The Function of Film Sound
Simon Morgan
MSc Sound Design
8 Perseverence Street, Pudsey
s.morgan7696@student.leedsmet.ac.uk
INTRODUCTION
In this essay I shall explore the function of film sound by
explaining and exemplifying some of its individual
processes and techniques, how they are used and the effect
they give. I will concentrate on solely film sound and not on
the function of film music.
ASYNCHRONOUS NATURE OF FILMMAKING AND
SOUND DESIGN
Film sound is on the whole, as with the picture, is the
construction of a ‘false reality’, representing identity and a
period in time and space. Films are edited from multiple
takes from multiple angles. On a film set the lighting,
furniture and overall environment has been created or
arranged with the purpose of capturing a moment within the
characters lives for the films narrative. This is the same for
film sound – a ‘false reality’ or representation of the
particular scene in audio terms is created in layers of sounds
to create a complementary or completely unrealistic
soundtrack with the function of pushing the diegesis along.
“Although there are separate perceptual mechanisms for
sound and picture, the sound may be integrated by the
audience along with the picture into a complete whole,
without differentiation. In such a state, the sound and
picture together can become greater than the sum of its
parts” [1]
The majority of film sound can be attributed to reinforcing
the image. As with the vast majority of film productions
only the actors dialogue is wanted from the production
stage of the film. All other sounds must be recreated,
recorded and synched to the picture in the postproduction
stages of the film. There are various reasons for this –
control over the individual levels of sounds within the film
mix would be one of the most important ones. Other
reasons could include unwanted noise at the recording
locations and the distance of the microphone from the
sound source
This allows some creative opportunities to arise when
creating or recreating sound for the moving image.
FOCUS ATTENTION
We can use film sound to focus the attention of the view on
something within the frame, which may not necessarily be
the focus of the scene. In the book Sound Design by David
Sonnenschein he quotes Gary Rydstrom on how he used
sound to focus attention within the movie ‘Saving Private
Ryan’
“In Saving Private Ryan, there is a scene where the two
snipers are facing off in the courtyard in the rain. You hear
people in the town, artillery in the distance, sounds of war
going on all around us. At the climax when the two snipers
see each other in their scopes we are focused on the water
drips only. The German’s drip was a drum-like rhythm on
the windows where he’s hiding, and then the metallic drip
where the American is hiding. We cut to that drip then that
drip, in this case following the visuals.” [2]
Using this technique of stripping the sound all the way
down to the sounds closely associated with each of the
characters on screen Rydstrom draws the audience in closer
to their immediate world and the sounds the characters may
be hearing, blocking off other sounds that might distract
from absolute tension of this moment.
CREATING AMBIENCE
Where film sound can be particularly creative is in creating
a mood or feeling without the use of music. Film music
usually is there to push and pull our emotions through a
scene; film sound designed with effects alone is open to
individual interpretation. The use of diegetic sounds to
‘score’ the emotion of the scene can be heard in many
films.
In Danny Boyle’s ‘28 Days Later’, a film in which a man
awakens in hospital and discovers that he is one of the few
survivors of a ‘Rage’ virus outbreak, uses diegetic sounds
and effects to create the ambience of an abandoned city. By
using the perceived silence of the surroundings and the
heavily reverb treated Foley and dialogue sounds at the start
of the film to create a feeling of that the character might just
be the last human alive.
Usually the sound recordist, if working on location, will
record a few minutes of ‘silence’ before or after the scene is
shot. This ‘room tone’ or ambience can be placed over the
scene when editing to help the cuts seem natural by creating
a constant sound edits between each angle. This is when
music is particularly good at creating a linearlisation of the
scene. This room tone could be replaced with other sounds
to create a clashing ambience depending on the feel of the
scene.
Film sound is more linked to creating a realistic or
unrealistic but believable sonic environment for the
onscreen action to take place. Rather then film music,
which is used to convey or intensify emotions and action.
Music, however usually exists outside of the film’s world as
a non-diegetic sound source. Film sound is intrinsically
coupled to the action on screen.
