Conveying Messages Through Senses: Visual and Sound

This week, I learned more in depth about the importance of sound in movies. The sounds are divided to Music, Sound Effects, and Voices. The volume of each sound will depend on the genre of the movie and the focus of the scene, sometimes it also depends on what the director is trying to tell the audiences.

For example, in Drama genre, voice is important in the delivery of storyline. Thank You For Smoking (2005) and Juno (2007) directed by Jason Reitman have similar sound design; the voices of the actors and actresses play a huge role, and background music or sounds are considered less important, except for some certain scenes. This also applied to Perks of Being A Wallflower (2012) by Stephen Chbosky and Her (2013) by Spike Jonze.

 

While in Action genre, the use of sound effects are more prominent because they have to make some scenes focus on the events that are happening, like explosions, hitting sounds, glass breaking, etc. Sometimes they don't even focus on the character's voices, so the sound will mostly be filled with action music and action sounds to bring up the atmosphere. The example would be Elysium (2013), Pacific Rim (2013).

Some movies with a lot of action scenes and drama scenes will use different sound design for different scenes. The example would be in The Matrix (1999) or Cloud Atlas (2012)

I think the sound designs are supposed to help in delivering what the director is trying to tell to the audience. Only recently I saw a documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011) by David Gelb. And I listen on how they synchronize the music and the sound with the characters talking and the cinematography as well. It is to be designed as if we are experiencing the reality of the movie itself.

In the end, what makes the audience engaged in movies are 50% visual, and 50% sound, and it is interesting how they are trying to convey the message of 'smell and flavor' in this documentary, only by using images and sound. It is as if our brain is connecting all the senses together and linking them up to our emotions. 

That is what a good director should do in a movie; to make sure the audience experiences the message that the movie is trying to convey.