LO1: Understand How Sound Elements are Used Across Media Industries (P1)

TV Show (Doctor Who: S4-S7)

In Doctor Who, specifically within season 4 to season 7, sound is used in effective ways to convey emotion and display character growth. Overall this helps to entertain the audience and to sell the product, but through different techniques.

The first example I have chosen is from the last episode of Season 4. It depicts the tenth Doctor regenerating into the eleventh Doctor. This scene is important for the narrative as it creates an effective soundscape in order to allow the audience to understand how the doctor is feeling. Through the tenth Doctors lifetime, he learnt so much while losing everything, and this scene shows him losing the last thing he had left, himself. The loud, violent non-diegetic music reflects the pain in the tenth Doctors mind. The sounds of fire, explosions and his ship breaking apart create the same effect, indicating how important of a moment this is for the doctor. Furthermore, right before the regeneration begins, he says, 'I don't want to go' in a sad, wavering tone. The tone this is said in reflects the emotion that might be seen when a child leaves to see the world by themself, perhaps indicating that this is the moment that the Doctor moves from childhood into adulthood.

It is also notable that throughout this scene the music transitions from dramatic and sad to fun and playful. This allows the audience to know that while the Tenth Doctor's era is coming to and end, what is to come is much bigger and much more fun.

The next scene I have chosen to analyse is from the end of Season 5: Episode 1. This scene is shown after the newly regenerated Doctor has saved the world in under 20 minutes. It is the defining moment for this new iteration of the character. The first aspect of this scene that truly shows off who this new iteration of the Doctor truly is, is when he is talking to the alien who he just prevented from destroying the world and the Doctor is asking which tie he should wear. Furthermore, the Doctors character is defined more so with the line, 'Is this world protected? because you're not the first lot to come here, oh there have been so many. And what you've got to ask is, what happened to them?' This line is said with peaceful confidence, a sort of tone which implies that the Doctor is not scared, not violent, but is prepared to do what is necessary to protect the world he has spent his life in. This dialogue also enhances the visuals because as is this said, the alien is reviewing all of the deadliest threats that the Doctor has prevented, and then looking at all previous versions of the Doctor.

Finally, and potentially most significant, over this scene, a soundtrack that later in the season become the sign that the eleventh Doctor is winning is playing. The soundtrack create a sense of non-violent confidence, enhancing the dialogue said over this and showing that the Doctor does not need to be violent or aggressive to win. This has been done to fully define who this version of the Doctor is, and to establish his personality for the audience to see. Furthermore, a break in the music is allowed as the Doctor says, 'I'm the Doctor, basically... run.' This quote also becomes a catchphrase for him, building upon his ability to win with no need for aggression.

In terms of narrative, this scene is incredibly significant as it was built up to with a lot of anticipation. Throughout the season, the doctor finds out that the explosion of his ship will cause the end of the world, and multiple people had told him that when 'the pandorica' opens, the Doctor will fall. Potentially foreshadowing the Doctors death. The Doctors speech being filled with confidence and fearlessness juxtaposes this, suggesting that he is too motivated to allow himself to die yet. This is enhanced by the visuals of the hundreds of spaceships filled with deadly aliens and robots flying around above him.

Furthermore, as mentioned previously, a slightly modified version of the eleventh Doctors soundtrack is playing over parts of this speech, this suggests that he has control over such an unlikely situation, one that is weighted out of his favour. This represents the Doctor as and ideal self/ partner (Carl Rogers) as it depicts someone, who is not particularly shown to be strong or a skilled fighter, marching with confidence despite how unfair the circumstances are.

In juxtaposition to the previous observations I have made about the Doctors peaceful and non-aggressive nature, this scene shows him to be aggressive, angry and violent. Based on the narrative, the audience already know that the Daleks were the species that destroyed the Doctors entire species, and tore everything away from him, causing him limitless trauma. This furthers his representation as an ideal self/ partner by allowing his character to show strong emotion. This is done through his dialogue containing strong, meaningful words and phrases such as, 'you are everything I despise,' 'Kill me!' and 'You are my enemy, and I am yours!' The majority of these are shouted by the Doctor while he is hitting the Dalek with a very large spanner.

The harsh diegetic noise of the spanner hitting the metal of the dalek paired with the quick cuts timed up with the strikes enhance the representation of how angry the Doctor is.

