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Lesson 2: The Development of Cinematic Language

What Can Sound Do?

So what can sound do? The desire to add sound synchronization to cinema came from a longstanding mimetic desire. Mimetic means imitative desire to basically present reality, to reconstruct a mirror of nature. Sound can change the meaning of images, just as association with other images can change the way in which we interpret an image.

Sound also allows us to hear the individuality of the performer, as the voice is totally unique, often equated with personality. We might think about the way that we use stars' voices in advertisements that are immediately recognizable. This is something that is played on in cinema. Sound allows us to hear emotion, tone, and sarcasm, all recognized in the voice. We hear the personality of the voice, and all of this is equated with the powerful persona of the star. We can see in mass media how important this is.

As an example of what sound can do, immediately recognizable. Who is this?

"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish."

"Blessed is he who in the name of charity"

Audio 2.1: How important is sound?

 
Time: 00:00:44 How important is sound? Audio Transcript

How important is sound? Audio Transcript

JULES WINNFIELD: The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children, and I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name as the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

[GUN FIRING]

Many you will recognize this from Pulp Fiction. We know this voice from seeing the film, we know without any image at all that it's Samuel L. Jackson.

Similarly to what we talked about with the Kuleshov effect, we could do this with sound. So what is this woman thinking?

Video 2.8: Kuleshov Effect 1.

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Video 2.8, Length: 00:00:15 Kuleshov Effect 1 Video Transcript
Alternating images of a woman with a neutral face and a smiling baby.

Any of you who have seen the movie Jaws, this lends the baby a whole different meaning. It's no longer cute. It's somewhat menacing due to the way in which the sound is now conveying emotional content.

Similarly, what is she feeling?

Video 2.9: Kuleshov Effect 2.

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Video 2.9, Length: 00:00:16 Kuleshov Effect 2 Video Transcript
Alternating images of a woman with a blank face and a man in a coffin.

If we did this with just the images, we can have any number of connotations. But with the bird sounds in this, it gives us something much more like a peaceful feeling, like she's at peace with the idea of death. So again, this is information that is associated by way of sound editing in this case.

Now let's look at the same image again, the same Kuleshov experiment. In this case, with some of the soundtrack from Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula in the background.

Video 2.10: Kuleshov Effect 3.

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Video 2.10, Length: 00:00:29 Kuleshov Effect 3 Video Transcript
Alternating images of a woman with a blank face and a man in a coffin.

Instead of feeling peaceful, it might be scared or even awkward, but there is a disconnect between those two things. Sound is enormously important in terms of the kind of information that it provides for the viewers and the way in which it draws associations in the mind of the viewer to the images on screen. We could say that sound frames interpretation. We interpret the visual cues and the dramatic action in relation to the sound cues that we have. They play an important role in the creation of cinematic meaning. Sound creates a whole new way of thinking about making movies.


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