[Describe the three basic categories of sound]
The first category of sound is the dialogue. The dialogue refers to the conversation between characters. During the dialogue, the audience is able to gather information about the characters and actions in the film (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014). Dialogue also helps to develop the plot.
Sound effects are another category of sound. This is the gunfire and sounds of explosions that the audience hears in action movies. Also, sounds like the phone or doorbell ringing are examples of sound effects. They enhance the action of the movie and make it seem more realistic.
The third basic category of sound is music. The music that is created and used in the film is called the score it is what plays in the background of the movie when there is action (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014). People will often confuse this with the soundtrack which includes all of the songs and sounds that were played in the movie or even music that was made because of the movie. Music is also used to enhance the drama of the movie.
[Explain how the different categories of sound are used in the film]
In this particular scene, there is not a lot of dialogue to work with. The car in front of Sonny appears to have broken down or is at least taking a long time to move and to express his irritation he curses. This lets the audience know that he is annoyed and that perhaps he is in a hurry. There are a lot of sound effects that make up this scene.During the beginning of the scene when the audience can just see the car in the distance we hear birds chirping and the sound of tires on asphalt. These sounds provide the audience with auditory proof that they are outside. There is a honk of a horn and a ring of a bell that indicates the toll bar is down. There is the sound of a radio in the background that be coming from Sonny’s car. When the team of assassins start shooting Sonny there is the sound of breaking glass and gun shots. When Sonny finally goes down there is a thump that could have come from hitting a punching bag. This sound was Sonny’s body hitting the ground. At the point in the scene when the cars drive away, the audience expects some forlorn music, like violins and bagpipes, to play in the background but there was nothing like that in this scene. The only sounds the audience heard was that of the birds, wind and tires on the ground.
The use of sound in this particular scene was very dramatic. It had to be because it contained the murder of Sonny. The characters had machine guns and were shooting through glass. There had to be noise to account for that. If the director tried to do something different with the sound in that scene it would not have made sense. The sound would not have flowed with the actions carried out by the characters.
The genre of this movie is a crime drama. This is evident by the sounds of gunshots and glass breaking. Those noises scream crime and the sounds of drama are portrayed by Sonny’s scream while being shot.
This scene would not be the same if the sound was changed. It would not be as dramatic and it would not be congruent with the scene. How do you have a scene with gunshots but not have the actual sound of gunshots?
References:
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc
Movieclips. (2011). Sonny is killed- The Godfather [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJU2cz9ytPQ
The Godfather 