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Film SoundTHEORY AND PRACTICE

Edited by Elisabeth Weis and John Belton

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK

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The Acoustic World

It is the business of the sound film togggt$or us our ÊtgFI9SryiPlIIlFBFtheacousticlandscapeinwhichwelive,thespeechoÍthingsandtnelnn-mate whisperi.tgs oÍ naúe; all that has speechbeyond human speech' and

,pã"f., to us wiú the vast conversational powers of life and incessantly influ-

ã'".ã, *a directs our thoughts and emotions, Írom the muttering oÍ the sea

to the din oí a great city,-Ëom the roar of machinery to the gentle ,patler oÍ

autumn rain oria windowpane. The meaníng oÍ a floorboard creaking in a'

deserted room, a bullet whistling past our ear, the deathwatch beetle ticking

in old furniture, and the forest spring tinkling over the stones. sensitive lyr-

ical poets always could hear these significant sounds of life and describe them

in words. lt is for the sound hlm to let them speak to us more directly Íromthe screen,

Disco-very of Noise

The sounds of our day-to-day life we hitherto perceived merely as a con-fused noise, as a formless nrass of (Çrather as an unmusical person maylisten to a symphony; at best he may be able to distinguish the leading mel-ody, the rest will fuse into a chaotic clamor. @analvze even,chaotjç noisg_withroU! grr and rgrd the score of liÍe's svm-phony" Our ear will hear the diÍferent voices in the general babble and dis-

Theory of the Film: SoundBELA BALAZS

tinguish their character It is an old maximthatkind oíredeem us from the chaos oÍ shapeless noise by accepting it as expression,as signiÍicance, as meaning.

Only when the sound film will have resolved noise into its ele-

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THEORY OF THE FILM: SOUND t77

ments, segregated individual , intimate voices, and made them speak to us

:1ryïjt]v it' uo*1,6o-@jì*n"" ir,àã isorared detair-sounds wil"'ç"D' rsgrsgdrcu' rn.rvloyal-- rnilmate voices, and made them speak to ussepamtely in vocal,@o*ü,c_ìËIe'-uò*hnn fho"o imÌarort Áó+-ir -^.,-J^ ..j,Ì

have bçgome a new art. When the dilirector..wilf he able. to lead õülãG-@intr-'ffiguldance along a series of close-ups will be able to emohasizp qpnãrãra ânÀable to emphasize, separate, andbring into relation with each othei the ,ounà, ãiÍrã""i iãï;;ffi ;,il';:sights, then the rattle and cratter of life wiil no long". ovenwhelm us in alifeless chaos of sound. The sound camera rú ìntn-.n" in this chaos oÍ:::1,1 ,Í.rr" it and. interpret it, and then it will again be man himselÍ whospeaks'to us from.the sound screen-

The picture Forms the Sound

In a sound film there is no need to explain the sounds. we see together withthe word the glance, the smile.,. the gàsture, úl-*f,of" .h"rd .i;;;;;J;;,the exact nuanc€. Together witti the ãoundr'unJ voices of things we see theirllïi"n"ily }@+ggtÀflraçlug,hu, u àiff".unt coloring íor us if wesee the whirling machinery at the same time, The sound oí

"úVg i, aitt",!i$ff_t9:.'t;. qe1;Ure+t, Just as the shade and value or uãï.nungl,accorcling to what other colors are next to it in a painting, so the timbre-ofa sound changes in accordance with thelp_hy,siognomyr orlestu$oÍ tte .vis_ible source of the sound seen together *ìíh tnÃound itsáf ir;ound Íilmin which acoustic and optical impredsions are equivalentii linked togetherinto a single picture.

