Don Lockwood Singing In The Rain Analysis

Getting sound and stage to work in tandem is tricky, but when achieved, creates lasting, memorable scenes. As an example, in Jurassic Park (1993), there is a scene with a water cup. The cup vibrates and ripples, with the accompaniment of water sounds and the foreboding noises of the t-rex. The t-rex roar is also something to behold, giving a bestial sound, regardless of the screen position

Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Singing in the Rain (1952) both use the transitions from silent to sound movies to help drive the narrative. Director Billy Wilder’s film, Sunset Boulevard and Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s Singing in the Rain utilize camera movements and sound to advance the plot.

Sound quality was there, as expected in a performance as such. In the midst of scenes you could make out crickets or even an ambulance which really gave life to the experience as a whole and left the moments of complete silence as powerful as ever.

Occasionally there would be subtitles of dialogue, but they were often short to ensure that audience would not be distracted. Live music played a large role in silent films and conveying the emotions to the audience. One ruinous aspect of the transition from silent films to sound films is the actors lack to transition with them. Important silent film stars such as Clara Bow and Rudolph Valentino faded away with silent films. However, stars like Charlie Chaplin and Lionel Barrymore were able to make a successful transition from silent to sound, and continued their strong acting

The iconic number “Singin’ in the Rain”, introduces the scene with Don (Gene Kelly) giving Kathy a good night kiss, and then begins to sing about his joy of being in love. Which is why the song is carefree and has an upbeat sound, showcasing the songs vibrant and happy mood. The song is in a 4/4 time signature.The tempo of the song is moderato and allegro. The dynamics in this song first starts out quite soft and then it gradually gets louder and stays at that level. It eventually gets louder, mainly the instruments, at sudden points and goes back to a quieter sound. The dynamics goes through many changes from loud then soft then it ends on a soft point. Since the song is sung only by Don (Gene Kelly), the pitch of the song is at the alto.

As well as lighting, sound was used very effectively to stage the story. For example “echoes” were created in the alleyways, to make us think that Eddie’s house was a long way away. These echoes were also used to symbolise Eddie’s loneliness. This could show that there is emptiness in Eddie’s heart that can only be filled by a close friend or a brother. There was a bold use of sound especially in scary, dramatic or important scenes. This added to the drama of the overall performance, it made the audience feel a variety of emotions. In the scene when Mrs. Lyons tries to murder Mrs. Johnston, the sound affects really emphasised how Mrs. Lyons was feeling and her sheer madness. The use of surround sound made me feel like I was in the scene and it made the whole performance much more realistic.

Throughout history sound has been used to help convey a story. As early as the 1900’s, without today’s technology, movies would often be accompanied by a soundtrack played on a piano or record players. In 1927 The Jazz singer was released, a warner bros movie that featured music and dialog on the actual filmstrip. This film is

When silent movies were beginning to be replaced by movies with sound, or ‘Talkies’, controversy began to surround Hollywood and it stars. Between Fatty Arbuckle hitting an actress at a party

Along with background music, sound effects play more of a role on the way we feel than many moviegoers think, and "although the function of sound effects is primarily atmospheric, they can also be precise sources of meaning in film" (Giannetti, 225). When the

The Blue Angel is a German film directed by Josef von Sternberg, from 1930. In 1929, there a clear division in film, the division was between sound and silence. Sound was a major attraction to audiences during the Great Depression. The Blue Angel was Germany’s first complete movie with speech. There are four types of soundtrack materials in films, such as speech, music, noise, and silence. I am focusing on silence, which contains three subcategories, such as absolute, virtual, and selective. The characters in The Blue Angel who are associated with silence are Professor Rath and the clown. Silence for both characters signifies madness and sadness.

Another aspect of sound in this film was how it affected the story. By using sound dramatically in certain parts and not using it at all in other parts, sound gave this story an entity of its own. For example, during long stretches of film with mostly dialogue, there was no music played in the background, only a phone ringing in the distance, or the men's voices during their deliberation. These long silences also took place during editing shots of the town and images that surrounded this German city. This dramatic difference in sound was a revelation of how mood can be made by images and sound put together to make an incredible component.

In 1927 new technology emerged in sound, people started going back to the theatres to watch films,

In movies history, there was no music the movie till 1931. Introducing sounds in horror movies was an important step to make movie more realistic. Mr. Rudolph Arnhein believed that sound of voices and other noises enhanced the felt presence of the events. The sounds in horror movies came from different instruments and other noises (Spadoni). The most common sounds in horror movies are ticking clock, thunder and rain beating against the windows (Kelleghan).

The Artist covered a transitional period in cinema- indicated by the intertitle of the film as being 1927-1931- from the era of silent movies to the advent of sound. The film displayed the process of Hollywood silent movie star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) failing in his previously successful acting career, resulting from negatively confronting the emergence and subsequent popularity of the talkies[footnoteRef:2]. He attempts to revive the silent movie enterprise through the assistance of Peppy Miller (enacted by B?r?nice Bejo, Hazanavicius? wife), a star-actress of the new sound films. The finale resolves George?s quandary through his participation in musicals. The ending also attributes George?s initial fears around the advent of sound to him having a French accent. In accordance with the film?s theme and configuration, Hazanavicius presented it as a black-and-white, silent film[footnoteRef:3] framed in 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Furthermore, the film was

“Hearing is believing”, as the potential motto of all sound practitioners inteprets, sound has played a great part in our daily life, so as in the world of film. The first film with basic sound showed up in the year of 1900 in Paris. Though the technique is quite juvenile, it is indeed a breakthrough in the film history. The first film with synchronous sound, which is actually the real sound film as we recognized, is ‘The light of New York’ published at 1928 by the Vitaphone Corporation (Griffith 1961). This can be seen as a leap in the history of film industry. Film has become increasingly prosperous since then. In the meantime, the sound effect of films has become more and more mature and sophisticated.