audio techniques film

Audio Techniques in Film

Choose two opening scenes from films of different genres and compare how the sound positions the audience, and affects the mood of each scene

Film 1                                                                                                    Film 2

 

1.       Watch each clip and describe the music, (non) diegetic or ambient sounds in the scenes:

Army of darkness doesn’t really have much to it. It’s the main character of the film explaining what happened in the previous film which is non diegetic because its narration. There are diegetic sounds throughout the opening scene for example there is screaming, smashing, and other noises that we can hear and so can the actors in the scene.

Predator’s intro scene is mainly all diegetic because all of the sounds and music are in the scene and there is music, but they are playing it on a boom box so that they can hear it as well. There are helicopter sounds, the sounds of radio static from the pilot’s radios.

2.       Do the sounds of each scene conform to what you expect to hear in the genres?

They don’t conform entirely to army of darkness, but they do conform to predator because it’s quite quiet and all the sounds are within film so they are all diegetic.

3.       How does sound assist in positioning the audience?

For the predator film it helps because it lets the watchers know that they are in a helicopter playing with guns and planning a mission. With The Army of Darkness, the narration lets you know what’s happened or what’s happening along with the diegetic sounds as well.

4.       Does the use of sound change the meaning either scene?

Only with The Army of Darkness because there is a good mixture of diegetic sounds and non-diegetic sounds which mixes it up a bit

5.       If you were editing both scenes, what sounds could you change to alter the tone of the films?

I would edit the Army of Darkness by adding more non-diegetic music because there is only a small amount and what is there is not exactly music it’s more like a musical wind.

For the Predator I would add non-diegetic sounds because there doesn’t seem to be any. I would add either some kind of stereotypical action music

6.       Which film has a more effective use of sound? Why? (200 words)

They both use sounds very well, but one is slightly more effective. I think that the Predator has the most effective sound. My reason for this is because the way they have all the helicopter sounds, radio sounds, guns clicking and basically all the sounds for this opening scene just work perfectly. My favourite part is the song that plays whilst they are all in the helicopter because it just fits the scene.