In',a radio play the stage has to be described in words, becausesound alone is not space-creatino.@

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Silence

Silence, too, is aq 4çp11q1[ç efÍe . but only where sounds can be heard. Thepresentation of silence is one of the most specific @JÜm. n" other art can reproduce silence, neither painting norFJ;qlgture, nei-ther literature nor lhe"silent íilm could do.so. Even on the stffiïence ap-pears only rarely as a dramatic effect and then only for short moments. Rã-dio plays cannot make us feel the depths oÍ silence at all, because when no

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sounds come from our set, the whole performance has ceased' as w€ can-

not see any silent continuation of the áction. The sole material of the wire-

iàrr of"úáttg sound, the result oÍ the cessation of sound is not silence but

just nothing.

Silence and SPace

Things that we see as being diÍÍerent Írom each, other' appear even more

diÍferent when they emit sou"nds' They all sound different *1",:".th"y.t lltl;ï6Ë].nlll;ffi,i;'iit;; *uy.-Th"r" are thousands of difÍerent sounds

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That is at first hearingqlesp, to each other a.nd-.r.n-9hes-!henn lels'=q!$úLnilsr',tl:,-"^ l"iÏ:t"n^::.:"ïthis happy harmony, tnnÏffiãÃãõã laìguage of mute things-t:i:":

ütti"S "í "

ílV on the windowpane fills the

i"g *itn áach other, recognizing each others' shapes' and entering into re-

laiions with each other in a composition common to them all' This was a

grãui uauuntuge the silent film had over the sound filq For- its silence was

not mute; it was given u "oi."

in the background music' uldlendçSeg ?ndmen and the obfeçts surroundÍng them were shown on the screen against

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was cdmmon to them all.

But the siteni film could reproduce silence only by roundaboul

means. On the theatricai siage cessation o{ the dialogue does not touch oÍí

inã gr""t emotional experien-ce oÍ silënce, because the space oí the stage is

iã" ãtnar for that, and the expgrience qf silence is essentialy.q*qplqçe-exp9-

rience.4-- How do we peÍceive silence? By hearing nothing? That is a rnere

negative. yàt mun has iew experìences more positive than the experience

;Í:í;;." DeaÍ people do not know what it is' But iÍ a moming breeze blows

the sound of a cock crowing over to us from the neighboring viìlage, if Írom

thetopoÍahighmountain-wehearthetappingofawoodcutter'saxeÍarüuìo*'in the vãlley, i{ we can hear the crack of a whip a mile awag-then

Ëffiï"ï;;l;; ;;th"s time into fragments with sledsehammer blows'

ìï"'JnÃ" ,.Sãúst_when we can heaivery distant sounds in a very large

space The widest space i, ou, o*n iÍ we cãn hear right across it and the

)THEORY OF THE FILM: SOUND 119

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noise of the alien world reaches us Írom bevond its boundaries. A com-pletely soundless space on the contrary n"ffiffiffiõóffirete, andquite real to our perception; we Íeel it to be weightless and unsubstantial,Íor what we merely see is only a vision. We accept seen space as real onlywhen it contains sounds as well, Íor these give it the dimension of depih.

On the stage, a silence which is the reverse of speech may havea dramaturgical function, as for instance if a noisy company suddenly fallssilent when a new character appealg._Ert such a ritnn.ó cannot last longerthan a few seconds, otherwise itícurdlej as it were and seems to stop theperformance. On the stage, the effeifõÌ-silence cannot be drawn out or madeto last.

In the Íilm. silence can be extremely vivid and varied, for al-though it has no voice, it . A silentglance can speak volumes; its soundlessness makes it more expressive be-cause the facial movements of a silent íigure may explain thegggggfor thesilence, make us feel its weight, ih menace, its tension. ln the film, silence

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you with wide-open eyes. Ií a sound film shows us any object sunoundedby the noises of everyday life and then suddenly cuts out all sound and bringsit up to us in isolated close-up, then the physiognomy oÍ that object takeson a significance and tension that seems to provoke and invite the eventwhich is to íollow.