ESTABLISHING MOOD
It is the sound designer and re-recording mixer’s remit to
create a sonic pallet for which the sonics of the scene is to
be painted. Whether these sounds are there to compliment
the visuals or playing certain scenes with sounds not
normally associated with the image to create an uneasy
feeling to make an audience feel uncomfortable.
Herein also exists some much played upon clichés within
the film sound world.
For example; the sounds of crickets chirping when its
nighttime in the country, the Red Tailed Hawk screech
when a character is walking alone through the desert,
creaky doors in ominous old houses. Thunder and
lightening always happens at the same time and you can
hear gunfire and explosions in space. All these elements,
although perhaps overused and sometimes scientifically
flawed, are expected sound mechanisms that an audience
may expect within a film sequence.
In the Coen brother’s 2007 film ‘No Country for Old Men’
there are very few music cues (6 in total) within its 122-
minute running time. This then paves the way for the sound
design to establish the mood and heighten emotions. There
are many scenes that are not only without music but also
feature very little dialogue. It was Sound designer and re-
recording mixer Craig Berkey’s task to add subtle Foley
effects, heard from the point of audition of the story’s
protagonist Moss, during a scene where the audience knows
there is an imminent confrontation between the him and the
antagonist Chigurgh.
“My favorite spot is at the Eagle hotel when Chigurgh is
approaching Moss from down the hall. There are several
things that happen off screen early in the sequence that
force you to focus on the smallest of sounds. A silenced
gunshot with a chair scrape, an unanswered phone ring, a
strange sound like putting your ear up to a seashell from
under the door; these all lead up to Chigurh’s footsteps and
floor creaks and the receiver beeping as he approaches
Moss’ room. Again, we know what is going to happen but
are still alarmed by it when it does” [3]
Another prime example of this from ‘The Godfather’ is
when Al Pacino’s character Michael is preparing to kill his
father’s enemies in an Italian restaurant where they are
meeting – there is the increasing sound of a train screeching
in the build up to this moment. The train is never introduced
or revealed within this scene but we accept that there could
be an overhead rail track in the neighborhood, although this
sound becomes abnormally loud by the climax of the scene.
This sound is a representation of the tension, mental
struggle and ultimate relief of Michael as he builds up to
the task.
POINT OF VIEW/POINT OF AUDITION
Film sound can be empathetic to the character by using
point of audition. This allows the audience member to be
put in the place of the on screen action, hearing what the
character can hear. This can be used to great effect to
convey the emotional state of the character by placing us
within a subjective listening environment. Whether is
matched with a point of view camera shot or whether the
sound operates in this way in other shots with the character.
This is exemplified in the film ‘Batman Begins’ in a scene
where the Scarecrow character has been exposed to his own
chemical weapon, which makes him experience
hallucinations. During this we hear Batman voice (heavily
processed/pitch shifted and modulated), as the Scarecrow
would perceive it giving the impression that we are
listening as that character.
Gary Rydstrom also talks about how he achieved a
subjective character experience in Saving Private Ryan
when Tom Hanks is suffering from hearing loss induced by
shell shock. In this scene one of his men is shouting at him
but he can’t hear anything. Another nearby explosion
punctuates his snap out of this shell shock.
“These moments are simple but work remarkably well to
help the audience identify with the character even more,
because they feel like they’ve been in his head for a short
period of time.” [4]
Point of audition can also be as simple as when a character
is talking on the phone and we hear the filtered voice of the
other person from the receiver as the character hears it.
ASPECTS OF DIGESIS
Diegetic sounds
Diegetic sounds are such whose source is known or
presumed to be in the fictional situation on screen. The
characters can react accordingly to sounds, such as traffic
sounds or explosions.
Non-Diegetic sounds
These are sounds that are not heard by the characters or
within the situation on screen. Examples of this include
sounds effects added to heighten drama and narration
(although this falls with other categories, explained below)
LITERALLY TELLING THE STORY
Narration exists within film to not only further the telling of
a story but can also explain characters feelings and
motivations that may otherwise be unknown to the viewer.
This is done by Metadiegetic and Extradiegetic narration.
