Using Sound in Cinema
In James Monaco’s book How to Read a Film, he compares film and cinema with other types of arts such as photography, painting, literature, theater, and music. Monaco makes the argument that film has combined the works of the older arts and is able to create certain images or impressions due to its technology in which the older arts struggle to measure up. While painting and photography are able to capture one moment in time that can captivate a viewer’s attention, film is a reproduction of many images throughout several scenes in the film. Painting had tried to keep up with motion picture of cinema through Cubism, but as cinema developed newer and better technology, photography and painting were never truly able to capture the concept of motion in the same way film has succeeded. As Monaco states, “In a sense, movies simply fulfill the destiny of painting (44).” Movies have been able to make scenes or images come alive and appeal to the viewer through motion and connecting with real situations and feelings in a way in which painting cannot.
Monaco also goes on to compare film to the world of literature and the novel. He states that while novels are told through the perspective of authors and films through directors, a film’s image can generate views and opinions different than the original intent of the film director. Novels on the other hand are generally shaped by the words, details, and plot that the author has chosen for the novel or work of literature. In addition, Monaco states, “It would be an absurd task for a novelist to try to describe a scene is as much detail as it is conveyed in cinema” (45). Monaco posits the idea that film and cinema stand above and beyond the traditional representational art forms because of its ability to shape the different arts in various way. For example, painting was shaped by film in that it immersed itself more toward the design of the painting and novels focused more on its unique language.
Theater is the one traditional art form that Monaco compares most closely with film. Film and theatre share many common attributes like the ability to express emotion and make the viewer react to what they are seeing. However, where theatre is only able to use a couple or only a few different sets for different scenes, film is able to rapidly go from one scene or location to another. In addition, film can capture a scene or action in real life and bring it to the projector for an audience to view. Theater can only recreate a scene that has already occurred. The final traditional art form that Monaco discusses is music. Monaco states that music’s advantage over the other arts is that it has the ability to control time. However, as the technology of cinema has progressed, music has become an essential part of film. Music started out in the silent film by being played with a screen of dialogue on it such as in “Birth of a Nation.” This was used to indicate a rise in the action, suspense, or to portray a certain character as good or bad. As cinema got more advanced, music was integrated into film as the director saw fit. The concepts of melody, harmony, and rhythm are able to be successfully expressed in today’s films. Music throughout a cinematic production is now very common as it is used for sound effects, background music, speech, etc.
Film critic Manny Farber, on the other hand, treats film like any other art. He categorizes film into termite art and white elephant art. Farber desired and preferred termite art over white elephant art because of termite art’s ability to create a moment in time without glamorizing it (Farber 02). Farber enjoyed looking at film for its simplicity and without dramatizing it. Farber preferred termite art for its ability to allow the viewer to interpret the scene or picture for itself without leaving a certain message; leaving it up to the viewer what he or she wants to take away from the film. He has particular distaste for films he categorizes as “white elephant art.” Farber describes these types of films as ones in which they are impersonal and try to be masterpieces that break away from common films.
As a critic he treats film as just another art form because it can be categorized into termite art and white elephant art. Film can be like any other art such as a novel, newspaper column, or painting in that it too has the ability to be simple enough to capture the reader or viewer’s attention to be wrapped up in the moment. In addition, elephant art in films and other arts is common because they can both loose sight of the original intent of the art work. They become fixated on too much detail and as Farber calls it, “clogging weight-density-structure polish amalgam associated with self-aggrandizing masterwork” (Farber 02).
Both film writers and critics James Monaco and Manny Farber write about film and cinema in its relation to the other representational arts. However they each look at film differently. Monaco treats film as a unique art head and shoulders above the traditional representational art forms of the past. By comparing film to the other arts he demonstrates the wide range of possibilities and abilities that film has and how great an impact it can have on a viewer. On the other side of the spectrum, Farber treats film as just another piece of artwork which can be separated into the distinction of white elephant art or termite art. Through this class distinction he is able to separate a truly great film as one of simplistic style and personal from one that tries to be a masterpiece but fails in the process.
The concept of time travel is a subject that has often captured the imagination and sets of cinema production. It is often portrayed in images of the future or in past events. Three films, which depict the concept of time travel, are “La Jetee,” “Back to the Future,” and “The Time Machine.” Each film is remarkable in its own way and demonstrates that film to a certain extent works like a time machine and is a metaphor for cinema.
