AHSS*1070 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: John Travolta, Sound Recording And Reproduction, Diegesis
Week 8: Sound
Sound
-is integral to the construction of cinematic imagery
-in a film does not always correspond to what’s happening onscreen
-is an expressive element of film capable of operating independently from images
-Filmmakers encourage intellectual and emotional responses by including sounds that do not
logically or literally correspond to the image
-Film soundtrack composed of three elements: dialogue, music, sound effects; components
recorded separately from images and from one another
Film Sound: A Brief History
-Term “silent film” is misnomer
-Most early films accompanied by orchestras or sound
effects machines
-In late 1920s, American film industry undertook
expensive conversion to sound on film technology that
allowed for synchronized music and dialogue
-development severely restricted camera mobility &
consequently curtailed visual experimentation in cinema
-By late 1930s, practice of re-recording (post-
synchronization) allowed filmmakers to manipulate sound and to experiment with relation of
sound to image
-Freedom engendered by post-synchronization allowed filmmakers to transform film sound into
a vital component of cinematic expression
-Advances in sound technology, from tape recorders of 1950s through modern digital age has
resulted in more realistic sound…but:
-film sound is expressive element, as carefully composed as image
-film sounds do not reproduce reality but provide an aesthetic experience in conjunction
with images onscreen
Freeing Sound from Image
-Most sounds on film soundtrack not recorded at same place and time as images sound recorded
at same time of images called direct sound
-Post-production recording of actors’ dialogue called ADR, automatic dialogue replacement
(looping)
-most film music is non-diegetic (played outside the world the characters inhabit)
-Filmmakers have ability to select and manipulate dialogue, sound effects, and music
-audiences should be attentive to what they hear and see, and consider how it contributes to the
overall aesthetic impact of the film
Relationships between sound and image
-Filmmakers constructing a soundtrack must consider what gets the most emphasis at any given
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Document Summary
Sound is integral to the construction of cinematic imagery in a film does not always correspond to what"s happening onscreen is an expressive element of film capable of operating independently from images. Filmmakers encourage intellectual and emotional responses by including sounds that do not logically or literally correspond to the image. Film soundtrack composed of three elements: dialogue, music, sound effects; components recorded separately from images and from one another. Most early films accompanied by orchestras or sound effects machines. In late 1920s, american film industry undertook expensive conversion to sound on film technology that allowed for synchronized music and dialogue development severely restricted camera mobility & consequently curtailed visual experimentation in cinema. By late 1930s, practice of re-recording (post- synchronization) allowed filmmakers to manipulate sound and to experiment with relation of sound to image. Freedom engendered by post-synchronization allowed filmmakers to transform film sound into a vital component of cinematic expression.
