Sound

How to talk about sound:

DON’T GET DRAWED IN look at the but don’t let it pull you into the story line

Compare what we see on screen to what we hear, this could give you hints about diegetic or non-diegetic sounds

Look at the connotations on some music types, eg slow piano would be sad or reflective and fast music could be seen as.

If there is a voiceover, listen what tense it is spoken in, look how it is presented to the audience, is it talking to the audience ( direct address).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeDTh8IWthY

Sound is a very important thing to look at when analysing a piece of media, the audience can be subconsciously lured to feel a emotion, like in this clip we see music that is used to build tension and music to make the audience reflect on what they have just seen, this is slow music usually with classical instruments like a piano. This clip uses ambient sound that is out of the field of sight, this would be the fire alarm. Most of the sound in the clip is diegetic meaning that is it comes from something that is actually in the scene eg the fire alarm ( we don’t see it but it is an object that is in the scene)  the kids and the teachers.  The fire alarm could be seen as a form of a sound bridge as it continues between most of the scenes just varying in its volume. The only non-diegetic sound we hear is in the form of some music, this is fast paced and only really used once we see that people are trapped, a really weird thing is that the audience only really notices the music when we are taken back the action.  When we are shown this scene with fire or smoke we are presented with these sound motifs, these are sounds that are stereotypically linked with people or scene; we hear the stereotypical roaring of the fire and the occasional coughing of characters.