SOUND

Unit 5

Film Class

Historical Background

• 1927 – The Jazz Singer– Critics thought sound would be a deathblow to movies

• Prior to 1927 full orchestra or piano used• Music used for practical and artistic reasons• Eisenstein – wary of dialogue

– He thought synchronous sound would destroy the flexibility of editing

• Early directors favored nonsynchronous sound, sound and image are not recorded simultaneously

Historical Background cont.

• Orson Welles – perfected sound

montage

– dialogue of one character overlaps with that of another, or others

Sound Effects

• Sound editor– Gathers all the different sounds for a movie

• Two types of sound– Diegetic – sounds characters can hear– Nondiegetic – sounds characters cannot hear

• Pitch– High-pitched sounds create tension– Low-frequency sounds emphasize dignity, anxiety, or

mysterty

• Loud sounds are forceful and threatening

Sound effects cont.

• Tempo– The faster the tempo the greater the tension

• Off screen sound effects– Can produce anxiety

• Symbolic functions– Music can express internal emotions or something is

about to happen

– Silence can be used to symbolize death because sound usually means presence of life.

Music

• Eisenstein – Music must never serve merely as an

accompaniment– Vertical montage

• Notes on staff of music moving from left to right parallel the movements of the actors

– Mickeymousing – descriptive music• www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEEaT_UQnVM

Music cont.

• Most composers begin working after they have seen the rough cut of a movie.

• Some composers don’t begin until the film has been totally completed.

• Directors of musicals work with composers before shooting begins.

• Foley artist –adds sound into a movie after it’s filmed

• Foreshadowing– Hitchcock put in casual sequences with anxious music.

Musicals

• One of the most enduring

and popular film genres.• Song and dance• Both Realistic

and Formalistic• Dominated by Americans• 1940’s and 1950’s

– www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCdiWxzwORU

Musicals cont.

• West Side Story– Sports and dance choreography

• Dance in everyday life (basketball)

– Not just a love story• Makes music tie into violence and social conflict

– Mickeymousing

Musicals cont.

• Broadway Melody – 1929

– All-talking; all-singing; all-dancing movie– Admission 35¢; made $4 million– Used sound montage – overlapping sound

Spoken Language

• Dialects– Rich source of meaning

• Subtext– Implicit meaning behind language of a film

• Two types of spoken language– Monologue

• Associated with documentaries

• Offscreen narrator provides factual information

• Two types of information – visuals and narration

Monologue

• In fiction films– Narrative monologue condenses time and events

– Voice-over produces an ironic contrast between the past and the present

– Contrasts with what’s said socially and what’s thought privately

– Off-screen narrations• Sense of objectivity or predestination

– Interior monologue – what character is thinking

Dialogue

• Film language doesn’t have to carry the burden of stage dialogue

• Can be sparce and realistic as in everyday life

• Doesn’t have to conform to everyday speech

• Sound and image are difficult to match in dubbed films

Sound

• Permits a director more visual freedom

• Many instances where sound is the most economical and precise way of conveying information in a film