The Art of Film Sound: Impact and Components
The Role of Sound in Cinema
Traditionally, sound was considered merely background, a secondary creative function. Until the 1960s, film credits typically listed only the studio’s head of sound. However, because the soundtrack is constructed and manipulated independently from the images, sound has become an element of paramount importance. Key reasons sound is a fundamental element include:
It creates a different way of perceiving. Visual attention is often accompanied by auditory attention (a perception already established in silent cinema, where projections were accompanied by orchestral or piano music).
Sound can condition our perception while watching a film (it can even anticipate the image, guiding our gaze and generating expectations). Furthermore, sound imbues silence with new value.
The sound designer is responsible for the overall sound of a film, coordinating its execution (e.g., microphone selection, editing, and mixing).
The Significance of the Soundtrack
The soundtrack has contributed a series of possibilities to cinema:
It increased the feeling of “reality,” enhancing the image’s “authenticity” through sound.
It liberated the image from a necessarily explanatory function, allowing it to focus on its expressive role. Even dialogue could be replaced by visual representations.
The possibility of juxtaposing and/or contrasting sound and image allows for the creation of diverse symbols and metaphors.
The existence of sound created the possibility of incorporating silence, particularly effective in dramatic scenes.
It aids narrative continuity, as the soundtrack is typically less fragmented than images.
It includes music, an expressive tool that plays a crucial role in film.
The existence of sound also facilitates ellipsis with expressive effects.
It can help to date images (e.g., Scorsese in Goodfellas emphasizes the passage of time by including songs from different eras in the soundtrack).
Elements of the Soundtrack
Dialogue and Voice
Its most frequent use is dialogue. Other applications include voice-over (speech in the third person without the narrator’s presence on screen). It is also present in song lyrics, which can serve a purely decorative function, play a decisive dramatic role, or advance the plot (e.g., American musicals of the 1940s-1950s).
The dramatic use of dialogue varies by genre and plot. For instance, in a Western with vast open spaces, images often convey the action more clearly than extensive dialogue.
Noise
We can distinguish two main groups of noises: natural noises (e.g., wind, water, animals, thunder) and mechanical noises (e.g., airplanes, machines, street noise, engines). These noises are rarely direct reproductions of real sounds. The expressive effects of noises range from realistic use, incorporating all sounds that would reproduce the scene’s reality, to being used as a counterpoint or metaphor (e.g., in Miracle in Milan, the words of two capitalists arguing over land ownership gradually transform into barks).
Music in Film
Types of Film Music
Music composed expressly for the film is called original music. Music not originally created for cinema but used in a film is called adapted music.
Music that originates from within the film’s narrative world is called diegetic or narrative music. Generally, it plays a realistic role, recreating the characters’ environment or deepening their personality, though it can also serve as a dramatic resource. Diegetic sound is any sound presented as originating from a source within the film’s world. Examples include:
- Voices of characters
- Sounds made by objects in the story
- Music represented as coming from instruments in the story space (= source music)
When music is inserted into the soundtrack to achieve specific aesthetic or functional effects, it is called extradiegetic or incidental music (i.e., the audience hears it, but the characters do not). Examples include:
- Narrator’s commentary
- Sound effects added for dramatic effect
- Mood music
Functions of Film Music
Rhythmic Function:
- Replacing real noises
- Highlighting a movement or visual rhythm
- Speeding up or slowing down the pace of action (e.g., chase sequences)
Dramatic Reinforcement Function: Music explains the image in an emotional sense; it can help create a specific atmosphere.
Metaphorical Function: Used as a leitmotif (a melody or theme identified with a place, thing, or person), symbolizing an idea, an obsession, or the identification of something or someone.
Lyrical Function: Reinforcing and intensifying strongly lyrical moments, replacing unnecessary dialogue (emotions like love, hate, or fear can be conveyed through music without dialogue).
Linking Function: Primarily joins different shots or sequences. Music is incorporated into the film to emphasize the action, acting as a counterpoint to the images, and integrating into the overall dramatic and aesthetic tone of the cinematographic work (e.g., J-cut, L-cut).
The Power of Silence
The advent of sound allowed filmmakers to incorporate one of the most suggestive ‘noises’: silence. When used correctly, silence can achieve great dramatic effectiveness. It can also be used autonomously when ‘the images speak for themselves’.