Sound

30th September 2010          Miss lecointe


Lesson Objective: To be able to show an understanding of how sound is used to create meaning.

Lesson Outcomes:
All will be able to explain the purpose of one sound technique (E)
Most will be able to identify and explain the purpose of 2-4 sound techniques (C)
Some will be able to use media language effectively to explain the purpose of 5 or more different sound techniques (A)

Sound code: This is the type of music in a text can convey a great deal of information, about the mood and of the text. Tension and emotions can be helped by the music.

I watched the shower scene in Psycho as an example of sound code. Violins were played during beginning; this made the mood calm and airy. There was a sharp screech as the lady got attacked. This shows that there was danger. At the start of the scene, the pitch was low; this showed calmness. Then as the lady got attacked, the pitch then got high. This may have been to show how scared the lady was (by screaming.) During the middle of the scene when the lady was having a shower, it was silent. This brought suspense to the audience that something bad might happen.

Here is the clip for the famous shower scene of Psycho:

This type of sound would help me in my thriller film because it will help me create a certian mood from the audience. For example if i wanted to create suspense i would use pianos to slowly play through the scene. This will leave the audience on the edge of their seat waiting on what will happen next.

Diegetic: This is sound you would expect to hear in the film world. It belongs with the frame. It will be the natural part of the narrative. Not always visible.

I watched a scene in Kidulthood as an example of Diegetic. In this scene we heard bottles smashing and cars driving by. There was no sound added on and we know this because we could see the sound happening.

Here is the clip for the "Old enough blud" scene in Kidulthood:

This type of sound will help me in my thriller film because it would make my film more realistic. For example if a glass fell on the floor, you would expect it to make a smashing noise but if it doesn't then it may create confusion to the audience and may cause them to loose concentration and focus from the film. So i will make sure that in my film i will have diegetic sound like someone walking in high heels and you hear the heels on the floor.

Non-diegetic: This is sound or music that is added, such as in the editing scene.

We watched the fight scene of X-men. The nightcrawler was trying to attack the president of America. There was music playing as the man was trying to dodge and attack to bodyguards for the president. This music brought suspense to the audience because the music was as fast as the action going on. As the men were punching each other, the sound was very exaggerated. The punch's were louder than they really were; this may have been used to make the punch's sound more painful than they really are. This may have brought sympathy.

Here is the clip for the Night crawler fight scene of X-men:

This type of sound will help me in my thriller film because it will help me to create more of a dramatic effect. For example if there was a fighting scene in my film, i may add on punching noises to create more a dramatic effect that someone is getting punched. Also diegetic sound may not be heard so it would be better to add on sound.

Rhythm of the music: This can dictate the rhythm of cuts, such as in fight scenes to create tension.
This type of sound was used in the above clip. As there was more danger to the president, the music got more faster. This would create suspense to the audience and may leave them at the edge of there seats. This type of sound would help me in the making of my thriller film because if i wanted to create even more suspense to the audience then i would use this type of sound.

Silence: creates tension.

Voice over narration: This is when dialogue is added on in the editing stage and it is usually used to explain things that have already happened.

I watched a clip from Texas Chainsaw Massacre as an example for Voice over narration. The narrator was talking about what was going through the scenes on the screen. This type of scene sounds like it should be for a documentary. The only other time this is usually used is when films are a tale based on a true story.

This type of sound will help me in my thriller film only if my film will be based on a true story. This way the persons life we're filming can narrate their own film in a film.

Sound bridge: this is when sound can be used as a bridge to maintain continuity in a sequence by running a soundtrack under a series of images to link them together, or to create a transition from one scene to another.

Parallel sound: This is when the sound and the image complement each other.

Contrapuntal Sound: This is when the sound and image don’t complement each other. Happy music played over something sad happening on the screen.)

We watched Clockwork orange as an example of Contrapuntal. People were being attacked by these burglars who were also beating up the couple, they were singing the song 'singing in the rain.' This is a happy song and the fact that they were singing it during the attack brought humour even though it's not funny.

Here is the URL of the 'brak-in-scene' of clockwork orange: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faML0QvVb2A

This may help me in my thriller film because it will interest the audience more because it may bring humour or confusion.

There are many different ways in which music is used in films, but the main purpose of music is to create different moods, tones and emotions. Also it can help the audience to understand a scene in more detail too.

In this lesson I learnt the different sound types used whilst making a film. This lesson will help me in the making of the opening scene of my thriller film because i can make my own version of the examples i saw of the different sound types.