talking, for example, they appear in medium shots,
and their dialogue is naturally the loudest on the
sound track; however, they literally have to shout to
be heard because of the pitch, loudness, and quality
of the competing sounds: the music, the dancing,
the crowd noise.
We can say that the sound has its own mise-en-
scène here. Although these diegetic, on-screen
sounds were recorded directly on the set, some
additions were made during the rerecording
process. Reversing the ordinary convention of com-
posing the music after the rough cut of a film has
been assembled, Bernard Herrmann wrote the
music first, and Robert Wise edited the footage to
fit the music’s rhythm.Sources and Types
The sound in this scene is diegetic, external, on-
screen; was recorded during both production and
postproduction; and is diverse in quality, level, and
placement. The types include overlapping voices,
ordinary dialogue, and singing; music from an on-
screen band; sound effects; and ambient noise.
Welles’s handling of sound dominates this scene:
he makes us constantly aware of the sources, the
types, and the mix and (unsurprisingly) doesn’t use
much silence. However, two signs mounted on walls
read “SILENCE” and thus, as relics of an earlier
period, remind us how quiet these same offices
were before Kane took over from the previous edi-
tor. Through this visual pun, Welles employs a
touch of silence during the loudest sequence in Cit-
izen Kane.Functions
This sound montage>guides our attention to all parts of the room,
making us aware of characters’ relative posi-
tions (e.g., the contrast between Kane and the
others).
>helps define the spatial and temporal dimen-
sions of the setting and the characters’ place-
ment within the mise-en-scène (e.g., the
sound is loud when the source is closer to the
camera).
>conveys the mood and the characters’ states
of mind (e.g., the sound is frantic and loud
and gains momentum until it almost runs out
of control, underscoring the idea that these
men, Kane and reporters alike, are being
blinded and intoxicated by their own
success).424 CHAPTER 9 SOUND
12Sound mise-en-scèneThe mise-en-scène of this party
scene from Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane(1941; sound: Bailey
Fesler and James G. Stewart) clearly reflects what’s going
on——both visually and aurally. Leland (Joseph Cotten) and
Bernstein (Everett Sloane) are talking, and even though there
are competing sounds around them, their voices are distinct
because they have been placed close to a microphone in a
medium shot. Note that Kane (Welles), both visually and
aurally, dominates this scene through his presence in the
middle background of each shot.