This week’s reading about sound dove into how crucial sound is to the viewing experience of a movie. Unlike Mise en scene and cinematography, the sound is usually a postproduction-based endeavor. An interesting piece of information is that while the actors do record vocal sounds during filming, they will often talk back over themselves in post-production and loop it over themselves. Sound has three key components: loudness, pitch, and timbre. Loudness corresponds to volume, pitch to frequency, and timbre to the tone and feel of the sound. These act as the three dimensions of sound, similar to how a 3D object has three dimensions. These aspects let us discern different noises from each other like different voices, objects, and music. 

One of the great qualities of sound is that it can pace a movie, creating relaxation or suspense. This is done through rhythm, which contains the beat, tempo, and accent pattern. The textbook uses an example from His Girl Friday, where change of pace is used to demonstrate drama in dialogue. This conveys the tensity of the scene in a subtle way, not needing to use visual motifs which could take away from the story. Rhythm is also used to dramatize actions in a film. When certain sounds are accented, like a punch, we subconsciously associate it to be a powerful punch and we would characterize the person as strong. In The Last of the Mohicans, rhythm is used to choreograph and pace fight scenes. The sound tells you how fierce the characters are with blaring music and when the characters are in danger, with somber chords.
Besides having sound correspond to onscreen events, it is also a medium that can relay offscreen events and sounds not heard in the actual movie. This is diegetic sound(heard onscreen) vs. non-diegetic sound(heard off-screen). One example of digetic sound is in Rear Window, through the piano. By actually hearing Jeff’s neighbor play the piano, we can more clearly characterize him and add an element of humanity to his character. A non-diegetic sound is often a score. This can use rhythm to enhance what’s onscreen without the medium of sound actually being visible or even existent in the film’s story. Diegetic sound can also be used to demonstrate actions offscreen. Film Art uses an example from No Country for Old Men to tell the audience that a character has been killed, via an unanswered phone ring, without needing to show the killing. This type of information advances the story without the need for visual cues, which can be crucial for pacing and keeping viewers hooked.