Sound is a very important aspect to film that oftentimes, viewers may overlook. I did not realize that the sound in films opens up a whole new array of choices for the director. Just like directors make choices regarding things like lighting, camera angles, and costuming, they also make many choices regarding sound. In film, sound is made up of three aspects, which are noise, music, and speech. For example, when you see an image on screen, you form unconscious expectations about the sound that will accompany that particular image. But, with each shot comes thoughtfully crafted choices about sound. One aspect of sound is loudness. Loudness can increase or decrease depending on the distance of that sound from the camera. For example, footsteps may grow louder as a person gets closer to the camera, which helps to indicate their distance and can make a film more realistic. Another element of sound is timbre. Timbre has to do with the tone quality of a sound. For instance, a person’s voice can have a gruff quality about it, which is describing the timbre of their voice. Timbre can also be used to describe musical tones. 

Something else that I was not aware of is that many sounds in a film are added during the post production period. These sounds may be created by Foley artists, who use certain objects to create the illusion of that sound happening on screen. This also presents the idea that in post production, editing also impacts sound. More choices have to be made about which sounds or parts of a track should be kept. Another choice made during editing, is how to direct the viewer’s attention to a certain event. For example, in a scene where there are many people, one group’s conversation may be louder than others in order to direct the viewer to this particular conversation. The viewer may be directed to another conversation over the course of the scene.

Finally, another important idea to note is that of diegetic versus nondiegetic sound. Diegetic sound refers to a sound that exists within the “story world.” An example of this would be dialogue, since we see this happening while we hear it. However, nondegetic sound is sound that doesn’t exist in the “story world.” This is referring to music. Music is used to enhance the emotions the viewer feels while watching a film.