In most movies nowadays you have three basic categories of sound. Dialogue, sound effects, and music make up the sounds of a movie being played through the speakers of your TV. Dialogue is simply the characters speaking. A line spoken by an actor or narrator is dialogue. Sound effects are noises of things happening in a movie. Most times specific sounds are intensified to create the environment that the director wants you to feel like you’re in by watching the film.
More times than you’d imagine, a film uses a Foley Artist to create sounds to match certain parts of movies. For instance, the laser sounds from Star Wars are created by someone tapping on a tight wire, and Darth Vader’s breathing is a microphone next to a breathing regulator on a scuba buoyancy control device. Lastly, you have the music. Most movies have a soundtrack that plays throughout the duration of the movie. The soundtrack can be created by one composer with an orchestra, or it could be a playlist of songs that weren’t even created specifically for the movie. Most times the soundtrack is played during any action sequences or establishing scenes, and cut out during scenes with a lot of dialogue.
In The Shawshank Redemption, a major portion of the dialogue is narration. The movie is narrated by one of the most recognizable voices in the U.S., Morgan Freeman. Morgan Freeman plays Andy Dufresne’s best friend Red. He tells the story from when Andy is sentenced to prison until he escapes through 500 yards of filth. I don’t think the film would be as good without his narration. Sound effects in the film range from punching sounds, background noise in the cafeteria, and chipping with a rockhammer.
The movie utilizes a soundtrack composed specifically for it. The scores are fairly ominous throughout the film, portraying the unpleasantries of prison in the mid 1940’s. There is one track not made for the film, and it’s the opera song played over the loudspeaker. For a movie that makes one feel tense from one scene to the next, it makes you feel peaceful. The inmates finally get to feel something not from the effects of punishment.
The establishing starts with Morgan Freeman narrating, briefly describing his function in prison, as well as a brief background on Andy. The discription of Andy let’s you know that this is most likely a Crime/Drama genre. There is a long take, shot from the air, circling the prison and following the bus Andy is riding in on. You hear a loud siren, alerting everyone that new prisoners are inbound.
The music is orchestral, with deep tones and an overall depressing sound. As the bus pulls through the gates there is a lot of background noise of cheering and clapping. It’s not exaggerated because there are hundreds of excited prisoners. Without the cheering and clapping, you wouldn’t feel the excitement for the upcoming scene, “Fresh Fish”.
Video Clips Retrieved From YouTube
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2011). Film: From watching to seeing. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
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