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Writer's pictureAidan Gauci

Sound in film

The main kind of films consist of two major parts: the visuals and the sound. However, it is super easy to give more importance to the visual, ignoring a bit the sound, when sometimes, sound by itself has a strong potential to play with the audience's reaction. So sound, essentially can make it or break it..


Sound is divided into three divisions: human voice, music and sound effects. Striking a good balance between these three can give you a multisensory experience. Synchronisation between the audio and picture is also a must have, because having something out of synch, and having the same thing perfectly synchronised give a whole new meaning to the video production that one is working on. A good way of making the film look more realistic is adding asynchronous sound effects, generally using background sound effects.



A very good example of the above is the local film Luzzu, specifically the scene where Jesmark goes to the scrapyard to scrap his luzzu. Given some context, Jesmark will be doing this move not because he wanted, but because it was his only option. Therefore, the film emphasised especially on the sounds of the boat being loaded and unloaded from the carriage, and being carried into the scrapyard. It is also notable that such movements are being done extremely slot, elongating the duration of these sounds to add to this sad mood. Finally, it ends with 1 noise which reaches the climax: the sound of the crusher crushing the boat. As I was watching this scene, I got a sensation of a heartbreak, that moment where you know that hope is lost, because the boat is now completely destroyed and there is no turning back. All of this emotion took place with a sound, just one sound. Although it was relatively obvious that the boar will end up crushed, the film can give you hope that it will not be over, especially when he sees 2 other Luzzijiet not crushed, but then this sound breaks everything, including the viewer's sentiments.


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