Sound-Explaining Pictures

Not only the microdramatics expressed in the microphysiognomy of the Íacecan be made intelligible by the sound which causes it. Such a c,lose:_up:Blgg-sound can have the inverse efÍect. The close-up_of a listener's face can e;-Iìã'ìítB, .s"i,n d I" LãUl.Tãìscance of some sound*òí'noise if we had not seen its effect in the minor oÍa human Íace. For instance we hear the Such a sounddoes not acquire a dramatic significance unleós wã can see the expres-sion on hqnan faces thgt it is a danger-signal, or a call to revolt.We mayhear the sound ofJ&,hg,ilÈlut how deep sl&g!]lgis will become evidenton,ly trom the expression of sympathy and úndersAnding appearing on some

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of men is more intense when they are silent.even thines drop their masks and seem to lõóï'ãt

iil.hUman facer Further, the acoustic character oÍ a sound we understand is

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120 BELA BALAZS

diÍÍerent too. We hear the sound oÍ a siren diÍferently if we know that it is awarning oÍ impending deadly peril.

may also show two kindsof things. The reflected effect of the music may throw light into the humansoul; it may also throw light on the.$Uililçlf and suggest by means of thelistener's Íacial expression some experiènce touched off by this musical ef-íect. Ií the director shows us a close-up oÍ the conductor while an invisibleorchestra is playing, not only can the character oí the music be made clearby the dumbshow of the conductor,'his iacial expression may also give an

interpretation of the sounds and convey it to us. And the emotion producedin a human being by music and demonstrated by a close-up of a Íace can'enhance the power of a piece of music in our eyes far rnore than any addeddecibels.

synchronous Sound

ln a close-up in which the surroundings are not visible, a sound that seeps

Ínto the shot sometimes impresses us as mysterious, simply because we can-

not s€e irs, gpurFe. It produces the tension arising from curiosi! and expec-taüon. Sometimes the audience does not know what the sound is they hear,

but the character in the Íilm can hear it, turn, his face toward the sound, and

see'its source beÍore the audience does. This handling of picture and soundprovides rich opportunities for effects oÍ tension and surprise.

esgbrqnqus-sQugd (that is, when there is discrepancy be-tween the things heard and the things seen in the Íilm) can acquire consid-erable importance. Ií the sound or voice is not tied up with a picture of itssource, it may grow beyond the dimensions oÍ the latter. Then it is no longerthe voice or sound oí some chance thing, but appears as a pronouncementoÍ universal validity. . . . The surest means by which a director can conveythe patho,s- or svmbolical significance of sound or.voice is precisely to use it

.#8- -'asthchronously.

lntimacy of Sound

Acoustic cÌose-ups make us perceíve sounds which are included in,the.ac-customed noise oÍ day-to-day;liÍe,'but which we never hear as indiüdr,ral

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Sound Cannot be Isolated

ln such close-ups of sound. we must be qpreful, however, to bear in mindthe specific nature of sound which ,o,ror --*il l^,,-, ,^ L^ :^-r_. , .

sg':-S:*"lylg:Í1çnl"q'-u:ïy,:E}-r,_ïtiã{jfhóïúitnin the film r.á.nn.unnot be seen by us, even

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sounds because thev are !1ow.1ed in the general din. possibly they evenhave an eÍfect on us but this effed neverbË-.o*", .onr.ious. If a crose-uppicks out such a sound and thereby ,nut nr u, á*ure of its effect, then at thesame time its infruence on the action wiil have been made maniÍest.

.On the stage such things are impossible. If "

th";tri;;l;roducerwanted to direct the attention of thã audienc" to á s.ar."ry auaiur" sigr,,ïà,cause that sigh expresses a turning-point in the action, thãn

"il th";iË;; ;-tors in the same scene would have to be very quiet, or else the actor who

ii.,ïi:ï*:i:ffi:*:i#:,fïi:ï::ïÍ j:i"1'$È,,,j,: j:::'ir*that it is shy and retiring and musr remain ,.irJy audible. As in the sirentíilm so in the sound film, scarcely p"r."ptiúü:;;;mate things can be con-veyed with all the secrecy oí the unnoticàd

"urrnràropp"r. Nãii,ing ãï;silenced in order to demonstrate such sounds for at ìà r,""r-."ã,iãv.ã,.'yet be kept intimate. The-general din can go on, it may even drown com_pletely a sound like the soft piping of u -or"q"iio,'uu, *n can get quite closeto the source oí the sound wiin ne -icropnonã'and with our ear and hearit nevertheless.