In conclusion, despite each different use of sound within Doctor Who is there to create different emotions and representations, it is evident that Doctor Who uses sound, mostly in the form of dialogue, atmospheric noise and non-diegetic music to create different emotions in the audience, and to represent the mood of the characters. This in itself helps to sell Doctor Who.

Film (The Martian)

• Atmospheric noises on mars
• Connotes the loneliness
• Beeping of technology
• Connotes the desperateness of Watney
• connotes how lonely and empty it is
• there is no one around making any noise
• Mark Watney's breathing and no other noise
• loneliness
• Buzzing noises in background
• tinnitus like effect
• pain
• time limit (Watney is running out of time)
• Mark Watney's log entries
• allow for the narrative to be carried through dialogue without the diegetic dialogue seeming meaningless as there is no one around to hear what he is saying.
• Music begins playing as Watney says, 'I'm not gonna die here.'
• represents Watney's confidence and motivation
• Background noise in Johnson space centre
• Significantly juxtaposes the difference between the silence of mars, and the peaceful ambience of earth

The use of sound withing The Martian helps to add effect and create emotion in order to immerse the audience in the product. This in turn helps to sell the product.

The first clip I have chosen to evidence this is from the beginning of the film, it depicts Watney waking up to find himself alone, injured on Mars after the rest of the crew have aborted the mission. This clip very effectively uses a lot of diegetic sound effects in order to represent how alone Watney truly is by creating an effective soundscape. For example, the beeping noise coming from his breached space suit being the loudest noise that can be heard at first proves how silent the environment is. After Watney has stood up, and begins walking back towards the mars base while supporting the metal that has impaled him, a tinnitus like noise begins playing. This sound effect is non-diegetic but gives the audience an idea of the hopelessness Watney is feeling as it is once again the loudest noise to be heard within the scene aside from Watney's breathing. This sound effect is enhanced by the establishing shot of Watney walking towards the mars base, limping as it once again shows the emptiness and loneliness that he must be experiencing. The creation of an immersive soundscape enable the audience to understand Watney's emotions and loneliness in this scene.

Another very effective and creative use of sound throughout the film. At various points in the film, Mark Watney does log entries. With him being completely alone on Mars, these log entries give his character a way to carry the narrative through dialogue without it seeming unnecessary or forced on the story.

Game (Plague Inc.)

Plague Inc. is a game notorious for its effective sound design and immersive soundscape creation. Throughout the gameplay, slow music with an evil tone is playing Due to the aim of the game being to wipe out the worlds population by spreading a deadly illness, this is massively enhancing, on top of this, the evil toned music (created with heartbeat like drum beats) enhances the visuals of the game due to the red colouring of infected countries (red connoting danger and evil). Furthermore, a series of different sound effects can be heard at different points throughout the game. The two most prominent and significant sound effects are coughing and an ambulance siren. These two sound effects help immerse the audience by creating a sense of verisimilitude surrounding illness in real life.

Podcast (Distractible: Bob's Fridge)

As the majority of podcasts are conversational, there is little need for too much sound to go into the creation of the soundscape, as the audience is supposed to be engaged in the conversation. This is evident in the podcast episode above, Distractible. This podcast is intended to bring up funny and abstract topics in which they do everything but take themselves seriously. In order to juxtapose this, they use a British narrator who speaks using relatively complex words over the top of slow, sophisticated music. As the narrator finishes introducing the show and the hosts begin talking and making jokes, the sophisticated music begins to fade out, this allows for the audience to understand that the content discussed is not intended to be serious, and is there to be laughed at.

On top of this, various sound effects are used throughout the episode that relate to what someone is saying. This develops an effective soundscape, building auditory connections to visuals in the audiences mind.

David Attenborough's Nature Documentaries:

Although documentaries are just information providing films, they create soundscape and use sound completely different than usual films. In the majority of David Attenborough documentaries (including the clips above) at any given moment while he is narrating, subtle, slow paced but happy music is playing. This music enhances the information he is giving and makes it more engaging. On top of this, During visuals where various creatures can be seen interacting (whether mating rituals or fighting), the music fades out and only environmental sounds can be heard. Furthermore, very few non-diegetic sound effects are used in order to create a natural feel.