Chion and Cummings Readings on Sound

Chion and Cummings Readings on Sound

The readings by Chion and Cummings on sound remind me of the old question, “If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, did it really happen?“ We as humans sometimes take our sense of hearing for granted. Have you ever watched a thriller or scary movie with the sound muted. If you have then you know that the film is no longer scary or tense, but becomes somewhat comical. This is the point of Chion’s article on sound.  Chion’s article says it well when it exclaims, sound helps temporalize the image by normalizing and stabilizing of film projection speed. Just like his point about our ears being able to perceive sound quicker than our eyes can figure out what they are seeing. It’s something I never really thought much of before when watching a film.

Sound very important in the making off a film. The choices you make for sound in a film really depend on what type of film you are making. If you are making an experimental film and want the viewer to feel disoriented for instance. Then you may want to use sound is non-sync or possibly sound that has nothing to do with the actual images being displayed upon screen. Sound can make or break a film; it needs to help guide the viewer/listener in the direction the director intends to take the film journey.

The article by Cummings made me think of an interview we did the other day for my documentary I’m working on for 495. We were shooting in the subject’s backyard, it was a beautiful non windy day outside and he has some nice scenery in his yard so we framed up a good shot and went with it. It was a good thing that we had lavalier mics though even though it wasn’t windy, because the road out in front of his house turned out to be very busy thus being very noisy. Being such a sunny and pretty day out it must have been perfect conditions for a motorcycle ride, because it seemed like about a million of them went by.  We were going for the nice light, “Natural “ outdoorsy ambient backdrop of sound for our interview and instead we got the loud, obnoxious and abrasive, sounds from the motorcycles and traffic.  We haven’t captured the footage yet so hopefully the lavs will have eliminated some of the background noise, if not our good interview will be lost. 

Side note: Why are motorcycles sooo loud anyway? I find them very annoying because of that. I have my windows opened right now; I can hear the soothing and calming sound of wind blowing through the trees and then out of nowhere…wheeeee wheeeeee wheeeeee wheeeeeeeeee wheeeeeeeeeeeee.  A motorcycle ruins it!