Research - Sound in Film Trailers

Audio and visuals are of equal importance in terms of creating meaning within a film and are therefore important aspects of film trailers. The use of sound enhances the audience's emotional experience throughout the duration of the film as well as providing them with an emotional focus. Sound in film trailers emphasises any psychological refinements of the film; the undeclared thoughts and feelings of a character, or the unseen implications of a situation which had occurred. It also sets the location and the period in which the film is based in and allows the audience to identify characters and character types, such as good vs evil.

Diegetic vs Non-diegetic sound:
The main two types of sound in film are diegetic and non-diegetic. Diegetic Sound is sound in which the source of it is visible onscreen or is implied to be present due to an action in the film. For example, sounds made by objects in the setting/plot (such as a ticking sound from a clock), the voices of the characters onscreen, and music represented as coming from instruments played within the story. Whereas, Non-Diegetic Sound is where the source of the sound is not visible onscreen nor has been suggested to be present due to an action within the film, such as a commentary, music soundtrack and sound effects which are added to create dramatic effect.

Voice Overs: 
This particular sound convention is used as a commentary over the onscreen footage, often to give a character's subjectivity or to narrate an event shown during a flashback. Voice overs are pieces of narration in a film unaccompanied by an onscreen image of the speaker. This particular type of non-diegetic sound is common in film trailers as it immediately provides the audience with any background information as well as the context of the narrative based on the images shown onscreen.

Sound Bridge: 
Sound bridges can occur at the end of a scene when sound from the following scene is heard before the image appears onscreen. However, they can lead in or out of a scene, occurring at the beginning of one scene when sound from that of the previous scene carries over briefly before the sound from the new scene begins.

Ambient Sound: 
The normal sound which exists in a particular scene or location. For example bird song, traffic noise and crowd chatter at a local children's park. Ambient sound can exist in any location.

Dialogue:
Dialogue is almost essential in films