SOUND SOUND SOUND SOUND SOUND SOUND SOUND

The introduction of SOUND in Film The extra dimension that sound adds to film has been acknowledged since the early days of cinema when live music was played in the cinema to accompany the silent film being shown. This usually was a piano or organ but could also be a full orchestra. The first feature film released with a soundtrack was called The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson and was a Warner Bros. Film. One of the main reasons for the delay in the implementation of sound technology is that the film companies were unwilling to invest large sums of money into sound equipment when they were making huge profits with silent movies. However, the next commercial sound film Lights of New York (1928) was so impressive that it stimulated a rapid and total conversion to sound within the entire film industry. Sound on film today is of course much more sophisticated with a digital synchronised soundtrack combining the elements of dialogue, music and sound effects. DIEGETIC AND NON-DIEGETIC SOUND (with on and off screen diegetic sound) The world of the film as we see it is known as the DIEGETIC (pronounced dye-(a)-jet-ick). Things in this world belong to the films DIEGESIS. (Note the word sounds like an a is in it like diagram, but it is an e a very common spelling mistake! Try to get it right from the start!) As audience members we accept that there are things taking place in the diegetic world around the edges of what we actually see on the screen for example when a character is having a conversation with their friend who has gone into the kitchen to get a glass of water we hear them in the kitchen, clinking around and running the tap and we can hear their half of the conversation. This use of ON SCREEN and OFF SCREEN diegetic sound helps to create the sense of our viewing a three dimensional world rather than a flat screen.

Sometimes off-screen sound is used to give us clues we hear a scream and know someone is in trouble, we hear a police siren and know that the location were in is right by a main road and help is on its way. Perhaps we deduce were in an urban location. Non-diegetic sound is NOT part of the film world and is added on. The best way to think of it is this: If you were in the film space, could you hear the sound? So, youd not hear the voice-over or rousing orchestral music but, as in Top Gun, we hear the Walker Brothers The sun aint gonna shine anymore but we later see the off screen source the juke box in the bar (and then, as often happens, the off-screen sound becomes on-screen). SOUND BRIDGES Often the sound from one scene will continue into or over the next scene the images we see change but the sound is still from the previous scenes. More often, we hear the sound from the next sequence BEFORE we see the relevant images. This is called a SOUND BRIDGE. A film would be very disjointed if there were no sound bridges the effect they create is not only a wider diegetic world but a coherent one it gives the film a sense of linking of joining together. Thus sound bridges are part of a films continuity. PARALLEL AND CONTRAPUNTAL SOUND Contrapuntal sound is often called asynchronous sound When watching a film, the sound we hear usually complements what we see happy sounds for happy images, exciting music for exciting scenes sad music at sad moments etc. This is PARALLEL SOUND as, as the name suggests, the music tone and mood matches (hence parallel) the action on screen. Sometimes when we are watching a film, we hear sound that doesnt seem to match what we are seeing. The most famous example of this has to be in Jaws when we are watching scenes of happy holiday makers on Amity Beach but we hear the dur dur motif of the shark a deep sinister and haunting sound that we have, by this stage in the film, be conditioned to hear as a signal for the imminent arrival of the man-eating shark. Thus, what we see and what we hear DO NOT match. This is called CONTRAPUNTAL SOUND. Contrapuntal means at a counterpoint to. Some people call this asynchronous sound as in NOT synchronous that is not in synch. It doesnt matter which you use use the one youre

happiest with but stick with it be consistent.