Metadiegetic Narration
A narrative that is told by a character who features in the
story can be classed as Metadiegetic – such as by Ray
Liotta’s character in Goodfellas, who is explaining events
of his own life up to a certain point and then beyond that
point.
Other examples include Kevin Spacey’s character ‘Verbal
Kint’s narration in the form of a police interrogation in
Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects and Tim Roth’s
retelling of the story of his encounter with the police in the
men’s room in Reservoir Dogs.
Extradiegetic Narration
The voice of a narrator who doesn’t appear as part of the
story could be classed as extradiegetic. This occurs in films
such as ‘The Princess Bride’ where the fairytale story of
Wesley and Buttercup being played out on screen is being
told by an old man to his grandson who is ill in bed. This
forms the basis of the narration throughout the film.
Although we occasionally see the interaction between the
storyteller and his grandson, they don’t actually feature as
part of the main story.
SOUND IN (A) SPACE?
Creating a realistic or unrealistic audible environment for
where the action takes place is key in the believability of
the visual environment. Quite often in films, where the
sound designer or director wants a specific coloration to the
sound that would be difficult or impossible to recreate
solely in a recording studio, various methods of creating
‘Space’ are used.
“The footsteps in Star Wars are particularly telling in this
respect. As the storm troopers take over the princess’ ship
in the opening scenes, their footfalls establish the
geography and texture of the craft. The clanking sounds
reinforce the notion that the characters are walking on
metal grates inside a vast, high-tech spacecraft.” [5]
Usually some kind of spatial effects processing, such as
reverb and echo, will be applied to the audio in
postproduction to give the impression of a realistic acoustic
environment to conform to the visual image. Going even
further to enhance the realism of the acoustic treatment to
the sound would be ‘location-based Foley’ where sounds
are actually recorded in an appropriate environment. Frank
Darabont’s 1999 prison-based drama ‘The Green Mile’
utilized this by way of recording Foley effects from within
the concrete walled Fort MacArthur and various actual
prisons.
A process that is often employed in film audio
postproduction is ‘Worldizing’. This is where a sound
designer desires an accurate representation of an acoustic
environment to color the sound as required. This was
particularly employed by Walter Murch for the film
American Graffiti where he played back the radio show that
runs throughout the film from a speaker at one end of a
suburban back yard and recorded the sound back on to
another tape recorder from 50ft away. This allowed a
realistic sonic image of the radio show to be created being
played around the neighborhood, with the sound being
colored by bouncing off walls of an actual environment.
CREATING THE UNSEEN THROUGH SOUND
An active off screen sound that draws the attention of the
viewer is referred to as an acousmatic sound. An
acousmatic sound can often add gravity and mystery to a
sound before its physical form is revealed to the characters
and audience of the film. This allows the audience to
attempt to preconceive what the source of the sound is, not
knowing the size, strength or any physicality of the source.
“Acousmatic sound draws our attention to sound traits
normally hidden to us by the simultaneous sight of the
causes – hidden because the sight reinforces the perception
of certain elements of the sound and obscures others. The
acousmatic truly allows sound to reveal itself in all its
dimensions” [6]
In Matt Reeves’ 2008 film ‘Cloverfield’ before the enemy
threat is revealed on screen fear and tension is built by the
sounds that the threat makes and the result of its destruction
of New York. The characters by way of point of audition
hear this. Using this method the sound cements the feel of
the hand held ‘found footage’ nature of the film.
Another good use of acousmatic sound is in Jurassic Park
where the low thud of the approaching T-rex’s feet coupled
with the visual of the ripples on the surface of the cup of
water gives the impression that whatever is coming is big!
Although we already know that it will be a dinosaur – the
audience is not prepared for the size and sound of when it
arrives on the screen.
