Both Movies and Video games use audio and sound effects to bring emotion to a particular scene or part of the story. It can build tension, fear, sadness, happiness, excitement and so much more. It is with sound that the story can become coherent to the world, it adds authenticity, believability and personality. Without sound, particular moments within either media would lack any form of emotion, making them dull and lifeless.
Here is a scene taken from the move 'Forces of Nature', a film about a young man who is about to get married to his fiancee, but experiences complications with a plane crash. From that he seems to find himself getting more lost on his way and ends up speculating if there is a reason this is happening, that maybe he shouldn't get married. It is then he meets a new woman on his travels and begins developing a relationship with her instead, as an escape from the reality of marriage. He decides to return to the wedding to tell his fiancee he found someone else, but soon found himself falling in love with the original girl of his dreams.
In this scene you can feel how he falls in love again, how he decides what's right for the situation. The surrounding action in this scene is chaotic and explosive. A hurricane is destroying the wedding, glasses smashing and people screaming. But with the moment the pair are reunited, everything around them becomes silent and a subtle ambiance embraces the scene. You as the viewer begin to emotionally feel the connection between them and how the surrounding action doesn't matter anymore. You can feel their love detaching them from reality, placing them in their own protective bubble where nothing matters anymore, but each other. Aside from this part of the scene, you also have a sense of sadness for the other female role, who is left observing this moment, understanding that she must also continue with her life. You as the audience begin to notice the moral of the story, that you may have made bad choices, but in the end you have to go with what's right. With the sound in this scene you really feel every emotion, love and sadness. You feel alone in this bubble of emotions with each character, muted off by the real terror of the scene. Nothing matters but them and how they feel, the music and subtle ambiances really influence those emotions and without it, the whole essence of the scene, the entire movie would be lost.
For a video game example, I chose to look at the first 'Splinter Cell' title from the original Xbox. From personal experience, the Splinter Cell series always delivered incredible ambiances that connected you to the player to ever element of the game, especially within
the environments and interaction with characters. Being a stealth based game, audio is used clever to add that essence of being 'hidden', quiet and cautious. The entire atmosphere makes you as the player act carefully and tactically, using the audio to guide you through the missions within the environment. In this particular example of chosen, it is from the level 'Chinese Embassy'. In this level, you play a mission at night within the streets of China. Eliminating threats stealthily as you go, minimizing sudden movements and gun fire, using your entire environment to your advantage for everything from combat to escaping methods.
really feel they are in a foreign environment. However, the ambiance itself is very subtle, and with the focus of the player it's practically like a subconscious asset the audience acknowledges. You don't really think about the sound too much, being so heavily focused on your mission, but it is most definitely with that the player reacts in the way they do. They subconsciously react to the different sounds with the ambiance as if it was guiding them through the environment. You can hear in this sequence when you get spotted, or engaged in combat, the sound changes dramatically. Still using traditional Chinese elements, the audio becomes loud, unnerving and intense, but can soon fade away the better you react to the situation. So you use sound as a way to predict danger, when it's calm and ambient you feel safe, hidden and stealthy. You begin to depend on every single sound, without even properly noticing it. It is with that, that sound is so vitally important to express not only action, but the objectives, authenticity of the environment, lighting and so many other assets.
Sound is always depended on, whether it's subtle or obvious. It is cleverly used to express the emotion within a part of the story. Without it, i severely doubt the narrative and world could properly be coherent with each other, sound brings emotion unlike another element within media design. It is something you don't really think you pay too much attention to, but when you as the player begin to react to certain parts of the story, it is primarily based on how the sound has changed, affecting the players emotions towards it subconsciously. Even with obvious audio, music is always used to enhance the action within both the narrative and environment. It sews them together, making the entire production believable, authentic and rich.
Bibliography:
. http://www.youtube.com
. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COD1Eft4i5k [Splinter Cell accessed Tues 22nd]
. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPmJEt4wDBs [Forces of Nature accessed Tues 22nd]
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