Sounds of Cinema

"The cinema is an audiovisual medium, one that saturates our contemporary media experience" (The Film Experience: An Introduction pp.186). Most of the visual technology that we use everyday, also is a sound technology. Examples include: television, video games, computers, mp3 players, along with many more. Sound is used as a compliment to aid the visuals and amuse the audience. In film, sound affects the way the viewer feels, in the sense the sounds control the emotion of the audience. Certain music in horror films can make the audience suspenseful, while certain music in comedies can keep the audience entertained. In animation, sounds are often used to exaggerate an action of a character, especially in classic cartoons such as Looney Tunes (1929).



Sound is pivotal to any film and any genre. Even some silent films include sound, but not peoples voices. They include music among other miscellaneous sound effects. Now a days, a movie can be followed strictly through the communication of listening to it. The dialogue is often so deep that the story is practically narrated by the characters acting it out. Some directors even go so far as to make the screen go black for a short period of time, all the while keeping the characters talking, forcing the audience to follow along through sound.

Sound, unlike images, cannot be distinguished from its original when it is edited. "With images, we readily recognize that we see only a two-dimensional copy of the original" (The Film Experience: An Introduction pp.191). Sound is much easier to incorporate into a film than the editing of images, but this was not always the case. A perfect example would be old Asian movies. Often times the sound would not match up with the movement of the characters mouth, and the character would often finish speaking before the sentence was completed. Sound editing has come a long way since sound was first included in cinema. One area in particular where sound has flourished is in musicals. Westside Story (1961) is one of the most popular musicals of all time, and one of the first musicals to be a cinema success. Incorporating sound into film has brought some of Broadway's finest work to a much larger audience who wouldn't otherwise have a chance to see one.

Sound is an afterthought for most viewers, even for most filmmakers. Since film is meant to be dominated by visual, sound is not the main focus. Sound recording is something that takes place in the development of every film. "When the slate is filmed at the beginning of each take, the clapboard is snapped; this recorded sound is used to synchronize sound recordings and camera images" (The Film Experience: An Introduction pp.196). Microphones may also be placed around the set or on the actors to help the sound quality.