Research: Sounds - Ms Begum

What is sound in films ?

-Sound is one of the most important element when it comes to a film production. Sounds are used to create understanding for the audience and to have more meaning about the character and their emotions. A meaningful soundtrack is often as complicated as the image on the screen and is also used to create a response from the viewers.

There are many different sounds being used in films such as:

- Diegetic sound:

Diegetic sound is the sound which come naturally in the film world e.g. a dialogue, music from a radio or juke box. The sound can either be on or off screen. An example of the most recently famous film 'The Conjuring' here is an evident, the used of this sound in the beginning of the trailer make sense to the ear because its realistic and makes the audience don't expect anything to happen to the victims yet as the characters looks relax and enjoyable and also create naturalism which makes the movie more believable.

- Non-diegetic sound:

Non-diegetic sound is the sound that being created to put on the film world for example a soundtrack, a sound effects or a voice-overs. This scene down here of the well known film 'Paranormal Activity' is an example of non-diegetic sound, the used of this type of sound makes sense to the scene and create understanding towards the viewers. This helps to makes the audience to have a chill-excitement feeling and helps to engage their attention more towards the movie.

- On screen sound:

On screen sound is when the audience can see where the sound is coming from e.g. radio, car or telephone ringtones. This video down here of a famous film 'Dawn of the dead' is an example, the used of this type of sound create naturalism and make the scene more realistic. This helps to make the scene more believable and helps to keep the audience on track to follow the movie all along.

- Off screen sound:

Off screen sound is when you can hear sound but cannot see where it is coming from, but it makes sense to the film world for example a phone call, traffic sounds or coughing. For example this scene down here from the famous film 'Scream' is an evident, the used of this typed of sound makes the audience feels sympathy and have an idea of what's going to happen next to the victim.

- Parallel sound:

Parallel sound is the sound when the sounds in the back ground match with the main sounds for example when the character speak on the phone, the audience still allow to hear the answer from the other side of the conversation. This trailer down here of a mystery-horror film 'One Missed Call'' is an example, the used of parallel sound in this trailer helps to give the viewers an idea of what's the film is about by allowing them to hear what's in the phone and the mysterious story behind it. This helps to engage the audience attentions to watch the movie and find out for themselves.

- Contrapuntal sound:

Contrapuntal sound is when the sound dose not match the expectations of what the audiences viewing for example ‘Jaws 5’. The scenes of the beach are accompanied by the contrapuntal sound of the theme tune 'dur dur' which does not fit in with the happy images. This helps to makes the scene more surprising and makes the audience aware of all the bad things that can happen behind the happy images.

Conclusion:

I have analysed and explained the definitions of all these type of different sounds and the emotion plus expectation it creates. This has helped me to developed a deeper understanding of what sounds can create and the important of sounds in the media industry. I am looking forward to use as many different types of sounds as possible whilst doing my own film production.