Transcript Sound - Unit 5

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