovers. An example where this is used is John Wick as they play a song over the movie effectively as they are just introducing the character to the audience.

On screen sound – Is when you can see where sound is coming from in the film and is obvious to the naked eye, such as a character attending a gig and there is a band playing.

Off-screen sound – When you can hear sound but cannot see it yet it makes sense to the film world e.g. there is a riot and you can hear the commotion of people running away from police but it is not on film.

Parallel sound – The sound you hear in a film is what you would expect it to be, e.g. a scene with children playing on a beach, the sound would be laughter, talking and the sea.

Contrapuntal sound – Is when the sound does not match the expectations of what you are viewing, an example of this is Jaws. The scenes of the beach which are meant to be joyous and happy are accompanied by the contrapuntal sound of the theme ‘dur dur’.

Thriller opening analysis

The opening scene of Se7en uses several different types of sound. First one is Parallel Sound, it is considered a parallel sound as the character is holding a razor blade while an eerie scratch is being made in the background, and this may be used as a way to get a psychological response off the audience. Another type of editing used to good effect is Off-Screen Sound, this is clear as we the audience can see the credits and the montage of images being thrown at us but none the source of the sound yet it makes sense why they play it. Finally the last good type of sound used to good effect is the Non-Diegetic Sound, this is used effectively as they make it known to the audience that they are just introducing the film and it just the start so they want to sort of build up a tension for the audience to produce a psychological response.

Conclusion

From what I have researched today I am now planning to try Parallel and Contrapuntal sounds to keep the audience confused about several situations and leave them curious to know what is about to happen next, I may also try out off-screen and on screen sounds just to test the different effects and see which one is effectively better.