Sound in Films

Frank Miller’s “Sin City”

The whole use of sound and image in Sin City works really well. It is filmed with the use of green screen, so there is no limitation to the imagery that can be created. Most of it is black and white, apart from certain colours which will evoke different emotions and feeling, such as red, which can represent blood, anger, lust etc, and will hint at what the character is feeling, what will happen, or emphasize a particular scene.

The sound in the opening scene works particularly well. It begins with an establishing sound, before the image even comes up. This initially gives the audience a sense of the place and surroundings, without even seeing anything. A faint police siren can be heard, along with other ambient traffic noises, horns, and car engines. The sound perspective suggests that these are far away, and are non-diagetic sounds as you cannot see where the noise is coming from. You automatically assume that the setting is a busy city, late at night.

Very subtle music cuts in as soon as the image appears. This music runs through the whole scene, fading slightly as the narrator talks. It is immediately suggestive of American style gangsters, and as the footsteps of the first character cut in, it puts you on edge, especially as the footsteps are louder than what you’d expect it to be. This makes you feel closer to the action, as if you are there too. You know something bad will probably happen - hearing footsteps at night is commonly associated with anxiety and apprehension.

As the character walks towards the edge of the balcony you see the traffic and busy city below. This is where the narrator begins to talk – the second character, more non-diagetic sound. We assume the narration is what the second character is thinking, and he appears behind the woman. There is strong emphasis of sound as the man offers the woman a cigarette – the image zooms into the packet. You can clearly hear the cigarette being taken, something you wouldn’t usually focus on. This is strong attention to detail, which would imply that is what the whole film will be about. The same emphasis is used as he offers her a light. There is a strong, obvious sound as he opens the lighter; the sound of the flame in the breeze is much audible than what would be expected. Everything is so clear, even the sound of his jacket as he moves.

It begins to quietly thunder in the distance, and rains. The sound of the rain is heard before it can be seen – more clues that something bad is about to happen. After more soft narration that overrides any other noise, you hear a quick, sharp gun shot, as the woman gets killed. You can’t see the gun or who shoots her, until the guy lifts the gun up next to her head. The sound engineering would imply he shot her whether you saw the gun or not.

As the camera zooms out from this scene and pictures the rest of the city, the music changes dramatically into a heavy, deep bass line, as the titles begin to appear. The music was quite eerie up to this point – it stays eerie, but becomes much more dominant.