subtle associations and interrelations of thoughts and emotionscan be..conveyed by means of,very low, soft round "ff".ìr. Sr;h ";;;;;ìor intellectual linkages can play a áecisive dramaiurgical part. Tht-;;;'ü;anything{he ticking oí a cloci< in.an

"n'ptv tooÀ, a slow drip from a sürïfpipe, or the moaning of a little child in its sLep-

rÍ it is.immediately beside the things tn"t *à. lìónì or shadow can be throwninto the picture from outside and-the outrine oia snuao* .un Ë"trú-r. th;spectator what is outside the frame but stilr in the same sector of space, al-though the picture will show only 1:lg5!gp. in sounO things are different.Ah acousüc enüronmentr ineütabú €rcroacô; ìh" .Io."-up shot and whatï1 h"1rl this case is not a .nãaìffiãam of risht, bur the soundsthemselves, which can always. be heard throughout the*whole d;;" ;iil;picture, however small a qrction of that ,pu.ã i, included i" th;-;;;p.S"".at.""""t U"fmt

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Music played in a restaurant cannot be completely cut out iÍ a

special close-up of-say two people softly talking together in a corner is to be

,'ho*n. The band máy not always be seen in the picture, but it will always

be heard. Nor is there any need to silence the music altogether in order that

we may hear the soft whispering oÍ the two guests as ií we were sitting in

their immediate vicinity. The close-up will contain the whole acoustic atmo-

sphere of the restaurant space. Thus we will hear not only the people talk-

ing, we will also hear in what relation their talking is io the sounds all round

ihem. We will be able to place it in its acoustic enúronment'Such sound-pictures are often used in the film Íor the purpose

of creating an atmosphere. Just as the íilm can show visual landscapes' so

it can show acoustic landscapes, a tonal milieu.

Educating the Ear

Our eye recognzes things even if it has seen them only once or twice. Sounds

are much mõre difficult to recognize. We know Íar more visual forms than

sound Íorms. We are used to Íinding our way about the world without the

conscious assistance oí our hearing. But without sight we are lost. our ear,

however, is.not less sensitive, it is only less educated than our eye. science

tells us in Íact thalgve, The number oÍ sounds and noises a human ear can distinguish runs

ilõ-rnuny thousands-Íar more than the shades oÍ color and degrees oÍ light

we can distinguish. There is however a considerable difference between per-

ceiving a sound and identifying its source. We may be aware that we are

hearing a diÍÍerent sound than before, without knowing to whom or what

the soúnd betongs. We may have more difficulty in perceiving things üsu-

ally, but we recognize them more easily once we have perceived them. Erd-

rnánn'r experiments showed that the ear can distinguish innumerable shades

and degrees in the noise of a large crowd, but at the same time it could not

be stated with certainty whether the noise was that of a memT or an angry

crowd.There is a very considerable dïÍferencebelween our visual and

acoustic educalion. one of the reasons for this is that we so oíten see with-

out hearing. We see things from aíar, through a windowpane, on pictures,

on photographs. But we very rarely hear the sounds of nature and oÍ life

wilhout seeing something.s&lgjbeutgQug!_lbinqs írom sounds we,hear. This defective education of

our hearing can be used Íor many surprising efÍects in the sound film. We

hear a hiss in the darkness. A snake? A human face on the screen turns in

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THEORY OF THE FILM: SOUND 123

tenor toward the sound and the spectators tense in their seats. The camera,too, turns toward the sound. And behold the hiss is that of a kettle boilingon the gas-ring.

