Moving Image Soundtrack Report - ONE (STAR WARS)

This particular scene (Trash Compactor) from Star Wars 4: A New Hope which was directed by George Lucas, released May, 1997 is a Sci-fi film set in the future in space. This scene consists of the main characters Luke, Han Solo, Chewbacca and Princess Leia in combat with the Storm Troopers, fighting them off in a futuristic like ship. To hide away from the Storm Troopers, Luke jumps into the Trash Compactor hatch where the others then follow. Once inside, our characters think they are safe — but they begin to hear echoes of a creature. They start to panic as an unusual worm like creature pulls Luke under the water below. As he resurfaces the trash compactor begins to close in on them and they struggle as they try to climb the trash to safety. Han solo then puts a bar across to stop the compactor closing on them whilst Luke signals R2-D2 and 3CP0 for help and they decode the computer system, stopping the trash compactor from closing and crushing them all.

Throughout this scene, many different elements of sound can be heard. The two types that we can hear are diegetic and non-diegetic. Diegetic is where the sound is present within the current situation and can be seen, heard and applied to the visuals in which we are presented with. Diegetic sounds enhance the experience for the audience as everything they can see is matched to the audio. This helps the audience process what is going on throughout the scene correctly. This is referred to as mickey mousing, as in animation; the sound is closely matched to the visuals, which have been created separately. There are many examples of diegetic sound within the Trash Compactor scene, but the main and most obvious is the voice of the characters. Dialogue is one of the largest elements of diegetic sound within film, as it is something we automatically connect the sound to the picture when watching, helping the audience understand comprehensively what is going on. In this scene, the characters are communicating with each other as to how they can get out of the Trash Compactor. This is evident by the closure of the Compactor and the characters panicking. Another example is the sound of the metal scraping and chaffing against each other, as when the characters climb the heaps of trash to safety pieces of trash begin to fall and drop into the water below and crush under the weight of the characters. The effect this has on the audience is that they understand their surroundings a lot more – and it creates a distinction for the audience as to where they are.

Non-diegetic is the opposite — which means that the sounds we hear are not indicated by anything shown on screen or implied by anything happening in the scene. Non-diegetic sound enhances the scene as the audience can only watch one picture at a time, yet many elements of sound can be heard within the film e.g. the alien, echoing around the ship which we can hear from the trash compactor. Although this cannot be seen, this makes expands the possibility of what can happen within the film as we realize that this is not the only location, the only characters going about the ship or things going on as we can hear these non-diegetic sounds. When it comes to non-diegetic, an example from this the Trash Compactor scene is the sound of the alien — which at this point in the film is not visible on screen.

A lot of the sound within this scene e.g. the laser gun being fired and the footsteps both have short attacks where the sound is at its loudest, and both last for a short period of time, so we can say they are short sustained sound. An example of a long attack and long sustained noise within this scene is the groan of Chewbacca, which is at it's loudest all the way through — sustaining the volume from the attack. 

At this point the mood of the scene is set by this noise in particular and we begin to feel the panic of the characters, as they like the audience don’t know where the alien is and are waiting for it to resurface at any point. In Star Wars, many synthetic/computerized sounds have been created to reflect the futuristic and spacey atmosphere that Star Wars in captures. Some of the incredibly important sounds within this film are synthetic, such as R2 - D2's voice, which is electronically generated and with the use of bending water pipes, whistles and other vocalizations. Another example of a synthetic sound is Chewbacca's voice. His groan is constructed from a range of different animal noises, the main being walruses. Other than the vocals of the fictional characters, the sound effects made are also synthesized. Using a television transmission sound along with a humming/buzzing noise from a projector for example created the Light saber.