SYNCHRESIS AND CHARACTERISATION
Synchresis is a term made from a combination of two
words: Synchronism and Synthesis. It means the cognitive
connection between a sound and its visual representation
when both occur at the same time. Chion calls this “added
value”
“By added value I mean the expressive and informative
value with which a sound enriches a given image so as to
create the definite impression, the in the immediate or
remembered experience one has of it, this information or
expression “naturally” comes for what is seen and is
already contained in the image itself” [7]
For example: the sound of someone being punched, which
will have been created by sound designers striking objects
within a recording studio to get the appropriate sounds for
the size and weight of the strikes. These sounds can also
turn to being ‘hyper-real’ as used in the final boxing match
in the film ‘Snatch’. During this scene the fight starts with
regular sounding punches and develops them with
exaggerated movement sound and heavily processed,
almost electronic, impact sounds.
Using this method the audience will accept that the sounds
are conforming to the image and the sounds used allows the
fight develop and the sound designer to be creative with the
sounds used. The sound and image in synchronicity
“What is the most important object in audiovisual
representation? The human body. What can the most
immediate and brief meeting between two of these objects
be? The physical blow. And what is the most immediate
audiovisual relationship? The synchronization between a
blow heard and a blow seen—or one that we believe we
have seen. For, in fact, we do not really see the punch; you
can confirm this by cutting the sound out of a scene. What
we hear is what we haven't had time to see.” [8]
MEANING WHAT WE HEAR
The semiotics of sound plays a big part in conveying the
emotional state of the character, which goes beyond the
initial and obvious meaning of the sound. This can be split
into two categories:
1) Denotation – literal meaning of a sound
2) Connotation – Meanings beyond the first level of literal
meaning
Francis Ford Coppolas 1972 mafia epic ‘The Godfather’
features a very good use of semiotics, where in this scene
the closing door means so much more:
“Still fairly flat, but a level up in dimensionality: the image
of a door closing accompanied by the right "slam" can
indicate not only the material of the door and the space
around it but also the emotional state of the person closing
it. The sound for the door at the end of "The Godfather,"
for instance, needed to give the audience more than the
correct physical cues about the door; it was even more
important to get a firm, irrevocable closure that resonated
with and underscored Michael's final line: "Never ask me
about my business, Kay."” [9]
CONCLUSION
As you can see, there are many, many functions of film
sound and this report goes some way to explaining some of
them. Sounds function is not only to stimulate one sense
(hearing) but also to intensify and change others (feelings,
physical states, etc). The experience of being the audience
for a film is extremely personal, no two people will gain the
same feelings from each scene.
“We never see the same thing when we also hear; we don't
hear the same thing when we see as well. We must
therefore get beyond preoccupations such as identifying so
called redundancy between the two domains and debating
interrelations between forces (the famous question asked in
the seventies, "Which is more important, sound or
image?").” [10]
Neither of them is as important as each other. Sound is the
mechanism, however, which allows realism or intended
unnatural/unrealistic sounds to be played with a picture to
make something much more than its constituent parts. but it
is this marriage of sound functions and moving image
which creates something altogether special.
REFERENCES
1. Holman, T 2002, Sound For Film and Television,
2nd Edition, Focal Press, Oxford. p.xvii
2. Sonnenschein, D 2001, Sound Design: The
Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in
Cinema, Michael Wise Productions, California. p.162
3. Riehle, J 2007, "No Country for Old Men" -
Exclusive Interview with Sound Designer/Re-recording
Mixer Craig Berkey [online], Designing Sound, Available
from: http://designingsound.org/2007/11/no-country-for-
old-men-exclusive-interview-with-sound-designerre-
recording-mixer-craig-berkey/ [Accessed: 5.4.2011].
4. Sonnenschein, D 2001, Sound Design: The
Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in
Cinema, Michael Wise Productions, California. p.178
5. Whittington, W 2007, Sound Design & Science
Fiction, 1st edition, University Of Texas Press, Austin.
p.111
6. Chion, M 1994, Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen,
Columbia University Press, New York. p.32
7. Chion, M 1994, Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen,
Columbia University Press, New York. p.5
8. Chion, M 1994, Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen, http://filmsound.org/murch/stretching.htm [Accessed:
Columbia University Press, New York. p.61 31.3.2011].
10. Chion, M 1994, Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen,
9. Murch, W. 2001, Stretching Sound to Help the Mind Columbia University Press, New York. p. xxvi
See [online], Filmsound, p.8, Available from: