Sound in Film

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What is sound? What gives us the ability to listen to our favorite songs in the first place? The low tones that surround our ears and give songs that sense of emotion, the high tones that seem to pierce our very souls during the most emotional parts of the saddest songs. What is it and how does it play a part in making a film whole? And how were we able to capture this invisible phenomenon and put it into a film in the first place? Sound is created through a range of vibrations of air molecules. We can detect and perceive sound thanks to our tympanic membrane located within our ears. This tympanic membrane (more widely known as our ear drums) vibrates as the air’s vibrations hit it, and thanks to a complex series of nerve endings which are connected to our brain from the tympanic membrane we are able to depict a wide variety of sounds. During the silent era, a pianist simply played an up beat ragtime theme along with the film. While watching the film, it could sometimes be difficult to know weather or not the pianist would be playing along with the mood of the film, or just playing to cover the gap of silence. When sound was finally recorded it changed the very course of film for as long as film has been around. It added the heir of realism to the film, it helped the audience to feel the emotion of the film and become more invested in what was going on, as if they themselves was a part of the film. So now we know what sound is, and how it is created and depicted, but how in the world were we able to capture and record sound? I mean sound exists in a continuum right? You can’t pause live sound or hold it still so you can record it. Sound is a physical phenomenon, can literally feel sound if you pay attention. Have you ever dr... ... middle of paper ... ...Jazz Singer Plot Summary." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 20 May 2014. "Kinetoscope." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 20 May 2014. "Lee De Forest." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 20 May 2014. Mack, Stan. "What Is Analog Audio?" EHow. Demand Media, 17 June 2009. Web. 20 May 2014. Mack, Stan. "What Is Analog Audio?" EHow. Demand Media, 17 June 2009. Web. 20 May 2014. "Phonofilm." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 Aug. 2014. Web. 20 May 2014. "Sound Film." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 Dec. 2014. Web. 20 May 2014. "Sound-on-film." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 May 2014. Web. 20 May 2014. "Vinyl Disk." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 Nov. 2014. Web. 20 May 2014. "Vitaphone." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 July 2014. Web. 20 May 2014. "William Kennedy Laurie Dickson." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 Sept. 2014. Web. 20 May 2014.

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