“La Jetee”, created by Chris Marker in 1962, focuses on the time travel of a man held in captivity who escapes his state of mind and his deplorable conditions. He is injected with a substance that allows him to move into the past and future through his mind. The scientist who controls the experiment believes that the only way to escape the present state of ruin is to see what is in store for the future. Instead, the man travels back in time where he is able to talk to a woman who had been the subject of his dreams. This woman serves as an attachment to memory and an allusion to a childhood memory. After meeting her he desires to return to the past while the scientists want him to move on to the future.
In the film “Back to the Future” the theme focuses on the memory of the past and events that happen in the future. When a brilliant professor and friend gets shot by terrorists, Michael Fox’s character goes back in time to try and change history so that the professor’s murder never occurs. The film is able to go from one realm and dimension to another by blacking out the screen to divert the viewer’s attention from the current scene as the image of a scarecrow on a farm helps bridge the gap. Finally, in the movie “The Time Machine” the plot is very similar to “Back to the Future” in that the main character wants to prevent the death of a friend or loved one. In addition, the main transportation from the present to the future or past is a machine rather than the human mind. Although the main character fails at saving his wife he begins to pursue his quest for time travel.
I think that time travel serves as a metaphor for cinema itself. The concept of time travel involves going through space and time to another place. Cinema is very much like time travel. The experience of watching a film involves sitting down and transforming yourself into another place and time and immersing yourself in a new journey occurring before you.
Sound plays a vital role in film and helps shape the way the viewer reacts and watches a motion picture. Sound influences and enhances what we see on the projector screen. Film critic and music composer Michael Chion breaks down sound into different groups which each play a role in the making of a film.
Michael Chion describes sound and listening in three different types of modes: causal, semantic, and reduced listening. “Causal listening refers to the listening of a sound in order to gather information about its cause or source (Chion 25).” Semantic listening is listening for the purpose of gaining information about what is communicated in the sound and language. Reduced listening is listening for the purpose of focusing on the qualities of sound itself such as pitch or timbre, which is independent of its source or meaning.
In the film Bad Boys II with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, each of the three listening modes are used. In one of the last scenes of the movie, the two policemen gear up for a huge battle in which they rescue a hostage while under gunfire from the Cuban army. They enter a mansion surrounded by armored guards and men as they make their way through the house trying to find the hostage. They are able to successfully escape with the hostage as they leave in a car with the mansion exploding in the background. The sound first heard in this scene uses causal listening with miners digging an underground tunnel. The clang of the digging indicates that men are underground and are moving quickly. In addition, the semantic sounds of the policemen’s voices are heard as they instruct each other where to go. This is causal listening as well as semantic listening.
The barking of instructions indicate that the voice is from one of the policemen and from semantic listening you can hear that the voice is from actor Will Smith without even seeing him in the picture. In the background, as the policemen prepare to enter the house, the reverberation of a drum is heard as a reduced sound to create suspense. Immediately, the explosion from a rocket launcher rips through the air followed by the panicked voices of the enemy soldiers. This fleeting moment uses all three listening modes. Causal listening is used to determine that the source of the explosion is the rocket launcher and reduced listening indicates that magnitude of the explosion and its effects on the building. Finally, semantic listening is used determine that the panicked voices belong to the Cuban soldiers who are under attack. Then the crash of shattered glass and windows is heard through reduced listening as well as the sound of the approaching enemy vehicles as the policemen make their way towards the hostage. As bullets and machine gun fire whiz by the policemen in another example of reduced listening, the clatter of footsteps and shouting is heard loud and clear to convey an atmosphere of chaos and confusion. The shouting of the men as they escape is another instance of semantic listening as the viewer realizes that it is coming from actor Martin Lawrence.
Sound is able to influence what we see and affect its images by bringing to life the images on the screen. The sound of a grenade making a huge explosion magnifies it effects on the scene at hand. The noises make the scene and actions come alive and seem all the more real. The noise of miners digging tunnels makes you believe that you are really inside that tunnel with the characters in the film. Listening to sound in a film also makes the viewer react more to the action or scene. For example, the noise of a machine gun firing rapidly several rounds of bullets at a time makes it seem all the more remarkable of a feat when the actors miraculously escape a hail of bullets while running for their lives. Awed at such a scene, the audience thinks, “how did they do that” or “that was amazing.” Furthermore, the listening of sound captures the viewer’s attention and wraps them into the scene. The noise of several helicopter in the sky dashing across the ocean gives the impression that a huge action scene is about to occur or a crucial point in the film’s plot is on the brink.
