World of film

MOVIE: La Dolce Vita (Fellini) After screening your selected film, identify one or two scenes that you find particularly striking or memorable and rewatch them. Pay special attention to how sound is used in those scenes to create realism in the world of the story or to otherwise communicate meaning or enhance the experience of the film. Think about how the sound works to enhance dramatic tension and propel the story forward or to develop a resonate emotional life for any of the characters, Remember that the aural ambience of a cinematic story is shaped not only by dialogue, but also by a lack of dialogue — voice-over, sound effects (SFX), and non-diegetic music (the film’s score and soundtrack of songs) all work in different ways to tell different kinds of stories.
(Note: You don’t need to answer all of the following suggested questions, but here are some specific ideas to consider…)
How are sound effects used to convey the inner lives of characters and relationships among characters? Are there any periods of silence in the film and what effect do those have? Is the sound in the film simply a realistic rendering of the natural world around the characters, or is there anything in the choice of sound effects that suggests a kind of alternate reality that is perhaps more mysterious, magical, dangerous, playful, etc. than what we might expect it to be?
Some sounds are intrusive or overbearing; others are subtle and distinct. How do variations in sound help to build the environment of the world of the film? Do the sounds add realism? Are there symbolic sounds used to create aural motifs that develop or comment on the themes of the film?
What about music? Is the scoring for the film constant or used sparingly? Does it work to connect you more strongly with characters, or to make you aware you are watching a film? Is the music orchestral or contemporary (popular, jazz, rock, rap/hip-hop, etc.)? What instrumentation is most predominant in the music and why? Is there any diegetic music coming from the characters inside the film to help explore that world of the story from within the story? How does this work to enhance dramatic and narrative understanding or meaning?
How do the uses of sound effects in the movie work to serve the specific genre of the picture? Are there funny sounds? Scary sounds? Suspenseful or other-worldly sounds or music? In a musical, does the underscoring for the singing and dancing come from music outside the film (non-diegetic) that combines with the characters’ expressions in behaviors and words within the film, or does any of the instrumentation also come from inside the story itself?
This assignment is to help you discover greater depth of cinematic meaning through enhancing your awareness of how the narrative world of a film is created and conveyed through its soundscape and soundtrack.