SOUND/MUSIC ANALYSIS

Jaws (1975) won Academy Awards and Oscars for Best Sound, Best Music and for Original Dramatic Score (all music composed by John Williams, who also composed the theme song for the very famous, hit movie; Star Wars) 

John Williams at work (Y)

SOUND plays a huge and important role in movies. Without sound, the impacts that are supposed to be made will fail to give any whatsoever. Good sound and good sound effects are crucial in helping a movie give their greatly desired impact to their audience. No great sound, no great impact, simple. Imagine a horror story without sound? Not very scary isn't it? The sound effects are also important to help make a scene more realistic and convincing. 

SOUND really plays a huge role in Jaws. For example, when at the beach, there are seagull noises (sound effects) to make it seem more realistic, or when the shark approaches, you would hear screams (also sound effects) to give the impact to the audience that there is real danger among them. If not for these sound effects, the movie would not seem as great or as scary anymore. This works the same way for every movie. 

The sound effects in Jaws are very impressive if I can say so myself. The movie even has its own signature music (when the shark approaches, a specific tune will be played) So, you would know when the shark is nearby and ready to attack. "Someone's gonna dieeee"

There are different classifications for sound. They are, diegetic sounds, non-diegetic sounds, parallel sounds and contrapuntal sounds. 

- Diegetic sounds are when you can see where the sound is coming from onscreen. 

- Non-diegetic sounds are when there are no signs/no source of the sound being played onscreen. 

- Parallel sounds are when the sound compliments/comments on what we see onscreen 

- Contrapuntal sounds are when the sound against your expectations (e.g happy music during a sad scene)

The following are some clips from the movie together with some specifications about their sound effects.

The video clip shows a girl and a boy who are about to go swimming. 

Atmosphere: Calm, Happy

Sound Effects: party music (faint)(non-diegetic sound), people chattering (faint)(non-diegetic sound), seagulls (non-diegetic sound), sea waves (faint) (diegetic sound)

Skills used: uses the above sound effects altogether to create a calm and happy atmosphere.

This video clip shows a girl swimming in the sea, and then being attacked by the deadly shark.

Atmosphere: At first it was calm.  But then it progressed to becoming hectic, intense and terrifying.

Sound Effects: For the first part of clip: calm music (non-diegetic sound), soft splashes of water as the girl swam (diegetic sound)

For the second part of clip: famous Jaws theme music (non-diegetic sound, parallel sound), sudden shocking sound effect (non-diegetic sound, parallel sound), hysterical screaming (diegetic sound), shark gnarling noises (diegetic sound)

Skills used: uses the above sound effects to create a calm atmosphere at first, but then used a different set of sound effects to create a hectic, intense, terrifying atmosphere.

This video clip shows a scene at the beach in which Chief Brody is having a conversation with a citizen requesting something of him, when he thought a shark attack was occurring.

Atmosphere: Loud, Noisy

Sound Effects: girl screaming (playfully)(diegetic sound), tons of people chattering (diegetic sound), waves splashing (diegetic sound)

Skills used: uses the above sound effects to create a loud and noisy atmosphere.

This video clip shows the discussion/conference of how to solve the shark problem.

Atmosphere: Noisy, Hectic, Annoying

Sound Effects: people arguing with one another (diegetic sound), people raising their voices (contrapuntal sound), people chattering (diegetic sound)

Skills used: uses the above sound effects to create a noisy, hectic and annoying atmosphere. 

The video clip shows the scene in which Chief Brody's famous line takes place (FUN FACT**Roy Scheider actually improvised and came up with that line on his own, on the spot)

Atmosphere: Worrying, Shocking

Sound Effects: sudden shock sound effect (when the shark arises) (contrapuntal sound, non-diegetic sound), worrying music/sound effect (non-diegetic sound, parallel sound)

Skills used: uses the above sound effects to create a worrying and shocking atmosphere.

Imagine all the above clips without sound? (I know I am repeating myself on this but I just want to make it very clear) NO IMPACT WHATSOEVER and the scenes??There would be nothing helping to make them seem realistic at all. You can also see that each clip has its own atmosphere to it, sound effects and skills used. Every little thing counts and has its own purpose to it. Never knew sound was this important, huh?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsb9-p2sqO8&feature=youtu.be