Sound

How is sexuality represented?

Today in class we went through different types of sound and how it creates a mood/tone within a scene. We looked at an extract which gave many examples of different sounds. We then went onto how sound represents sexuality or how it helps the representation of the sexuality. Below are some key definitions

Ambient - Sound in a background which is played within a scene. E.g birds
Foley - Artificial sound - sound effects which are reproduced and then added in to the scene
Natural - Real sound - sound which has not been added in 

Diagetic sound - On screen: sound which could be the characters voices, doors slamming etc
Non diagetic sound - Off screen: sound which has been added in e.g the music 

Parallel - fits in with the action or mood in a scene
Contrapuntal - doesn't fit in with the scene

After learning the key terms we then watched an extract to see what sounds we could recognise and see what effect they had. We also looked at how the sound represents sexuality.

• The dialogue - the man asked to marry the women and she replies "I can't" - relates to sexuality as she doesn't feel comfortable marrying him (the antagonist)
•  The music (non diagetic) sound is very tense resulting in creating an ominous tone reinforcing the dialogue. The music comes in every time he touches her reflecting her sickened feelings - the sound is parallel to her feelings. 
• The breathing at the beginning is natural sound which was captured in the scene. Reflects that the two women like and want to be close. Sexual tension between the characters - More so from the protagonist.
• Non diagetic sound coming in with soothing music - when the two women are together reflecting she is more comfortable with her than the man.

Notes on diagetic sound:

Before I did this exercise I struggled to understand all the different types of sound and what effects they have. After this I have a more advanced understanding of sound as I now know some definitions which will help me when watching an extract and doing my coursework and exam. I did not know what ambient, parallel and contrapuntal sound was before I did this and I still do not feel very comfortable using the terminology as I am not confident I know the definitions yet. I will have to practice this by looking at different extracts and trying to see how sound is used. Doing this has also helped me as I could see how the director of this extract wanted to represent sexuality. I have learnt that sound is used in a scene to create a certain type of mood and tone e.g the extract which I previously talked about had an ominous tone and the mood which was created was very unconformable and aggravating.