sound on film.

in this article.. chion explains in detail many elements that coincide with sound and film.. it's pretty structured the way he writes it out too. i'm going to try and follow his structure with my response. one of the early topics he explains is his theory on 'vococentric' cinema. He explains the value of dialogue and the sounds of the human voice. i think that this is a useful tool in filmmaking because some of the best hollywood films that are extremely successful are highly stuffed with good dialogue sequences. I can think of a specific example that I love. In Tarantino's True Romance.. Alabama Worley, one of the two protagonists.. she narrates the beginning and the end. Tarantino has a way of really sculpting out the time, place, and culture that his films take place in... in True Romance two kids from detroit in the early 90's are pretty much goofing around the whole time while getting themselves in big trouble, they both come off as extremely naive and young. Her sweet innocent voice with a city like dialect and slang to go along, begins the film by explaining how she never thought she'd find the love that she's about to in the film.. but the most memorable, the ending is one of my favorite quotes...

""Amid the chaos of that day, when all I could hear was the thunder of gunshots and all I could smell was the violence in the air, I look back and I'm amazed that my thoughts were so clear and true. That three words went through my mind endlessly, repeating themselves like a broken record: "You're so cool. You're so cool. You're so cool."

all in her sweet young voice that just contradicts her hectic lifestyle and shows her innocence and naivety in her tone, and I think this is a tool Tarantino used to convey the story he as trying to get across. He does a good job, and it's definitely one of my favorite movies.

another area chion touches on is his section on value added by music.. i think its safe to say that music brings a lot to the table in film, rhythm and beat is an instant sound luxury and appeals to most humans as far as im concerned.. juxtaposing music and film has got to be one of the most brilliant cinematic decisions ever made. especially where he goes on to explain empathy derived from music. the empathetic music that allows you to really feel the feeling that the film is expressing is an extremely powerful tool.. i can think real quick off the top of my head a number of films that dragged me into it's depths just by it's score. even in the same family as films, film trailers, which are my specialty, i feel are highly successful just by the music chosen. almost like if the music is super suspenseful in the trailer, then you knowyoure going to get a suspenseful film.. same goes along with comedic, romantic, and dramatic tracks that fall with the trailer...

on the other side of things, which i think goes along with chions description of a fixed sound (if i understood correctly) to me this is the idea of diegetic sounds on the screen.. i never really cared much of even thought much of sounds happening in the story world until i saw the movie the strangers... this concept takes over the entire soundtrack. the movie is about a couple in a house in the woods, and intruders come and torture them. the film has very little score to it, in fact the only score heard is music played on the record player, which adds an eery effect when at a point in the film the record is tampered with and begins to skip and play the same eerie not and say the same weird phrase over and over.. it adds anxiety, in fact most of the sounds in the film are nothing but pure loud noises that cause much anxiety. the most famous in the film is the constant banging on the front door that happens repeatedly because there is noone there each time one of the protagonists go to answer it, each time seems to get louder and louder. its ax extremely heavy banging and scared me off the bat. another one of my favorites in the film is when there's obviously something going, even though the couple doesn't know what, and the woman is alone in the living room, there is a fire in the fireplace and it's extremely quiet in the house. all of a sudden the fire alarm goes off and when i was in the theater it sent the theater jumping. i think this is an awesome tool used to scare because its something scary in the fact that it's an every day noise, an average annoyance and in this film these average loud annoying noises are along side a series of horrifying events. i became fascinated with the idea of 'every day noises' that make you jump. he should have talked about sounds like that in his horror section.. the example he used from eyes without a face did freak me out just reading about it.. can't imagine hearing/seeing it.


the only parts of the article i wasn't really into is when it got down to the nitty gritty dynamics of hearing and sound.. i found it boring and hard to keep focus on...it was more interesting to me to read about the effect of different sounds on an audience and the different ways sound is portrayed in film rather than temporalization shit.. but its whatever.. i learned more than i thought i would reading it i guess..