{"id":600,"date":"2024-10-09T14:26:14","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T14:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/?p=600"},"modified":"2024-10-09T14:34:47","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T14:34:47","slug":"the-incredible-use-of-sound-in-singin-in-the-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/2024\/10\/09\/the-incredible-use-of-sound-in-singin-in-the-rain\/","title":{"rendered":"The Incredible Use of Sound in Singin’ in the Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Singin\u2019 in the Rain <\/em>was spectacular. While I went into the movie expecting a musical that was grainy and dull, it depicted so much more; indeed, the variety of sound and color used in the film gave it an appearance of being far beyond its years and provided nonstop action and entertainment for me. The large choreographed dance sessions, the bright lights, and above all the humor made for a very enjoyable viewing experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The use of sound plays a key role in shaping the film\u2019s storyline and adding onto the comedic and emotional elements of the film. The main idea of the film centers around Don Lockwood and Cosmo Brown\u2019s quest to save \u201cDueling Cavalier\u201d from destroying Lockwood\u2019s career. What follows is an abysmal attempt to build on the success that Warner Brothers had in its production of The Jazz Singer<\/em>, producing a halfhearted film with off putting noises, asynchronous sound, and more. In an effort to portray the imperfections of \u201cDueling Cavalier,\u201d the sound is exaggerated in almost every instance: the screech of the beads, the thumping of Lina Lamont\u2019s heart, and of course Lina\u2019s loud and obnoxious voice make the film not just bad, but terrible. Similarly, in the rest of the movie, when characters begin singing they go on hyperbolic tangents: running up walls, flipping over couches, swinging around street lights and more, signaling the lightheartedness that people can find in unfortunate situations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additionally, in much of the choreography and even spanning into regular interactions with one another\u2014like when Don and Cosmo are brainstorming the new name for \u201cDueling Cavalier\u201d\u2014there is extensive \u201cmickey mousing\u201d that depicts the movements of the actors lining up with the sounds in the scene, adding a comical or extra theatrical element to the film. In a comedic sense, the film leans into a level of unseriousness that is expressed through its overly dramatic visuals and auditory capacity. Glass shattered, shirts ripped, walls smashed, the sound of the film heightens the comedic elements and uses overexpression to reflect all of the possibilities that the absorption of sound into film implemented. The film employs a plethora of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds: between dialogue, comedic effects, and the persistent overlay of music during many scenes, the movie plays with the use of sound both in and around the characters. In fact, one of the most important parts of the film is Kathy Selden\u2019s outsource of non diegetic sound to \u201cDancing Cavalier,\u201d giving the impression of diegetic sound to the viewers. This lead me to ask the question: what plays a bigger role in shaping the film’s identity, its diegetic or non-diegetic sound? Sound played a pivotal role in shaping the viewers perception of the characters and establishing many of the themes in the film, and was brilliantly utilized in such an old film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Singin\u2019 in the Rain was spectacular. While I went into the movie expecting a musical that was grainy and dull, it depicted so much more; indeed, the variety of sound and color used in the film gave it an appearance of being far beyond its years and provided nonstop action and entertainment for me. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,19],"tags":[114,127,105],"class_list":["post-600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-viewer","category-week-7-10-8-10-10-sound","tag-music","tag-singing","tag-sound"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":610,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions\/610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}