Sound Effects

Sound

"Sound effects play an important role in conveying action. Music helps express emotion" - Michael Geisler

Music plays a vital role when telling a visual story, whether it be through film, television, thearte or animation.  It allows the audience to set the mood of the story in their mind and gain a clear picture of the scene. Take a horror movie for example:-

 We would not expect this scary scene (above) to be combined  by cheerful and joyful music. So therefore unless the piece is satircal, it would make sense that the music fits the scene. As for this picture, we'd expect sharp violins mixed with low monotones notes. This would be to create the feel of tension in our minds and make us think something scary is going to happen.

The Three Purposes of Sound Effects 

In the world of film and television there are three functions for sound effects

1. Simulating Reality - This is especially important when discussing animation as it is essentially fake and often fictional.  By applying sound effects to the film a level of realism is introduced, concluding that for the audience to believe they must hear it as well as see it.
2. Creating Illusion - Putting sound effects into a film in some respects is an art in it self. By doing so the audience and be tricked into believing something is there that's not or something is about to happen. For example a safari group are travelling through the jungle when a lions roar is heard. Although there is no lion to be seen, the audience are now under the illusion that there is a lion somewhere in the scene
3. Mood - I briefly discussed the use of this above in our 'scary castle scene' and this is arguably the most important purpose of sound effects. This is when sound effects are not just used as a mechanical tool but can used both creatively  and artistically. For example a scene is set in a park where a small dog is yapping change the sound effect to a big doberman dog loudly barking and just by this small changed of sound a entirely different scene is created. 

Kerner, Marvin M: The Art of the Sound Effects Editor (1989),  p 11- 15