Why is sound, voice, noise, and dialogue important for the visual medium of film?

It is often said that good sound can save a bad image, but bad sound can ruin a great image. This is true, most importantly in the case of documentaries but also in narrative films, where a more controlled environment can help with a better image. In the documentary situation, there are oftentimes moments where capturing a state is more important than the technical matters that accompany it if especially, these are not readily available. But if the sound is impeccable, that can oftentimes make it acceptable and viewable.

Before going further I would like to talk about several different aspects of sound, which can be manifested in the form of sound effects, such as the banging of a door, screeching of tires, birds signing, gunshots, machinery at work, horses hooves on the asphalt or the dirt road, rain, thunder and many more of these effects, that render a film more realistic and contribute to bringing in the viewed into the story or the experience.

Then there are the noises, ambient noises, that are not necessarily specific sound effects, but the general ambiance, and atmosphere that again help establish location, mood, time of day, seasons, geographic and weather conditions, and the like. A noise that is not under one’s control in real life, and maybe either under one’s control if the filming conditions allow that, or not, if they happen unexpectedly during filming, and may be incorporated into the final product.

Then there is the voice of the actor, the storyteller, the interviewee, or the narrator as the case may be whether we are talking about narrative films or documentaries. In each of these cases, the quality of the voice, and the story it has to tell us, become an important and integral part of the character, and by extension of the story we are telling, be it through narrative films, documentaries or any other category or genre of film. The voice, with its quality, timbre, volume, emotional and physical state, tells us a story before even it starts to tell us the story.

In the case of the voice it makes a difference where and when it was recorded, and whether or not it belongs to the original actor, or is in voice-over dubbing, or narration. This leads us to the dialogue that is often an integral part of narrative films, and to the voice of the interviewee (an interviewer) that is an integral part of documentary films, along with the narration that is still another important ingredient. It makes a difference whether the voice of the actor was recorded live, or added later, and in the case of both, whether or not it belongs to the actor speaking the lines.

In the day when the sound was newly discovered, many film dialogues were recorded and added later in ADR. This gave the films a specific feel and a sound that often did not correspond to the environmental conditions that the original scene was filmed in. Some ‘room noise’ or ‘environment’ was added later, but it all was still a controlled condition once removed from the original conditions.

Nowadays, it is mostly accepted that important dialogues are spoken and recorded live, and in the case of documentaries, the original voice of the interviewee is used, preferably with subtitles, and not a dubbed voice over. However, with the widespread use of international distribution and wider markets, most films on Television are now available with a replaced dialogue in another language, as much as they are available in subtitles. Often the mood, the acting, the timbre, and the quality of the delivery do not match and as a result take away from the experience itself.

In narrative films, voice-over is used sometimes to convey thoughts, letters, unspoken words that may have to do with the story in some ways. This is a device that can also come in handy when the filming conditions do not allow for a controlled recording of sound, and therefore, instead of dubbing a voice-over is opted for.

I would like to share an experience I had with the use of voice-over in a short film I made, Moving Stories, in which much of the dialogue is spoken between the characters not to each other, but at each other, in their minds; words they would have probably said to one another under different circumstances, but not get the chance to do so. Instead, their thoughts are heard out loud through voice-over.

Here is the link with the password. I would like to share it with whoever has the time and interest to take a look at it. The film was screened in at the Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner in 2012 and went on to be seen at several international film festivals, including Moncao, Yerevan, Paris, London, and SRFF in New York.

https://vimeo.com/54067301
Password: MS1112NA

Thank you everyone!
Nora