Sound

Some key terms when analysing sound are;
Symphonic: Music performed by an orchestra.
Melody: A distinctive tune.
Atonal: Music having no established key.
Rhythmic: Percussive sounds forming a beat.
Dissonant: Non harmonious combination of sounds or lacking conventional harmonies.

The term diagetic refers to the world of the film, the fictional space created by every successive shot. Sounds that emerge from sources within the frame are known as diagetic. Those that come from somewhere else are therefore usually non-diagetic, unless it clearly comes from a radio or a stereo in shot.
Non diagetic sounds also cannot be heard by the films characters. (Occasionally however, directors play with our expectations). Sometimes we are able to hear a characters thoughts and sometimes a character may address the audience directly to camera. This is rare in mainstream dramatic movies but a voice over narration from one of the characters is not uncommon.

Many famous celebrities or their character’s have their own trademark them tune. Characters with major role or follow a series of movies tend to have a recognisable and popular original tune of which when played, can immediately relate back to the film or mainly he character. E.g. James Bond movies have a recognisable tune that goes along side when the movie starts, summarily to the Superman them tune.

Ø  Most films are edited with only the dialogue in place and the raw sound in the background of shots.

Ø  The sound editing usually takes place after the visual edit and will include the stripping of unwanted sounds from each shot, with dialogue either ‘looped’ by actors or replaced with a ‘clean’ dialogue track recorded on set. A technique called ADR allows precise lip sync.

Ø  Things such as footsteps, doors opening etc are replaced by Foley arrests. These tracks of several recorded separately are known as Foley tracks. ‘Ambient’ sound or reverb will be added to stimulate and match the visual environment of the scene.

Ø  Other effects may be created entirely by combinations of synthesisers and sampled sounds. For star wars for example, the sound editor included samples of London underground trains to create the effect of spaceships travelling past the camera. It is also common in action sequences for certain effects to be sonically exaggerated (such as gunfire, punches in fights and screeching tyres in chases etc.)
The last element to be added is generally the music which could be anything from a symphonic tune to a pre recorded rock song. Editors will often edit to a ‘temp (temporary) track of some pre existing music. The final stage of sound editing involves creating a mix of all the elements.

Ø  Nowadays, several mixes will be produced for the films exhibition in different theatrical environments. These are made using proprietary equipment and involves sending different elements in the mix to different channels (speakers), including rear surrounds.

Ø  The most widely used are DTS (digital theatre systems) and Dolby digital. The desire to recreate the quality of movie soundtracks in the home has led to the growth of home cinema; using DVD’s to carry six-channel (or more)soundtrack information.

Analysis in terms of Sound
People used to have a piano playing beside a film to add to the effect and emotions being portrayed in the film.
Diagetic:  

·         voices of characters

·         sounds made by objects in the story

·         music represented as coming from instruments in the story space ( = source music)

Diagetic sound can be either on screen or off screen depending on whatever its source is within the frame or outside the frame. Another term for diagetic sound is actual sound.

Monster House

·         Symphonic orchestral music creates the atmosphere and makes the children’s feel seem a little bit scary and unpredictable.

·         When the girl is singing, this is diagetic sound. Other people would have been able to hear her if this was a real life situation.

·         Her bike and the leaves rustling-diagetic sound- she would have been able to hear it and someone close to her in a real life situation would have been able to as well.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

·         Music and images we see on the screen both match

·         Music goes in with the beat of the action taking place and movement on the screen.

·         Music matches the mysteriousness of the weird images and events.

·         It also matches the films theme.

Snatch (A Level Opening Sequence)

·          The music matches the geeky theme perfectly and matches the action on the screen.

·         When all the action stops or someone stops talking the music stops. This adds and creates more drama for the audience to watch.

·         It could be said that the beginning of the film was non diagetic because at this point, as the audience we don’t know that the boy with the headphones in can hear the music that we can hear.

·         At the end of the film we notice that the music was in fact diagetic as the character in the opening sequence could hear the whole time.

·         Diagetic sound was used when the characters were speaking to one another over the computers. They could all hear each other.

·         Sounds from, for example, when the boy was snatched from his room, are all diagetic as the audience and the characters can hear. We can interpret this from their reactions when he is taken.