Reflection Journal Week 5 – Sound Designs
“Has sound in film led us to hear the world differently? “
-
Walter Murch
As we look more into the importance of sound designs in film,
I’ve always pondered how do sounds change the perspective of a film.
Some of the terms I learned in class this week regarding the
approach for using sounds to narrate a film
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- Diegetic
-
-Non- Diegetic
From what I had learnt:
A Diegetic sound in a film refers to the sound emitting from
the frictional world. For instance, whatever sounds that is emitted from the
fictional world of the story is a diegetic sound. That includes sound effects!
Whereas
Non-diegetic sounds are any sound that is not emitting from
the fictional world. For example a voice over of a narration that explains or tells
a story of what is happening in a film.
Here’s a video of a in depth explanation on the both
elements,
Interestingly, after watching the video I’ve never thought
that through the narration of the character is thinking is considered a
diegetic sound. Moreover, the source of
the music is commonly non-diegetic, given that it is not within the story. Some
common example I didn’t thought of it is the use of music to express the mood
of the scene. Those sounds would be categories under non-diegetic as well. Even
though the sound made in the film is non – realistic, it is also considered as
a diegetic sound because it is used to represent the sound of the story in the
world.
My thoughts on diegetic and non-diegetic are that even
though diegetic sounds are very commonly used in films these days due to
technology, it would not be possible to entirely omit non-diegetic. This is
simply because text is still considered a non-diegetic, unless maybe it is a
random video with no credits and introduction text? However, my biggest
question is, how has diegetic became so commonly use in films these days. Could
it be due to semiotics and film language that had revolutionised film, and the
way people interpret the story?
Aside from diegetic, some of the other important elements I
have learned that contribute to film genre are
Dimension of sounds,
-
Rhythm ( Coordination )
-
Fidelity ( faithfulness )
-
Space (perspective )
-
Time ( synchronisation )
And one good example is Rhythm (sound coordination with
movement)
Here, we were shown with this short cartoon of Mickey Mouse
as an example matching movement on screen to rhythm of music.
 |
| Mickey Mouse in Tokyo - Go |
Interestingly Rhythm can be used in various genres be it a
fighting scenes where sound FX should dominate the sequence. I feel this is
where the use of music builds up adrenaline in the scene.
Similarly for this fight scene when it builds up the music
becomes louder and more aggressive. At 1.18 where Neo kicked Smith onto the pillar,
a sudden increase of the music is imminent. The use of this may be to show the
end of the first fight and things are about to turn for the worst.
 | |||||
| Smith kicked by Neo onto the Pillar |
Likewise, the use of volume and pitch in this scene shows
dominance. Metaphorically saying, “I am not afraid by your strength”. Also, the
volume is manipulated to give that effect.
And in this scene, the background music is below the sound effect to give an impact of the punch. Furthermore, the choice of sound effect of a mechanic movement has let the audience to feel that the movement is repetitive and every punch has an equal impact.
