Today, the soundtrack is an integral part of the movie industry. It is difficult to imagine watching a film without listening to the dialogues between characters. Even in movies where conversations are kept to a minimum, various sounds are used to set the atmosphere of the scene. This report will outline three facts about the use of sound in film, as discussed in Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound.
Making Waves reveals Edison’s motion picture camera and was intended as a direct follow-up to his invention of the phonograph in 1877. Edison strived to connect sound with the picture using his two creations. It would be interesting to see what the film industry would have looked like today if Edison had succeeded in synchronizing the two, almost half a century earlier before it was achieved. Furthermore, even silent movies had sound effects or dialogue produced by people behind the stage.
Another interesting fact is how many sound effects in movies are recorded from real life and manipulated to make them sound unique. Moviegoers rarely notice that some of the effects they hear can be found in real life distorted in thousands of unusual ways. For example, the language of Wookie in Star Wars was recorded from a small bear cub. The way the bear’s growls were put together to imitate speech completely throws the audience and immerses them into the narrative. It is fascinating to find out how much time the sound director had spent on recording all sounds needed for the movie.
The third interesting fact is the use of ambience in films. It is utilized to set a scene’s atmosphere, and it can be very evocative. If used right, ambience is the most critical sound effect, completely immersing the audience into the scene and making it feel as the world on the screen is real. It can also set an emotional tone, reminding the audience members of their own experiences and connecting them to the screen’s action through it.
Overall, Making Waves provides a compelling description of the evolution of sound in the movie industry. Using the right sounds and music in movies is as important as writing a compelling script and ensuring each scene in a shot with the correct lighting, framing, and composition. Sound, or the absence of it at the right moment, can set the atmosphere and provoke the needed reaction from the audience.