dren’s secret. Happily, at least for the moment, he
doesn’t. The sound effects in both of these films
were created by Foley artists.
Sounds that function indirectly help create
mood and, thus, may help the audience interpret
scenes subconsciously. Tomlinson Holman, a sound
expert, points out that viewers differentiate visual
elements in a movie far more easily and analyti-
cally than they do sound elements. The reason is
that they tend to hear sound as a whole, not as indi-
vidual elements. Filmmakers can take advantage of
viewers’ inability to separate sounds into con-
stituent parts and use sound to manipulate emo-
tions, often via the musical score. In Bride of
Frankenstein (1935; composer: Franz Waxman),
director James Whale uses low-pitched music to
accentuate the terror of the scene in which a lynch
mob pursues the Monster (Boris Karloff ) through
the woods. In Steven Spielberg’s Jaws(1975), com-
poser John Williams uses four low notes as the
motif for the shark—the sound of fear being gener-
ated in an otherwise placid environment.
Whether direct or indirect, sound functions
according to conventions, means of conveying
information that are easy to perceive and under-
stand.
Audience Awareness
Sound can define sections of the screen, guide our
attention to or between them, and influence our
interpretation. Once upon a Time in the West(1968;
sound engineers: Fausto Ancillai, Claudio Maielli,
and Elio Pacella), Sergio Leone’s masterfully ironic
reworking of the Western genre, begins with a scene
at the Cattle Corner railroad stop somewhere in the
Arizona desert. This scene is notable for an overall
mise-en-scène that emphasizes the isolation of the
location and the menacing behavior of three des-
peradoes waiting for a man called Harmonica
(Charles Bronson) to arrive on the Flagstone train.
Within that setting, the director and his sound engi-
neers have created a memorable audio mise-en-
scène for the opening scene, running approximately
14 minutes. This sequence utilizes various diegetic
sounds that we perceive as emanating from very
specific points on and off the screen.
It’s worth studying this scene both for its mon-
tage of sounds and for the convincing way in which
it pinpoints their sources. This sound tapestry is
composed almost entirely of sound effects: a creak-
ing door inside the crude station, the scratch of
chalk as the station agent writes on a blackboard, a
squeaking windmill, the clackety-clack of a telegraph
machine, water slowly dripping from the ceiling, a
man cracking his knuckles, various animals and
insects (a softly whimpering dog, loudly buzzing fly,
and chirping bird in a cage), the distant sound of a
train approaching and the closer sounds of its
chugging steam engine, the music from Harmon-
ica’s harmonica, and the sounds of the shootout in
which Harmonica swiftly kills the three waiting
desperadoes.12
Sound that defines cinematic spaceThe tapestry of
sounds that underscores the opening of Sergio Leone’s Once
upon a Time in the West(1968; sound engineers: Fausto
Ancillai, Claudio Maielli, and Elio Pacella) is based on
recurring sounds (squeaking windmill) [1], sounds heard only
once (whimpering dog), sounds that advance the narrative
(an approaching train), sounds that emphasize the tension
of the situation in which three desperadoes wait for a train
(buzzing fly, dripping water), and sounds that remind us of
the outside world (the clackety-clack of the telegraph——until
it is disabled by one of the desperadoes) [2].FUNCTIONS OF FILM SOUND 415