Moving Image Soundtrack Quiz

Tyree

Soundtrack Quiz

1a. Dialogue, sound effects and music.

1b. Diegetic sound is sound that is a part of the atmosphere in the film, for example; if a character puts on a CD and listens to music, a good example of this is the controversial scene in Quentin Tarantino's 'Reservoir Dogs' in which Mr. Blonde is torturing a Police Officer and listening to Stealers Wheel's 'Stuck in the Middle With You', we know that the character can hear the song because he is seen dancing along to it and miming the lyrics. Non- diegetic sound is something like music or a score that isn't meant to be heard by the character and is just there to enhance the mood of the scene, for example; 'Gonna Fly Now' that is used in training montages in the 'Rocky' movies, the song is, in a way symbolic to Rocky's success during his training. We know that this is non- diegetic sound because the music overpowers the sound of the regular scene. But, there are also cases in films where the film features a jokes that reverses our expectations of non- diegetic music, at the beginning of Mel Brooks' Western comedy 'Blazing Saddles', we hear an orchestral piece that we assume is just being used over a scene of a cowboy riding into town, until it is revealed that there is an actual orchestra performing that the cowboy rides pass.

1c. Synchronous sound is the sound that is heard on camera and becomes part of the actual shot footage, for example; if a character is talking or if he punches a door. Non- synchronous sound is the sounds effects that have been edited in post- production, a good example of this is when a character brings out a knife and you hear the metal of the knife brush up against more metal.

1d. The three different types of spoken word in film; the first is dialogue, in which every film has a large amount of (unless it is silent, of course), the second piece of spoken word in film is the use of a narration/voiceover, which has been used in films such as 'Carlito's Way', in this, Carlito is telling us his story from the beginning to the end. Finally, the last piece of spoken word in a film is dialogue heard in an interview that's in a documentary, like in 'Bowling for Columbine', although the sound of speech in an interview may sometimes be a little less clear than a narrative film, it is still clear and works well to the documentaries advantage.