The scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, is a classic car chase scene. Like most car chase scene, there is no dialogue, only background. While other sounds can be heard, such as the engine of the car and the tires screeching on the asphalt, the background music is the dominate sound in the scene. However, the music is still “subservient to the denotatively signifying elements of the narrative,” and the car chase dominates (Gorbman 57). This is because the music was composed for the car chase, not the other way around. It is meant to compliment the scene by adding tension. Even without watching the clip, the music gives it away that there is chase scene because of its rhythm and it hints at danger.
In addition, Gorbman also mentions how standard film music efficiently establishes historical and geographic setting, and atmosphere, through the high degrees of its cultural coding” (58). I think these scenes, and all the other scenes exemplify this. Even without watching the clips, just listening to them, I can tell that they are older movies. I know this is not very specific, but older movies just sound different then movies from to today. It is possible to identify a rough age of a movie just based on its auditory indicators. In this way, the background music serves not only as an emotional indicator, but also has a historical one.
Which of these three sounds do you think is the most important? The narrative voice over provides context, the sound of the car provides movement, and the background music serves as an emotional indicator and well as indicate the passage of time. I am sure which is the most important, because all provide a vital component to the scene, without which it would not be complete, or at least was not be as interesting. At first, I would want to say that because the sound of the car is the quietest, it could easily be deleted from the scene and would not be missed much. However, upon further contemplation, I realized that this was not true. Without the sound of the car, the scene would not seem as believable. The sound of the engine allows the viewer to believe they are actually driving the car. Without the background music, the scene would seem to pass slower and would more boring because there would be nothing to emotional connect he audience to the scene. There would be a greater distance between the movie and the audience and it would be less appealing to view. Finally, without the narrative voice over you would be totally lost as to what is going on. Basically, I do not know which sound is most important. I really do not think there is one because all add something, it is just that there effects are more subtle than others and you do not realize what those sounds bring to the scene until you cannot hear them.
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Alexander Krzyston | Alexander J Krzyston | Alex James Krzyston
Alex Krzyston | Alex J Krzyston | Alexander James Krzyston
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY | EVANSTON | BURR RIDGE
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