Thursday 16 October 2014

Sound in Slumdog Millionaire

This film begins with diagetic sound, sound the characters in the film can hear,  for this particular film this is heavy breathing, cigar smoking and finally the sound of a slap as the elder man hits Jamal. This shows the intensity between the two characters and the apparent  dangerous tension between them.

The diagetic sound of this slap then coincides with non diagetic background music of the famous 'who wants to be a millionaire?' ticking and tune, this is overlaid with a question directed to the audience to make us think about the character and his progress despite his conditions - this is also how we know its non diagetic. There is then the diagetic sound placed over this ticking noise of masses of money being placed onto a table and whilst both of these sounds are still present, another diagetic sound comes from the host of the 'who wants to be a millionaire?' introducing the show and welcoming everyone followed by the sound of the audience cheering.

I really like the use of overlapping sounds that are both diagetic and non diagetic as it helps set the mood and can give the audience more information, for example this popular shows theme tune will immediately let the audience know the characters are in a game show.

Then a non diagetic sound of rising background noise is used to build the tension and once the contestant, Jamal, has been introduced this fades and the main theme tune of the show is used as he walks out to centre stage. This time the music is diagetic sound as all of the audience can hear it, its used to welcome a contestant, whereas the ticking noise is only used as time runs out for the contestant to answer a question and Jamal wasn't in this situation when the sound was being used, thats also how we know it was non diagetic.

In this opening sound is mainly used to build tension or to show intensity, which is very fitting because it is a very intense film showing third world issues and how a boy lived through them.



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