Such surprising disappointnents may be tragic too. In such casesthe slow approach and the slow recognition of the sound may cause a Íarmore terrif5ring tension than the approach of something seen and thereforeinstantly recognized. The roar of an approaching flood or landslide, ap-proaching cries of grieí or tenor which we discern and distinguish only grad-ually, impress us with the inevitabiliÇ of an approaching catastropÈe withalmost inesistible intensity. These great possibiliües oÍ dramaüc effeci are dueto the fact that such a slow and gradual process oÍ recognition can symbolizethe desperate resistance of the consciousness to understanding u t"uúty ruhi.his already audible but which the consciousness is reluctant to accept.

Sounds Throw No Shadow

Auditive culture can be increásed like any other and the sQunç! film is verysuitable to educate our ear. There are however definiteffiõilities of finding our way about the world purely by sound, without any vi-sual impressions. The reason for this is that sounds throw no shadows-inother words that so,unds cann_o_! Etqdlgs S3pe9*ln_êpgqe. Things which wesee we must see side by side; if we do not, one of them covers up the otherso that it cannot be seen. Visual impressions do not blend with each other.Sounds are different; if several of them are present at the same time, theymerge into one common composite sound. We can see the dimension oÍspace and see a direction in it. But we cannot hear either dimension or di-rection. A quite unusual, rare sensitivi$ of.ear, the so-called absolute-is re-quired to distinguish the several sounds which make up a composite noise.But their place in space, the direction of their source cannot be discernedeven by a perfect ear, if no visual impression is present to help.

It is one of the basic form-problems of the radio play that soundalone cannot represent space and hence cannot alone represent a stage.

Sounds Have No Sides

It is diÍficult to localize sound and a Íilm director must take this fact into ac-count. lí three people are talking together in a film and they are placerJ so

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that we cannot see the movements of their mouths and if they do not ac-company their words by gestures, it is almost impossible to know which oÍthem is talking, unless the voices are very diÍferent. For sounds cannot bebeamed as precisely as light can be directed by a reflector. There are nosuch straight and concentrated sound beams as there are rays of light.

The shapes of visible.things haüe several sides, right side and leftside, front and back. Sound has no such aspects, a sound strip will not tellus from which side the shot was made.

Sound Has a Space Coloring

Every rratural sound reproduced by,art on the,stage or on the platform al-ways takes on a false tone-coloring, for it always assumes the coloring of thespace in which it is presented to the public and not of the space which it is

supposed to reproduce. Ií we hear a storm, the howling of the wind, a clapof thunder, etc., ,on the stage we always hear in il the tímbre proper to thestage not in the timbre proper to the forest, or oceàn, or whatnot the sceneis supposed to represent. IÍ, say, a,choii sings in a church on the stage, wecannot hear the unmistakable resonance oÌ Gothic arches; for every soundbears the stamp of the space in which it is actually produced.

F,vpry sound haç a space-bound chreçtgrof its 9wn..The samesound sounds different in a small room, in a cellar, in a large empty.hàll, ina street, in a Íorest, or on the sea.

Every sound which.is .really produced somewhere must oÍ ne-cessity have some such space-quality and this is a very important quality in-deed if use is to be made oí the sensuàl reproducing power oí sound! It ìs

this fimbre lacal oÍ. sound which is necessarily always falsified on the theat-rical stage. One oÍ the most valueible artistii Íaiulties oÍ the microphone isthat sounds shot at the point oÍ origin are perpeìuated by it and retain theiroriginal tonal coloring, A sound recorded in a,cellar remains a cellar soundeven ií it is played back in a picture theater, just as a Íilm shot preserves theviewpoint of the camera, whatever.the spectator's viewpoint in the cinemaauditorium may be. If the picture was taken from above, the spectators willsee the object from above,,even if they have to look upwards to the screenand not downwards. Just as our eye is identiÍied with the camera lens, soour €ar is identiÍied with the microphone and we hear the sounds aq llpmicrophone originally heard them, jÍrespective oÍ where the sound film is

being shown and the sound reproduced.'ln this way, in the sound film, the

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THEORY OF THE FILM: SOUND

fixed, immutable, permanent distance between spectator and actor is elimi-g$pl'Ely ot only as spectators,but as listeners, too, we are transfened from our seats to the space in whichthe events depicted on the screen are taking place"

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