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CHAPTER 7
SOUND IN THE CINEMA
Chapter Outline
Sound Decisions
The Powers of Sound
Sound Shapes Our Understanding of Images
Guiding Our Eye and Mind
Fundamentals of Film Sound
Perceptual Properties
Recording, Altering, and Combining Sounds
Musical Motifs in Breakfast at Tiffany’s
A Closer Look: Orchestrating Romance in Jules and Jim
Dimensions of Film Sound
Rhythm
Fidelity
Space
A Closer Look: Offscreen Sound and Optical Point of View
The Money Exhange in Jackie Brown
Sound Perspective
Sound Perspective in the Theater Space
Time
Conversation Piece
Summary
Teaching “Sound in the Cinema”
The Purpose of the Chapter
Lecturing On and Discussing Sound
In our experience, the categories of sound discussed in Chapter 7 can be more difficult
to teach than the techniques discussed in the three previous chapters. The effects of
CHAPTER 7 SOUND IN THE CINEMA
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costume motifs, high or low camera angles, jump cuts, and other stylistic traits are
reasonably apparent on the screen. Such distinctions as simultaneous versus
nonsimultaneous sound, external versus internal sound, and other categories used in
Chapter 7 are more conceptual and hence more abstract and elusive for the students.
In either lecture or discussion section, you might try running a film with the image turned
off but with the sound track audible. Try to choose a sequence in which the sounds are
quite prominent and varied (scenes without musical score are better for this purpose)
but which do not give obvious clues as to what is going on onscreen. (Dialogue scenes
are usually not helpful for this sort of exercise. Animated cartoons that do not have
much dialogue are particularly intriguing to students and can provide a vivid
demonstration. They often have sounds that are exaggerated or lack fidelity to their
purported sources. Some cartoon sound tracks provide relatively few clues as to what is
happening on the screen.) Then show the same scene (or cartoon) with sound. This
exercise could profitably be used to generate a discussion on how sound influences our
expectations in a scene.
Assigning a Paper on Sound
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The same basic topic described in the section on mise-en-scene in Chapter 4 could
be assigned, but with the students directed to write on one or more motifs of sound in
a film.