PRELIMINARY EXCERCISE 14: ANALYZING A FILM OPENING SOUND IN FILM

 

Preliminary Exercise 14:  Analyzing a Film Opening Sound in Film

 

Objective: Students will define and provide examples for sound in film to practice the recording of a range of sounds for a soundtrack. They will use a mobile phone to record sounds for that would support the scenario that their Cambridge group chose for Preliminary Exercise 13: Introduction to Sound (Becoming a Sound Engineer). Every student will have a discussion with their team and ask the question, What sound do we need to record to support the genre of our film?

Section A:  Definitions and Examples

Score: ______/60 marks
Word	Meaning and example from a specific movie. (Add details
Diegetic Sound	The world of the film, and everything in it, everything a character can experience within their world is diegetic, movie example: avatar: the way of water
Non diegetic Sound	Sounds that do not have its source within the world of the film and only the audience can hear it like, incidental music, voice-over addressed to the audience, score, and sound effects added for a dramatic effect, movie example: TICK, TICK…BOOM! (2021)
Source music	is any music that comes from the world of your narrative. In most cases, this is the music that the characters are listening to in a scene
On screen Sound	Sounds that appears to be made on screen of the scene and it originated within the film’s world, movie example: Spiderman: homecoming (2017)
Off Screen	Sounds that can be heard off screen as background sound effects such as birds chirping outside or a glass breaking that is not shown on the screen, movie example: la Ceremonie (1995)
Underscore	a soft soundtrack theme that accompanies the action in a performance. Movie example: he Black Gate in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003).
Internal diegetic Sound	Sound coming from the mind of a character that we can hear but the other characters cannot, includes thoughts, narration, music, etc. Ex: ZOMBIELAND (2009)
Background Sound	Background music is a type of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be the primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are intentionally designed to effect behavioral and emotional reactions in humans such as attention, relaxation,
Foley Artist	The common noises heard in movies, TV series, and video games—such as footsteps, a sword being taken from its scabbard, or the swishing of clothes as two people pass each other—are created and recorded by foley artists.
Foley Sound Effects	the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to films, videos, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality
Sound motif	a sound effect, or series of sound effects, that are used in the movie to represent a certain character, place, circumstance, or idea.
Monologue	Is a speech given by a single character in a story it is the vocalization of a character’s thoughts
Sound Bridge	The sound or music that is carried from one scene to the next. It links two scenes together and keeps the audience distracted while the scene cuts to the next
Sound Design	the art of creating a movie's soundscape by fusing together all of the audio in the movie, including the soundtrack, dialogue, sound effects, and ambient.
Sound Perspective	,a convention whereby sounds heard by the audience reflect the relative distances of their apparent sources in three-dimensional space. In a long shot, sounds in the background would be quieter than those in the foreground.
Sound Mixing	a process during the post-production stage of a moving image program by which a multitude of recorded sounds are combined.
Stings	musical cues that came sharply and dramatically and were often delivered just after an actor delivered a line that signaled a new twist in the story. Many radio shows also had their own theme songs.
Melodic Sound	Something that's tuneful or pretty to listen to is melodic. Movie example: just one in my life time “unchained melody” 1965
Discordant Sound	music and sound in horror movies rely on dissonance and atonality to disrupt musical notes and rhythm of sounds
Contrapuntal Sound	sound that contrasts strongly with the image that you see on screen.
Room tone	the "silence" recorded at a location or space when no dialogue is spoken.
Walla Sound	a sound effect imitating the murmur of a crowd in the background
Synchronous Sound	audio that lines up precisely with what's happening on screen.
Asynchronous Sound	When sound doesn't match a film's visuals
Direct Sound	all of the sound that is recorded at the time of filming
Parallel Sound	sounds that complement the mood, tone, or atmosphere of a scene.
Loudness	a perception that determines how much sound pressure a particular source is emitting at a given time
Silence	The lack of sound in a film or low sound
Crescendo	The highest point of sound in a gradually increasing sound
Rhythm	A recurring beat forming a pattern

 

 

 

Section B: Analysis 1: General analysis of film opening.  (28 marks)

Opening of “The Giver”
What is the film about?	The film is about a society with people who are being controlled with no memory of their past, except the protagonist that was selected the Receiver of Memory
Production Company/companies	The Weinstein Company
Director	Phillip Noyce	Sound Engineer (s)	Harlan Steinberger
Genre (s)	sci-fi/Action	Movie release	August 15, 2014
Audience (s)	12 and above
Original music titles from the soundtrack. (Only from the opening.)	Music by Marco Beltrami
Music (List 3 words used to describe this music)	Renewing Deep Thoughtful
Sound Effects (List 8 effects)	Contrapuntal sound Sound Bridge Non diegetic sound Off screen Loud  Voice-over Score Traditional film
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, I never said anything I didn’t want to be different”
	Explanation: In this line the narrator its explaining how since a very young time in his life he always saw things in a different type of light from the rest of the people, this is important for the discoveries that he is later going to do.

 

Section C: Analysis 2: (25 marks)

Using the table below place the sounds in this film into their correct sound source categories. Using the vocabulary box label each type of sound using the examples provided.

Examples

Dialogue: monologue, direct sound.

Sound Effect: Thunder: Ambient sound, foley sound, loud, asynchronous.

                         Alarm Clock: Ambient sound, foley sound, loud, synchronous.

Music: Headphones playing “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley, incidental music, foley sound, crescendo, asynchronous.

Diegetic Sounds (Dialogue, Music and Sound Effects the audience and characters can hear.)	Non-diegetic Sounds ( voiceover, sound effects and music)
Monologue   Headphones playing “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley   Direct sound   Loud   Ambient Sound   Thunder   Synchronous	foley sound loud incidental music Asynchronous Crescendo