Contextual Studies - Sound

Today I learnt about how relevant sound is when it comes to film and TV. Its split up into four main elements but they are not necessarily all used. The first is speech. This is the dialogue from the people on screen for example when two characters are having a conversation. It can also be a voice over where you don't see the person talking but you can here them. Although this is very common to to involve one if not both of these there are productions that do not contain any at all like old silent movies like Charlie Chaplin - The Lion's Cage

The next element is ambient or natural sound. This focuses on sounds that can make the film more realistic like bird song or traffic noise.

When looking at this scene you can clearly hear car horns and a slight rumbling of car engines as it starts adding to the realism of the traffic jam thats happening on screen in New York City. When it cuts to inside the car where the family are playing a game you can still hear the car horns and sirens but more muffled giving the viewer sound as they would hear it if they was in the car.


The third element is sound effects. In the same clip from World War Z above you can hear sound effects that have been placed. When chaos breaks out and the cars are smashing into one another you can hear glass shattering and cars creaking as they are being turned over. You could also argue that the horns at the start are sound effects too. This is to immerse the audience heightening and adding to the realism.

Musical Scores is the last element of sound in a film. in the clip below we have a scene from the film Crash.

The score is very present as it connects with the audience and tells them how to feel. It starts with emotional piano and then progresses with intermittent strings over the top almost sounding like a fluttering heart beat when the man walks up to the drive with a gun. It creates a sense of nervousness adding to the fact that something is going to go wrong. When the girl is shot the music is played loud muting all the other sound. By doing this it immerses the audience into the emotion of sadness and heightens the drama of what we are seeing.