Sound Lesson

In this lesson we aimed to focus all our analysis on sound. The lesson beforehand we had been focusing on the sound in Kill Bill, but we took it further in this lesson. We were played a clip from the movie ‘Saving Private Ryan’, but we weren’t shown the picture.

This is the clip we listened to:

We were asked to note down what we think we could hear, this is what I noted down (it was actually quite wrong, in the end):

-Waves

-Ferry

-Shipwreck

-Ship hitting rocks

-Whistles

-Arrows shooting

-Guns

-Chains

-Tom Hanks

Everyone instantly recognized Tom Hanks’ voice, which then lead us to work out what movie it was from. The other sounds and effects were similar but not exact. We still managed to get the gist of the scene and what was happening without seeing the picture. 

This lead us onto the topic that SOUND IS POWERFUL. It engages a distinct sense, your hearing. It enables synchronization of senses. It can direct attention within an image, for example: there is a woman sitting in a chair and the door behind her creeks as it opens. Our attention is drawn to that door at the back. Sound can clarify or contradict events, or can sometimes leave them ambiguous. Sound can also create expectations. For example: the door is creaking open. As an audience member we expect something scary to happen. Having said that it can also cheat or redirect expectations. Using the door example: it creeks open and a cat runs through. This is most likely not what the audience is thinking was going to happen. We also learned that silence hold great value in film. Thinking back to the scene from Kill Bill, silence was written into the script and it made the experience that much more tense.

Language learned:

Diegetic: Music/Sound happening in the sequence. The character can hear these noises.

Non-Diegetic: ONLY the audience can hear. (e.g. music added during the editing process)