Sound In Alred Hitchcock's Film The Birds

Sound is something quite special, impactful, and adds layers of elements and complexity to a film. As with the progression of the movie making medium, sound has grown and changed drastically over the decades. However, sound cues in the form of effects, dialogue, and everything in between, shapes our perceptions of a scene and movie.

For example, the people filming the movie sometimes had the camera far away, which would then make the lines that the characters said harder to hear. If the camera was too close to a character's face, it was displeasing to look at, like when Johnny was in the hospital. Also, when watching the whole movie, it was hard to concentrate on the actual movie because I was too distracted on the voices to music ratio. Typically in a motion picture, the music is lowered enough so that the lines can be heard, while having it be loud enough for the audience to hear it, and bring the point across that it's an important moment to have that type of music. To give an example, in Ponyboy’s dream, it was very quite, then all of a sudden, extremely loud music and sounds erupted as I struggled to cover my ears, and I couldn’t pay attention to what was happening on screen because of all the piercing noise! Then, when Ponyboy woke up it was all normal volume that barely transitioned. There were a lot of other scenes that did the same exact thing, such as when Johnny went to back to his house and the volume of the parents fighting in the background almost cancelled out the other important lines and music. There are other problems than this particular one, some being no music at some points when it was most likely necessary to get the emotions that the characters were feeling across, or when the characters lines and volume were so quiet that you could barely to not hear them at all, or when the outside wind was so deafening to pay attention to anything else. It was somewhat comical to me every time one of these moments occurred, because it seems the creators didn’t care enough to fix

The cinematic language that we know of today would not be as it is today if we had synchronous sound recording from the beginning of film. Cinematic Language is the systems, methods or conventions by which movies communicate with the viewer. A few examples of cinematic language are; montage; mise en scene, the use of long takes, depth of field shooting in order associate people or objects; Expressionism, the use of lighting techniques, severe camera angles, and elaborate props, to name a few aspects; and realism, a technique to make the action seem as true to life as possible. The list of techniques and styles of cinematic language go on, and can only be limited by the imagination. Early films, and early sound films both had something in common; they lacked many elements of the cinematic language. The reason sound films reverted back to the same pre-cinematic style of early films, was due to the fact that they had technical difficulties, that required them to fall into the style of the old ways. I do believe that if filmmakers would have had sound from the beginning, with the same sense of movie direction they worked with, they would have used sound as a crutch rather than an enhancing element.

The first Alien movie is one of my favors whose sound evokes terror and suspense. The scene that used sounds build terror and suspense is very intense was when Captain Dallas was inside the cramped air-duct. The other members were tracking the Alien on a computer and communicating it to Dallas. The computer was making clicking sound to show were it was located and then all the sudden the tracking sound stops and you have stone cold silent. This silence creates an eerie vacuum that sense of something impending is about to bust. Then all the sudden the clicking sound started up again and begins to get louder and louder and is moving towards Dallas. Then silent, and you then see Dallas gets out of air duct, turn and is face to face with the Alien.

Tim Burton, in Edward Scissorhands , uses sound to show the contrast between the dark and angelic sides of Edward. For example, when Peg is walking up the staircase of Edward's castle the viewer hears the sound of her heels clicking. This shows how lonely and isolated Edward

The different categories of sound are being used in my chosen film Wizard of Oz is dialogue, sound effects and music. First, the dialogue used to communicate between the characters. For example, the movie viewers hear how scared Dorothy was when she entered into the land of Oz. Second, the sound effects of the fantasy film were used to portray what is about to happen in each of the scenes. For example, the scene of the twister overrunning Kanas was created with special effects. Third, the music in the film set the mood as well as sound effects. For example, the fear of seeing the wicked witch arriving at different scenes of Dorothy and her friends set by the music in the background. In essence, he different categories of sound such as dialogue, sound effects and music are being used in The Wizard of Oz film.

While watching Fritz Lang’s M, besides the importance of the movie’s subtext and theme, one notable aspect is the use and subsequence importance of sound. From the beginning until the end of the movie we could see that sound is not just there as the latest trend in technology during that time, but used to illustrate each character. In Kaes’ essay, he writes that “M’s sound collages often express the unconscious of a character or the unspoken implications scene.” Lang did not show the characteristic of a certain character by showing his or her backstory, but with sounds : “sound alone demoted the criminal”. Kaes states that many feature films were utilizing sound for the musical number or comedy; Lang, on the other hand did something completely

Sound is a very important aspect to a movie. Previously, we were to watch historical films for our film class. These movies were somewhat difficult to watch because they had no sound. In relation, sound is another elemental system that is organized into a series of dialogue, music, ambience, and effects tracks. Various sounds were heard throughout this movie.

In film and television, sound design is the most crucial tool no matter what the project or genre is. Without sound effects, music score or surround sound, film production would not be where it is today. One person who made a differenced and changed the scale of sound in film was named Richard King.

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.

Sound for each of these films helped develop the movies, as it does with all movies. But each had an iconic sound that disguised itself with the movie. In Chitty Chitty Bang Bang it was the noise of the car as it moved along. And for Sweeny Todd the lever action of his chair that propelled his victims to their deplorable means to an

Sound in animation is an interesting thing because it’s usually an afterthought for some filmmakers, especially those just starting out. This can even be said of early animation where sound was recorded to the finished picture. After viewing some examples of early animation I find it to be true that the soundtrack plays just as big of a role as the picture in animation. The influence of sound can be found in early films such as Peter and the Wolf, 1946 and Music Land, 1935. In these films sound isn’t just an aspect of the film, but it takes center stage.

Sound and editing are both very crucial concepts in film. In Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run (1998), the way the narrative structure is set up can make the differentiation of diegetic and non-diegetic sound difficult for the viewer. The relationship between sound and the narrative structure, however, also makes the viewer more aware of the film's artificiality. In King Hu's Come Drink With Me (1966), we see how the major motifs of editing emphasize the unrealistic and fantasy qualities of the characters.

A great example of proper use of sound is definitely found in the movie Alien on multiple occasions. It is classified as a horror film and most horror films tend to heavily focus on the use of  sound to implement jump scares, as well as build tension to the viewer. A scene where the use of sound is perfectly put on display is when Dallas is crawling descending through the tunnels to confirm the location of the alien. The dim lighting and Dallas being by himself are very good hints that the alien is in a location nearby. The viewer can tell by the way Dallas is talking that he truly is fearing for his life. Dallas is usually the calm one out of

What drives a scene in a movie, television show, or video game is the music in the background. Movies and television shows often share the same element when using an orchestra score as background music. “Music adds to the emotional quality of the film. There is some empirical evidence to support this: fast and loud music arouses, slow and soft music calms. Motion and emotion are often entwined”. (Schaefer, 1998). The audience feel more emotional as you hear the sad melody of a violin during a dramatic scene. For some films that have