SOUND Unit 5 Film Class
Dec 22, 2015
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