What Is the Importance of Sound in Tv or Film, and How Can It Be Used Creatively in Driving the Narrative Forward?
What is the importance of sound in TV or Film, and how can it be used creatively in driving the narrative forward?
‘More than half a century after the coming of sound, film criticism and theory still remain resolutely image-bound. Early filmmaker’s scepticism about the value of sound has been indirectly perpetuated by generations of critics for whom the cinema is an essentially visual art, sound serving as little more than a superfluous accompaniment.’ (Altman 1980 Pg 45) In this essay I will analyse why sound is important in film and how it is used to drive a narrative forward. I will start with an introduction to sound history and progress to the fundamental element that sound is in the film industry and how music, sound effects and dialogue are significant in films. I will then proceed to how Orsen Wells used sound to drive the narrative forward and the importance of the right type of sound. Then by using the film Hugo as an example to strengthen my research.
Sound was first introduced to film in the 1920s and by the 1930s mostly all films where talkies (‘If you put natural sound corresponding to visual image and in particular on the human voice you make a “talkie”’ (Braun 1985 Pg 97). Sound was introduced to film by Warner Brothers in 1926 as most of the more successful film studios such as FOX were making enough money with their silent films they didn’t feel they had to incorporate sound to their motion pictures. Warner Brothers were not making as much as the other film studios so they took the risk of adding sound to their films. The public became interested with Warner Brothers after their first sound integrated movie; they then went on to release ’The Jazz Singer’ in 1927. Sound in films continued to be successful but didn’t become feasible to the public in till the 1950’s when they started having sound in cinema by Fred Waller’s Cinerama system. This used 35mm projectors creating image and 35mm film strip with seven channels of audio.
Sound is a
‘More than half a century after the coming of sound, film criticism and theory still remain resolutely image-bound. Early filmmaker’s scepticism about the value of sound has been indirectly perpetuated by generations of critics for whom the cinema is an essentially visual art, sound serving as little more than a superfluous accompaniment.’ (Altman 1980 Pg 45) In this essay I will analyse why sound is important in film and how it is used to drive a narrative forward. I will start with an introduction to sound history and progress to the fundamental element that sound is in the film industry and how music, sound effects and dialogue are significant in films. I will then proceed to how Orsen Wells used sound to drive the narrative forward and the importance of the right type of sound. Then by using the film Hugo as an example to strengthen my research.
Sound was first introduced to film in the 1920s and by the 1930s mostly all films where talkies (‘If you put natural sound corresponding to visual image and in particular on the human voice you make a “talkie”’ (Braun 1985 Pg 97). Sound was introduced to film by Warner Brothers in 1926 as most of the more successful film studios such as FOX were making enough money with their silent films they didn’t feel they had to incorporate sound to their motion pictures. Warner Brothers were not making as much as the other film studios so they took the risk of adding sound to their films. The public became interested with Warner Brothers after their first sound integrated movie; they then went on to release ’The Jazz Singer’ in 1927. Sound in films continued to be successful but didn’t become feasible to the public in till the 1950’s when they started having sound in cinema by Fred Waller’s Cinerama system. This used 35mm projectors creating image and 35mm film strip with seven channels of audio.
Sound is a
Bibliography: Weis, Elizabeth and Belton, John (1985), Film Sound: Theory and Practice, NYC: Columbia University Press. Murch, Walter., ‘Touch of Silence’, in Sider, L., Freeman, D., and Sider, J. (eds.) Soundscape: The School of Sound Lectures 1998-2001. London and New York: Wallflower Press, Knowles Marshall, Jane, (1988), An Introduction To Film Sound, FilmSound.org, http://filmsound.org/marshall/, (accessed 24th November 2012) Happe, Bernard, (1997) The History of Sound in the Cinema, http://www.cinematechnologymagazine.com, July/August 1998, http://www.cinematechnologymagazine.com/pdf/dion%20sound.pdf (accessed 22nd November 2012) Hugo, (Martin Scorsese, USA: Paramount Pictures, 2011) Touch of Evil, (Orsen Wells, USA: Universal Studios, 1958)