Mood and Atmosphere- Sound can be used within film to create mood and atmosphere within a film which can be used to draw the audience in. Good examples of this particular use of sound in films is in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Danny Boyle's Trainspotting (1996). All of these films uses particular pieces of music in order to get the audience to feel a particular type of emotion. In Reservoir Dogs for example, the song "Stuck In The Middle With You" is used to make the audience feel contradictory emotions. What the scene itself portrays is torture, but the torture itself is committed to upbeat music which defies normal audience expectations.
In Martin Scorsese's film, Taxi Driver, mood and atmosphere is created through the use of jazz type music is used to reflect Travis Bickle's inner emotions. This helps draw the audience in for the 1st half of the film and makes them emphasize with Travis's loneliness and social anxiety. However, their is less of this music in the 2nd half of the film in which Travis's mental state collapses. This is due to the audience being totally disconnected from Travis now due to his unhinged mental state.
Music and sound is used to great effect in Trainspotting, in which both are used to symbolize the highs and lows of drug addiction. In the scenes in which Mark Renton and his junkie pals are happy, loud pop music plays such as Iggy Pop's Lust for Life, but when Mark is at an all time low, humdrum music such as Sing by Blur plays. Boyle's very clever use of music helps bring the viewer into the life of a drug addict, and this is the reason why Trainspotting remains the most iconic of films.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbvWoruvf5c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt5LHP_TRog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xerx80SWgkA
Sound Fades- A good example of a sound fade would be found in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1974). At the end of the film, a sound fade is used in order to let the poignancy and emotional power of the film sink in, and it also reacts a point of reflection for the audience after the events of the film.
Dialogue- A good example of the use of dialogue in a film to set up the mood and atmosphere would be Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. The scene in particular which in which dialogue helps set the mood would be the opening diner scene between Pumpkin and Honey Bunny. The dialogue between the two sets up the criminal environment of the film perfectly, and allows the viewer to get into the mood and mindset of the criminal characters they are following.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jomr9SAjcyw
Voice Over- A good example of voice over in a film would be in David Fincher's Fight Club (1999). Edward Norton's excellent narration helps the viewer understand his various predicaments in the film, extremely similar to Travis Bickle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4c6W5TWCf0
Ambient Sound- A good example of ambient sound used in a film would be in Hector Babenco's Pixote (1981), in which ambient sound is used to contrast against the much more aggressive use of sound in the earlier stages of the film.
Soundbridge- A good example of a soundbridge would be in the Wachowski's The Matrix (1999) in which club music from one scene carries over to the next, making the scene much more impact and effectual.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJZ-gPQ0ew8
Foley Sounds- Foley artists create sounds effects through a variety of different ways such as stomping on the floor wearing boots. An example of a good use of foley in a film would be in Tony Kaye's American History X (1998), during the scene in which Derek Vinyard curb stomps a burglar attempting to break into his house. The use of foley within this scene makes this scene all the more impactful due to it's graphic nature.
Synchronous/Asynchronous sound- Synchronous sound is a sound used in film that matches up with what is happening on screen. For example, in Harmony Korine's Gummo (1997) a character plays an accordion whilst sitting on a toilet, and the sounds from the accordion are being projected. Asynchronous sound is when a sound is not matched with a visible source onscreen. An example of Asynchronous sound is in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948), in which police sirens are heard offscreen at the film's conclusion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LlPUxI8QYs
Sound Motif- A good example of a sound motif in a film would be in Fritz Lang's M (1931) in which Peter Lorre's character Hans Beckert always whistles whenever he appears onscreen, which works to add a certain level of tension to the film and to put the audience on edge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNUQINczgt0
ADR- ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement) is a way of changing dialogue in a film to alter it in some ways. An example of when ADR is used in certain types of films would be in Anime, in which character's voices are dubbed over to make the films more palatable to western audiences.
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