Preliminary Exercise 14: Defining and Analyzing Sound in a Film Opening

 Preliminary Exercise 14: Defining and Analyzing  Sound in a Film Opening

INTRODUCTION

The Sound in film assignment is about finding and elaborating on what role sound takes place in a film. We were tasked to categorize a moving image text into diegetic and non diegetic sound. Diagetic sound are sounds that originate on screen and are sounds the characters experience. Non diagetic sound are sounds the characters that are portrayed in the film cant hear. For example, a narrator wouldnt be heard by the actors. Internal diagetic is a sound that only the person speaking can hear. A character can narrate to himself in his head but only the viewers could hear it. It's important to understand the source of sound in film as it tells the story and builds depth into scenes. Think about horror movies and the background screams or echoes, it builds anticipation and also ambience for scenes.

Score: ______/60 marks
Word	Meaning and example from a specific movie. (Add details
Diegetic Sound	Any sound that originates from the world of film. Dialogue in Cruella about crashing a party.
Non diegetic Sound	Any type of sound that does not exist within the words of a film. Godzilla roaring at King Kong.
Source music	Comes from a source in the story like a speaker or bad. Johnny from Sing playing the piano.
On screen Sound	Any sound that is visibly connected to what is happening on the screen. Peter & MJ speaking about their feelings in Spider-Man.
Off Screen	A sound emitted by a source which is not visible in the frame but is part of the diegetic world of film. MR Sprinkles popping in Trolls in the back.
Underscore	The playing of music quietly under spoken dialogue or a visual scene. Aragorns’s speech at the Black Gate in Lord of the Rings.
Internal diegetic Sound	If the characters can hear it, even if it’s only in their head. Bird screeching in UP.
Background Sound	Sound which can be heard while listening to or monitoring other sounds. Chickens clucking while Eddie & Venom talked.
Foley Artist	Complements or replaces sound recorded on set at the same time of the filming, known as field recording. The attackers smashing the glass in Wakanda Forever.
Foley Sound Effects	Custom sounds made in post-production. Fire breaking out in Cruella’s apartment.
Sound motif	A series of notes that represent something. The spider on Spider-Man’s suit.
Monologue	Speech presented by a single character, often to express thoughts. Emmet’s speech in the Lego Movie to Lord Business.
Sound Bridge	When audio is carried over the visual transition to tie together two scenes. Neo’s alarm clock being heard at the end of the preceding scene in the Matrix.
Sound Design	The craft of combining every piece of audio in a film. The Grinch running away on snow from carolers while they sing and he’s panicking. Doors slamming to.
Sound Perspective	The apparent distance of a sound source, evidenced by its volume, timbre, and pitch. Mater from Cars yelling McQueen’s name while he’s talking to someone.
Sound Mixing	The process of adjusting audio levels of all of the sound in a film. Anica in Jingle Jangle and backup singers singing while dancing and moving things around.
Stings	Used in broadcasting and films as a form of punctuation. June’s dad in Missing knocking heavily on the door before kidnapping her.
Melodic Sound	A sweet or agreeable succession or arrangement of sounds. Snow White singing with the birds in the forest.
Discordant Sound	Subconsciously has a disturbing effect on the audience. Clocks ticking in the House with Clocks in its walls.
Contrapuntal Sound	Sound that contrasts strongly with the image that you see on screen. Baby giggling in Incredibles while they’re searching for him.
Room tone	The silence recorded at a location or space when no dialogue is spoken. Lake scene in Birdbox.
Walla Sound	The vocal sounds that people make in the background as the actors with speaking parts do their line.  Police officers talking while batman and guy plan to break out.
Synchronous Sound	Audio that lines up precisely with what’s happening on a scene. Music playing while Mario is fighting Donkey Kong in Super Mario Bros Movie.
Asynchronous Sound	Audio that doesn’t match up with visuals. Branch screaming aggressively in Trolls while everybody is happy & singing.
Direct Sound	All of the sound that is recorded at the time of filming. Ricky and Bobby panicking and making noises in Talladega Movie.
Parallel Sound	Sounds that compliment the mood, tone, or atmosphere of a scene. Romantic tone music in kissing scene from Me before You.
Loudness	The volume or level of the sound. Rock & Roll scene in Spider Verse.
Silence	The absence of a backing track forces us to pay attention to what’s on camera. Marriage scene in Shrek where Shrek can’t answer lord Farquaad’s question.
Crescendo	A gradual increase in loudness. Singing scene in Moana where the whole village contributes.
Rhythm	The placement of sounds in time. Harley Quinn performance in joker.

Opening of “The Giver”
What is the film about?	A peaceful world that is secretly a dystopian civilization following the loss of memory of who they were.
Production Company/companies	As Is Productions  Walden Media  Tonik
Director	Phillip Noyce	Sound Engineer (s)	Tyson Lozensky  Dale Angell  Louw Verwoerd
Genre (s)	Science Fiction  Young Adult fiction  Dystopian Fiction	Movie release	August 15th, 2014
Audience (s)	Targeted towards a young audience who love dystopian writing.
Original music titles from the soundtrack. (Only from the opening.)	Main Titles
Music  (List 3 words used to describe this music)	Grand, Peaceful, Melancholic
Sound Effects  (List 8 effects)	Children laughing, injection sounds, bike riding, Airship sounds, bike bell, mysterious ringing, background chatter
Dialogue  (List the most important line in the film’s opening and why? 3 sentences to describe information.	Line: “I always felt like I saw things differently, saw things other people didn’t.”
	Explanation: This line is powerful as it establishes the main character becoming aware of the place, he really lives in. What he means by seeing things differently that other people didn’t relates to when he looks up and sees color in a world of black and white. This clearly shows that the main character has something special about him.

Diegetic Sounds (Dialogue, Music and Sound Effects the audience and characters can hear.)	Non-diegetic Sounds  ( voiceover, sound effects and music)
Dialogue: Conversation between his friends: Direct sound, synchronous, outer dialogue  Sound Effect: Injection: Direct sound, loud, synchronous sound, foley sound  Bike bell: Direct sound, loud, asynchronous, foley sound	Voiceover: Asynchronous  Sound effect: Mysterious ringing: Quiet, Ambient Sound, Asynchronous  Music: Main Titles: Incidental music, foley sound, asynchronous

REFLECTION

I learned the definition of diegetic, internal diegetic, and non diegetic sounds. I also learned how it builds a story and its connotations. Me and my team each separated the assignment into three parts. I did the vocabulary and my partners did a respective section. I finished my vocabulary section and aided in the rest. We found our information on YouTube and on trusted websites that provide film information. I would say our team did well and followed the instructions of the assignment with no difficulty.