Sound is throughout almost every major film produced today. The three main sound categories are dialogue, sound effects, and music. Dialogue is the actors talking during the film. Dialogue is used to further develop the plot, enhance characterizations, and to establish information that the audience needs to know in order to understand what is going on (Goodykoontz, 2011). Sound effects are the noises of the action playing out on the scene. Sound effects may be the gun fire taking place in the shot, or the explosion that has happened out of frame. The intent of the sound effect is to help describe all of the action in a scene whether it is seen or not. The last element of sound is music. Music may be playing over a scene or it may just be in the background while dialogue is taking place. Music can set the pace for the scene and has the ability to invoke emotion it the audience.

                The movie that I have chosen to comment on is End of Watch. This film is shot documentary style and follows an LA police officer. Most of the scenes sound comes from the dialogue between the two partners. The dialogue is use to establish the characters creditability and show us what type of men they are. This helps the audience become invested in the characters. Sound effects are also present throughout the film. While the officers are driving around you can hear passing cars that you cannot seen, further illustrating that they are in fact out on patrol. Music did not take a major role in this film due in part to the way the film was shot. Music is played mostly during the happier times in the movie such as the wedding scene, the quinceanera, and during a road trip. There was also a scene during a house fire rescue where the score was ominously playing low as the officers where losing consciousness. The audience could feel that the situation was getting bad just by the way that the score was being played.

                End of Watch had all of the typical sounds of a crime drama. There was the ever-present dispatch radio in the back ground, squealing tires, gun fire, and of course the cop lingo. The film would have been drastically altered if key categories of the sound were removed. It there wasn’t the radio in the back ground or the squealing of the patrol vehicles tires it would have been harder for the audience to buy into the characters.

 

References:

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2011). Film: From Watching to Seeing. San Diego,

CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

 

End of Watch. (2012, May 3).  End of Watch Official Trailer [Video file]. Retrieved from