Sound

What is the relation of the sound to the image in specific scenes or sequences? How might the answer to that question be refined to reveal the aims, achievements, or even failures of sound in the movie?

  • Is the sound used to link images, or does the sound have the conventional role of beginning and terminating with the image?
  • Does sound ever become more important than the image, and what is the reason for this unusual strategy?
  • Do the musical numbers in a musical have any special relation to the narrative structure (for instance, do they occur when the characters need to escape into fantasy)?
  • Why does the dialogue of the characters overlap or seem mumbled in some recent movies so that it is difficult to understand the characters? Does the dialogue serve some other purpose than to help tell the story?
  • What role does silence play in this movie?
  • Are there sound motifs that identify the characters or actions?