Sound

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 9 discusses the multiple ways that sound is used in documentaries to try to generate specific audience experiences and responses. Sound is used to subtly emphasize or de-emphasize certain actions occurring onscreen as well as to give the viewer a sense of the space beyond the borders of the visual frame. Reverb is added to certain sounds to change the audience’s perspective of the size of the space. Sound foley is used to attach emotional values to the sounds of onscreen actions and may be produced by fusing together multiple different sounds for each action. Sound is used to bring locations into proximity with one another from footage that may have been shot at different times and, by the same token, can be used to differentiate actions from each other that were actually continuous. The chapter offers an extended analysis of two Academy Award–nominated documentaries, The Cave and For Sama, and shows how each used sound to portray the world in a way that was consistent with the style of the rest of the film. While The Cave used extensive postproduction in order to create a sweeping, seamless soundscape in sync with the subjective and “cinematic” style of the film, For Sama used much more rudimentary tools and stayed away from anything that could have been perceived as “manipulation,” in part to comply with the journalistic standards of its producer, Channel Four.