T2 - Sound Characteristics

There are many sound elements that are used in several different media products. These sound elements are used across media industries such as Film, TV, Computer Games and Advertisements etc. Here are the following sound elements:

Educate:  Narrations in media products explain information to the audience to help them understand a particular point of view to anchor meaning. It uses diegetic sound where the narrator is explaining the events happening on screen to educate the audience. There are many media texts that are educational and use narrations such as Documentaries and Radio Dramas. 

In this documentary New Zealand: Earths Mythical Islands that I have chosen as an example of educating, the episode is about learning and acknowledging the astonishing wildlife that exists in New Zealand. The images captured in the documentary reveal the breath-taking creatures that live within the most geologically active country on earth. 

 At 2:14 minutes we hear the narrator explaining about a specific breed of penguins, however it is only the penguins we see and their behaviours and the sound of the narrators voice explaining their activity. We hear the narrator say dialogue, 'This Snares Penguin has been out with hundreds of others catching fish for their chicks'. This demonstrates him educating the audience as we now know the name of it and what it does for a living. 

Entertain: In fictions they use audio to portray everyday activities and make it believable and entertaining. It has the use of both diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Audio-visuals are essential to creating entertainment and an engaging text. Many radio dramas use audio-visuals in their episodes such as sound motifs where the sound effects are associated with a character or a setting. This is helpful for the audience as they can clearly distinguish the characters arrivals or actions because they can only hear them and not see. 

An example of a Radio Drama is a Radio 4 broadcast called The Truth About Hawaii which is based on a story of how antibiotics have been restricted due to limited resources of the medication. A girl and her family is in desperate need of them as she has a cut on her leg that has gotten infected and may soon die. In this episode we hear her hallucinating about a volcano in Hawaii that is erupting and hear the bangs of rocks cracking and liquid of hot gushing lava in the background. These sounds signify the girl’s imagination and the location she is in to help the audience visualise what she is seeing. 

Inform: The news informs the audience by using dramatic sound during the start and end of TV news broadcast. Advertisements - another media product- creates sound by using jingles to portray a brand identity of the product or company. This is created by using slogans followed by a tune that is designed to be easily remembered. The audience identify the companies signature sound with the product they are promoting. 

An example of this is Haribo, a brand that uses a slogan in their jingle at the end of the advert to effectively use brand identity. For the advertisement, they use jingles to help the product become recognizable. The slogan they use is ‘Kids and grown-ups love it so, the happy world of Haribo' which they have been using since 1995, making it memorable and significant for the audience. 

Sell Products: Many media products have voiceovers used to help sell the product and be engaging. The voice actor will describe the product to give the audience more insight to what the product’s like to appeal to them. These are mainly done in advertisements where they have described what the product tastes like or explained what the product does and how to use it. 

An example of this done is in the Muller Simply Bliss advert with Nicole Scherzinger. In this advert there is a lot of dialogue where the actors speak describing the yoghurt. The actress say’s ‘It’s so creamy, it’s divine’ which will sell the product as she describes the delightful taste in an optimistic tone of voice. Another voice at 0:12 seconds explains what the yoghurt is and states, 'A Greek style yoghurt that's luxuriously creamy because it's whipped' and this voiceover engages the audience and will compel them to buy it.

Wild Tracks: This is audio that is recorded on location known as off-screen sound or extra takes on lines whilst not filming - unsynchronised sound. This is diegetic sound. In film and video production, wild sound is recorded so that it can be inserted into the video in post-production. This is desirable for many reasons, including helping keep the background noise consistent between shots, to help set the mood of the scene and to accompany any new audio that is added to the scene. Typical examples of wild tracks would be narration, phone conversations, and answering machine messages playing back in a scene.

An example that wild tracks are used in a film scene from He's Just Not That Into You where a group of actors are listening to a person’s voicemail. This audio is added in to be part of the scene where the voicemail creates humour. 

Atmospheric Sound: This is background sounds that are atmospheric such as wind, birds chattering, rain pouring etc. This is put in to prevent unnatural silence in a scene and to set the location of where it’s held. In some media texts they have added in audio-visuals in the background to set natural settings. 

In the Direct Line advertisement, the scene is set outside, therefore the producers have added in sound effects of bird chirping in the background and also the revving of the car that the old man drives. Also, right at the beginning of the advert, we can hear gas hissing in the background which represents that the car has broken down. 

Sound Effects: These can be both diegetic and non-diegetic sound that are enhanced sounds used in many different media products. This can also be known as Foley effects where the production record sounds such as breaking glass or walking across water to enhance realism of a specific soundtrack. This is created by Foley artists. The sounds they create need to be convincing. 

In the end scene of Fast and Furious 7, there is a soundtrack of spanish music that plays at the beginning and also another song 'See You Again' towards the ending which is added in by producers. There are also the sounds of the waves that are added to illustrate the sound of the sea that they are near. 

Dialogue: This is speech that is made from characters when they speak/talk. Things that are considered in dialogue is language, tone, accent and volume they speak in. It is used in creative ways to anchor the time and place such as if the film was set in Italy, the actors would have to put on an Italian accent to portray the time and place it is set in. 

An example of accent change is in Meet Joe Black where Brad Pitt changes his accent to sound Jamaican as he speaks to an old Jamaican lady in the scene so that she understands him. However, the accent is intended to create humour for the audience as that is not his normal everyday speaking accent. 

Music (Incidental/Theme):  Music is used to develop mood or meaning in a media product/text. this is called Incidental music that builds atmosphere and creates tension to portray emotion. I have already used this example, but it is perfect for depicting teary and heartfelt emotion. My example is in the end of Fast and Furious 7 where they play the soundtrack See You Again to dedicate Paul Walkers death and the part he played in the film. 

Music included in TV shows use Stings where a sound indicates an end of a scene or a dramatic climax. This is used in Eastenders where they use their significant 'duff duff' moments which notifies the audience on something important. In this scene the duff duff ends after Max witnesses his two daughters fall off the Queen Vics roof which is very shocking for the audience, hence the duff duff moment. 



How it enhances visuals:  Sound enhances visuals you hear to create tension and establish mood. It is created to excite and appeal to the audience along with illustrating insight in the background which depicts the time and location of where the characters are to make the audience aware. This is really important for radio dramas as all the sounds need to be clear and concise throughout otherwise it might confuse them. In an episode of the The Archers, at the beginning we can hear two characters eating breakfast as there is background noise of cutlery hitting a bowl and also hear the sound of the newspaper pages shuffling around. This shows that it is early in the morning. 

Silence: This creates extreme tension in media products or in radio dramas it is used to give time for each character or voice to speak so that their voices do not overlap with each other and confuse the listeners. An example of where silence is used is in a BBC podcast called GrownUplLand where they sometimes use silences to distinguish a different speaker is talking. These are only brief silences as sometimes it could make the conversation quite awkward if the silences were a little too long.