Sound and Narrative

Sound

There are two types of music, Diegetic and Non-Diegetic.

Diegetic is the sound which is visible on the screen. For example· voices of characters · sounds made by objects in the story music represented as coming from instruments in the story space ( = source music)Diegetic sound is any sound presented as originated from source within the film's worldDigetic sound can be either on screen or off screen depending on whatever its source is within the frame or outside the frame. Another term for diegetic sound is actual sound.

Non-Diegetic sound is the sound which is not visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action:narrator's commentarysound effects which is added for the dramatic effectmood musicNon-diegetic sound is represented as coming from the source outside story space. The distinction between diegetic or non-diegetic sound depends on our understanding of the conventions of film viewing and listening.

We know of that certain sounds are represented as coming from the story world, while others are represented as coming from outside the space of the story events. A play with diegetic and non-diegetic conventions can be used to create ambiguity (horror), or to surprise the audience (comedy). Another term for non-diegetic sound is commentary sound.There are so many different famous composers for example; Walter Murch, Bernard Hermann, Ennio Morricone, and Danny Elfman.One of the most famous composers is Danny Elfman. Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American musician, who is famous for composing scores and songs for Tim Burton's films, composing "The Simpsons Theme", the Mission: Impossible soundtrack, and leading the rock band Oingo Boingo as singer/songwriter from 1976 until its breakup in 1995. He's been composing film scores extensively since 1985's Pee-wee's Big Adventure. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards and won a Grammy Award for Tim Burton's Batman and an Emmy Award for his Desperate Housewives theme. Elfman also wrote the theme for the video game Fable.In 1985, Tim Burton and Paul Reubens invited Elfman to write the score for their first feature film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Elfman was apprehensive at first because of his lack of formal training, but with orchestration assistance from Oingo Boingo guitarist and arranger Steve Bartek he achieved his goal of emulating the mood of such composers as Nino Rota and Bernard Herrmann. He later described, in the booklet for the first volume of 'Music for a Darkened Theatre,' that the first time he heard his music played by a full orchestra was one of the most thrilling experiences of his life.[citation needed] Elfman has spoken of the affinity he developed right away with Burton, and he has gone on to score all but two of his major studio films;

Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)
Beetlejuice (1988)
Batman (1989)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Batman Returns (1992)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Planet of the Apes (2001)
Big Fish (2003)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Corpse Bride (2005)
Alice In Wonderland (2010)

Another American composer was Bernard Hermann, noted for his work in motion pictures.An Academy Award-winner (for The Devil and Daniel Webster, 1941), Herrmann is particularly known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, most famously Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo. He also composed notable scores for many other movies, including Citizen Kane, Cape Fear and Taxi Driver. He worked extensively in radio drama (most notably for Orson Welles), composed the scores for several fantasy films by Ray Harryhausen, and many TV programs.Herrmann is most closely associated with the director Alfred Hitchcock.

He wrote the scores for every Hitchcock film from The Trouble with Harry (1955) to Marnie (1964), a period which included Vertigo, Psycho, and North by Northwest. He oversaw the sonal design in The Birds (1963), although there was no actual music in the film as such, only electronically made bird soundsAn Italian Academy Award-winning composer, is Ennio Morricone He has composed and arranged scores for more than 500 film and television productions. Morricone wrote the characteristic soundtracks of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) as well as The Great Silence (1968), and My Name Is Nobody (1973). His more recent compositions include the scores for The Thing (1982), Once Upon A Time In America (1984), The Mission (1986), The Untouchables (1987), Cinema Paradiso (1988), Lolita (1997),The Legend of 1900 (1998), Malèna (2000), Mission to Mars (2000) and Fateless (2005). Ennio Morricone has won five Anthony Asquith Awards for Film Music by BAFTA in 1979–1992. He has been nominated for five Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Score in 1979–2001, winning none of them. Morricone received the Honorary Academy Award in 2007 "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music".

Narrative

Narrative: “Giving an account of any occurance or storytelling”

A Story needs to have a good plot and a good structure, a plot is what happens in the story and the structure is how the story is told. The Narrative structure is a simply a way of organising material so it makes sense, narrative structure is the shape of a story.The narrative structure is the chronological stages or steps that progress from one to the other throughout the story.
Tzvetan Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher. Alive and living in Paris, he writes books and essays on literary theory.

He defined narrative structure as having five stages.

Below is Tzvetan Todorov conventional narrative structure complete with five stages:

Stage 1

A state of equilibrium is defined. (equilibrium is the state of balance, the normality in which the characters find them selves at the beginning)

Stage 2

Disruption to the equilibrium by some action or crisis.

Stage 3

The Character(s) recognition that there has been a disruption, setting goals to resolve problem.

Stage 4

The Character(s) attempt to repair the disruption, obstacles need to be overcome to restore order.

Stage 5

Reinstatement to the equilibrium. Situation is resolved, a conclusion is announced.

Todorov’s five stage narrative structure is called a linear structure – that means it’s chronological (in order of time).But there is no golden rule that it has to be this way.You might want to create a non-linear structure and muddle up the chronological order e.g. have the end at the beginning.For example a good film which follows Todorov’s five stage narrative structure is the Titanic and James bond. Here is the example for Titanic:· Rose is engaged· Rose then leaves her fiancee for Jack; Jack then dies· Rose continues her life as an independent woman.

Our short film doesn't follow this narrative, for; Grace (I) never return back to the audience view, therefore the equilibrum is not reinstated and no conculsion is given because we end our short film on a cliff-hanger!

We have gone against the structure and I believe this is more interesting!