Sound

Film Language: Sound

Sound
Sound adds an extra dimension to films and has been extremely useful and common in films for a long while. The first film with sound is known to have taken place in 1911, however it was only in 1927 that the Warner Brothers released the first feature film with a soundtrack, 'The Jazz Singer'. The reason it took this long while to apply sound to film is because companies didn't want to invest the large amounts of money needed for it to be applied. However the next sound film 'Lights of New York' impressed so much that sound film took off and the entire film industry started to make sound films.

Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sound
The film as we see on the cinema screen is known as the diegetic world.

Diegetic sound is sound which is actually part of the film world we are watching. This can be dialogue, music or sound effects which come from a source within the film world. The music in this instance will be from a source in the film which we acknowledge could actually be producing music, for example a CD player or jukebox.

Nondiegetic sound is sound which we do not recognise as part of the film world such as a voice-over or background music.

Sound Bridges
You will notice that sound from one scene may often continue even though the image on screen has moved from one scene to the next. This is known as a sound bridge which helps to create a smooth transition from one scene to another as the film would seem very disjointed if the sound changed every time the picture on the screen changed. In this way the sound is said to be enhancing the continuity of the film.

Parallel and Contrapuntal Sound
Normally in a film the sound we here compliments the image on screen. For Example if were looking at children on a beach, we expect to be hearing happy voices and children laughing and appropriate music for that scenario. This is what is known as Parallel Sound.
However similar to the film 'Jaws', if you see children playing on a beach but hear sinister music in the background which signals the arrival of the shark, it is known as contrapuntal sound because the sound does not match what we are watching on the on the screen.