Sound has a leading role in all movies. “Once the film starts, it’s not just the music that thrills us. The sound effects are also essential.” (Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). From the music, to the sound effects to the dialogue, all of these elements keep us the viewers captivated with what is going on in front of us.
The dialogue of a movie is the words that are spoken within the conversations that are taking place. Once upon a time there were silent films where the actors and actresses did not speak. It was up to the viewer to use their imagination as to what they might be saying. With good dialogue you could almost keep your eyes closed and still know what is going on. For example, have you ever been in another room, say perhaps cooking dinner while a movie was playing? You could keep up with what is going on just by the dialogue that is taking place.
Sound effects make the movie exciting; they add suspense and thrill to a scene. These effects generally have to be prerecorded and added to the movie after it is shot because it is very difficult to get the sound of the jungle onto a soundstage while shooting. In an era not too long ago, sound effects could be noises made into a microphone such as blowing into the mic to act as the wind or rustling of paper to inflect another effect.
Ah music, the great incomparable music, it is used in so many different aspects of our lives and movies being a big part of that. A film will usually open with music and end with music and all of the songs in between are what we would call the soundtrack of the movie. Music helps to give the viewer an inflection of the mood of a specific scene or plot within the movie. These songs can add suspense, sorrow and joy almost all at the same time. Music is a very powerful tool within a movie.
The Wizard of Oz starts off with a very theatrical version of Somewhere over the Rainbow while clouds are rolling across the screen. This gives the viewer a sense of suspense and excitement. When the movie opens up and Dorothy is running down the road with ToTo, the music is fast and it gives you a sense of excitement before you even know what is going on. When Dorothy finally stops to speak to ToTo she is breathing heavy so the dialogue gives you the viewer the impression that something is wrong. This is all within the first thirty seconds of the movie, so it goes to show what impact music and dialogue has throughout a movie.
There is certain dialogue and music that are used in the beginning of the movie that are used later on to tie the movie together. Every time a witch enters the scene the same short spurt of music is used to let you know an evil witch is approaching and there are characters that make statements early on in the movie that repeat them as different characters later on so that you know who they are. One of the farm hands talks to Dorothy about having and using her brain and that her head is not made of straw, later on in the movie the same inflections are used by the scarecrow letting you know that it is the same person.
There were not a huge amount of sound effects throughout the movie. There were some when the tornado came and when visiting the Wizard but mostly dialogue and music are used throughout this movie. The music is the music you would expect in a fantasy movie. It goes from whimsical to freighting all in the same scene. If you removed sound from this movie it would lose most of its fantasy qualities. You would not be able to follow along with the story. Without dialogue you would never know who Dorothy meets or where they are headed and what they are trying to get. Out of the three parts of sound, dialogue and music are what make The Wizard of Oz a classic movie stemming generations.
Reference:
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
The Wizard of Oz (1939) Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/V8PS75B5P8U
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