The Importance of Sound In Film

'' Sound is 50% of the film ''

George Lukas 

Sound is used in a film to establish tone, atmosphere and to help give the audience clues about the genre of the film. It also contributes to the 'suspending of disbelief' to create realism for the viewers. Others have said sound is a three dimensional visceral experience that makes the film as enjoyable to hear as it is to watch it.

A film features/ uses...

• Sound (in media) - something that can be heard
• Soundscape - a piece of music considered in terms of its component sounds, creating layering in a film's audio/overall piece
• Sound Design - the process of specifying, acquiring, manipulating or generating audio elements
• Suspension of Disbelief - the sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment

As part of an experiment, we watched a title sequence with and without sound and saw that without sound, the title sequence was uninteresting and made us distracted, although making us pay more attention to detail in the sequence (i.e read all the actor's names). In comparison the title sequence with sound was entertaining and made the sequence more powerful.

Correlation between sound and genre identification AKA ' Guess The Genre' 

Western Film

Sci Fi

Action