Lecture 2: The Sound Track and Film Narrative, Part 2

Question 1

A person not seen (and who may not belong to the physical world shown in the film) talks directly to the viewer. Provides additional information that we would not get form the stright-forward narrative.

Answer 1

Voice-over

Question 2

Exceptions where dialogue is not always featured in the foreground.

Answer 2

characters are physically far away (lower volume) or form part of the crowd (generic sound)

Question 3

What do sound effects add to the scene?

Answer 3

add additional sonic layers to the narrative

depth by supplementing sound for images on-screen, or to suggest elements we cannot see

Question 4

Environmental sound; environmental noise
background sounds appropriate to the physical space being depicted, such as crickets, water, or birds. it extends the physical space, sometimes beyond what we can see in the frame

Answer 4

Ambient sound

Question 5

A sudden and sharp accent; most often applied to music (a loud chord or cymbal crash) but equally appropriate to speech (a shout or loud cry) or effects (gun shot or door slamming).

Answer 5

Stinger/ accent

Question 6

Sound effects, usually of important characters and figures, created through looping and added to the sound track… movement noise

Answer 6

Foley

Question 7

Provides narrative cues (usually confirming what we see)

Answer 7

Music

Question 8

Conventional musical figures that evoke, represent, or signify a particular mood, place, emotion, or some other character trait in the narrative. General signification (not unique to the film). Give examples.

Answer 8

Musical topic (style topic)
fast music for a chase sequence, ominous music for a villain
national anthems to connote locale (specific geographic regions).

Question 9

Term derived from nineteenth century opera and applied to film music. In literature, recurring figures; in sound film, these can be either visual or aural.
-Particular to a film (or set of films)
-Often also musical topics
-Can fill in the gap for the aufience, recalling a character or event that is not on-screen or occurred in a previous scene.
Give examples

Answer 9

Leitmotif

• star wars
• lord of the rings
• the hobbit

Can explain an important narrative point
- Imperial march in Star Wars Episode II

Question 10

How does music establish mood

Answer 10

1. elements of music (rythm, timbre, orchestration, tempo, tonality) can suggest different moods, often more effectively that a particular melody
2. It adds emotional intensity and specificity; effective in underlining the unspoken thoughts of a character or the unseen implications of a situation
3. It influences and organizes time; music used to link scenes together, to smooth the transition from one scene to the other. Music heard before the source is seen, can help with the transition

Question 11

music heard before the source is seen, can help with transitions

Answer 11

Sound advance (type of scene transition).

Question 12

music heard by the characters

Answer 12

diagetic

source music

Question 13

music heard only by the audience

works in the narrative register of the film

Answer 13

non-diagetic

underscoring