Unit 16: How is sound used across media industries?
Educate
Sound can be used in many ways in different media texts, one
of them being to educate. Narration is an example of education as a sound. A
documentary is a good media text to put narration into. A great example of
narration as a media text of education is the BBC TV Documentary by David
Attenborough called “Planet
Earth”. Each 50-minute episode features a global overview of a different
side of the earth, or a different habitat on earth. The purpose of this
documentary is to educate the audience about the earth, the narration is what
engages the audience because the educate part of the documentary is the main
part of it. One quote from David that is a really good quote of education is "It's
surely our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet
that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth."
Entertain
Sound can also be used to entertain an audience, even if it
is through sound effects. One example of how sound entertains across media is
through film sound effects. In Star Wars there are lightsaber duels,
and every time the lightsabers collide there are sound effects that come from
it. Now these sounds have a very large impact on the audience because of how
iconic these sounds are. The entertainment of these sound effects the tension
that it gives to the audience whenever they hear these sounds, the chills that
the audience get. Its all from how iconic these sounds are and how much they
entertain the audience. Because if these sound effects for these lightsaber
duels didn’t exist then the duels would not be entertaining and the sound would
not be entertaining.
Inform
Sound can be to inform an audience as well. This can be done
through reports of news broadcasters. For example, “Sky
News”. Sky News use reports to inform the audience about different things
happening around the world, in their reports, they may have people in the area
who do the reports, to help the audience understand maybe the circumstances of the
situation if the report is done from the place where the circumstance or
situation is happening. So, with sound, reports are a great way to inform the
audience about something, a bad or good situation, it is worth informing
through sound.
Sell Products
Sell products is a sound or a
phrase that will persuade people to buy something or go to a shop. My example
for this would be Tesco’s Slogan, “Every
Little Helps”. This type of sound
would be mostly used in adverts at the end like Tesco did with their slogan.
Slogans like this one, catchy upbeat slogans can increase sales quite a bit.
With this Tesco slogan, they use it at the end of every advert just to remind
the people watching that there is help at Tesco’s and that Tesco’s can help
people, because they have all the products ever needed for someone’s household.
Wild Tracks
Wild Tracks are audio recordings that are then synchronised
with the film or video but recorded separately. An example of how wild tracks
work is through the video game “Formula
One 23”. In this video game, the noise from the car comes from the
real-life Formula One cars, where they recorded the sound and synchronise it
with the gameplay of the video game, for when the car is meant to make that
noise the car makes the noise. The use of the sound, it really helps the
audience be immersed into the experience of driving the car and being able to
feel like they are in the race with the sound of the cars.
Atmospheric Sounds
This sound is created to create certain moods in a film. One
example could be with in the Star Wars film “A New Hope”. In this film when the
scene is just in Cantina Band. In the scene they are just chilling, and the
band is playing in the background. This just sets the mood of a chill
atmosphere. The chill atmosphere of the cantina sets a good atmosphere for the
film and this sound creates a chill vibe for the audience to enjoy the film.
The atmosphere in the scene even with the cups clattering and chattering in the
background like a pub, sets the scene of an atmosphere.
Sound Effects
Sound effects can both be diegetic and non-diegetic and are
artificially created or enhanced sounds that are used to emphasise action in
films, tv-shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, and other
media. As an example of how sound effects are used to give an effect on the
audience is the ‘blaster
fire’ sound effects in the Star Wars films. This sound effect was created
through a wrench being hit onto a large metal wire to create the ‘pew’ sound
which is the sound of blaster fire in the Star Wars film. This blaster fire is
very iconic throughout the world and many people know it from Star Wars and
they always wonder how it was made and here it is.
Dialogue
Dialogue is used in creative ways by media producers to help
anchor the time and place. Accent, tone and dialect also add characterisation.
This type of sound is usually a conversation between two characters. As an
example of dialogue in a film is the talk between “Luke and Darth Vader in
return of the jedi” from 1:04 there is a dialogue between the two
characters. This dialogue helped explain the plot of the story more and helped
build the characters more, and also help the characters know more about
themselves with this dialogue as here Luke accepts that Vader is his father in
front of him.
Music (incidental/theme)
This is vocal or instrumental sounds combined in a way to
make a form of beauty in music, for example a harmony, or somewhat of an
expression of emotion. Music can do a lot of things in a film, from engage the
audience and build tension to soothing the audience with a beautiful melody. As
an example of music in sound is, “The Star Wars Force
Theme”, this theme pops up whenever something with the force happens or
someone new is able to perform the arts of the jedi, for example in the new
Ahsoka series, when Sabine was able to use the force this theme played, when
Rey was able to use the force in the force awakens last fight scene against
Kylo Ren this music played. This music is known all around the world with Star
Wars fans. This music engages the audience as it tells them that something
interesting is about to happen and that they need to concentrate on the film or
series, otherwise they will miss out on something big.
Use of silence
The use of silence in a film is mainly used to build tension
and make the audience think during the time of silence as it lets the
audience’s thoughts start to run around their mind. For example, of how silence
is used in films is through the vault scene in the 1996 “Mission Impossible”.
This film is incredible on how silence was used to create and build tension.
While Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise’s character) is being so quite so no one can hear
him in the vault. This created so much tension for the audience, that is scared
them when that guy entered the vault and Ethan had to be completely silent
while hanging from the ceiling being held by his friend by a rope.
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