Dialogue, Sound Effects, and Music in Pulp Fiction

DIALOGUE, SOUND EFFECTS, AND MUSIC IN PULP FICTION Standard Dialogue is the speech between characters in a film, usually the most important details are shared in dialogue. Sound effects are meant to add momentum to a scene like in Star Wars, for example you would hear the humming and smacking sounds of the light sabers in a fight. Sound effects can also be natural sounds made louder so the audience can hear them. Music, or soundtrack, or score, adds emotion to the film. Often, the lack of music will show the audience that the conversation taking place is important and needs to be heard. In Pulp Fiction, for example, there is a lot of film that has no music because the dialogue is the focus of the scene. Most of the time, music is used in Pulp Fiction to depict what you would hear at a swinging restaurant, a dance contest, or a drug haze. Director Quentin Tarantino used music sparingly for certain scenes to depict that focus should be on the physical actions of the characters. He uses a unique choice for soundtrack as he throws in a fun or even misplaced song in a difficult scene such as the scene where Butch and Marcellus are trapped in the basement with the shop owner and the cop. The scene is ugly and uncomfortable, and Tarantino takes this opportunity to drown it out with a good oldie to not only show that the evil being done is fun for the bad guys, but that something important is happening (in a fun way) regardless of the darkness of the event. Sound effects in Pulp Fiction are largely natural sounds that are exaggerated for the audience, and this is a way to make the silence around dialogue more “loud.” The audience focuses on dialogue when director Tarantino takes the music away, and this technique also aids to his classic “gritty” feel to his films. Quentin Tarantino liked to show the ugly side of the world with his own sense of humor, which is usually offensive and gritty like the real world is. Dialogue is paramount for a director like Quentin Tarantino in films like his Pulp Fiction because of this director’s personality and style. During commentary in the film, Tarantino talks constantly, goes off on tangents, and returns to his thoughts in unconventional ways. You begin to understand the filming style with importance to dialogue after hearing him talk for hours about any particular scene. Dialogue is the most common thing in real life and conversation is very important to this director. In the film Pulp Fiction the audience is met with a conversation in the very first scene between “Pumpkin” and “Hunny Bunny.” The dialogue is fast, yet short and sweet, and it serves a direct purpose to the characters. It is also used as a transition to the opening credits and fun music—yet again another example of a wild scene bringing unlikely music into the mix. Sound effects in this film are used to magnify the dialogue, and most effects are dramatized natural sounds. Tarantino did this to embrace the real-life experience and make the audience feel like they were along for the ride. The use of music in select scenes only creates nostalgia or a feeling of familiarity from character to audience. For example, the drug haze that Vincent Vega is in during the movie is represented by a cool and mellow yet fun song. The song fades as he arrives at Mia Wallace’s home, to fade into and transition into the music inside her house, where she is getting ready to go out (and also doing her own drugs). The music is stopped abruptly when she enters the room to leave for the restaurant. The theme of the director in all his films is “gritty” and Quentin Tarantino establishes this theme with using fun songs in dark and disturbing scenes as well as omitting sound to make you focus on scenes that are important to the plot of the story. The mood of the music being uplifting while the scene depicted is gritty and dark makes the audience feel pleased that something bad is going to happen. This is Tarantino’s intent, to bring out the ugly and gritty in all of us, since he feels it is real life. Lots of sounds are used to trigger the label of a genre in Pulp Fiction, for example: gunshots are never covered by music, there is in fact total silence when guns are shooting (which is often). This is apparent that violence occurs, making this film classic crime. Crime is described as violence, cruelty, dishonesty, and often a bit of fun. The sound effects, dialogue, and music are all used artfully to depict this film in its respective genre. Realistic and expected sounds like the rustling of paper, the knock of a door, heavy breathing, and gun shots produce effects that every word and action is so important that adding music would be detracting from the value the director wishes to convey. An example of this would be the apartment scene where Jules is yelling at Bret and pointing his gun at him. At this point, Jules begins to recite a passage from the bible, getting louder as he speaks. There is no music in this scene because director Quentin Tarantino wants you to pay close attention to the message Jules is delivering. He becomes very loud right before shooting the man, which makes the sudden pops of the gun very jarring for the audience. The jarring effect is largely emphasized in Pulp Fiction. Should the director have chosen to play music over any of the dialogue or natural sounds, it would appear that the movie was more dream-like and less realistic. Furthermore, the audience would bypass many conversations that take place because they would get the impression that what the characters were saying was not that important. Tarantino also did not need a score to depict emotions, because most of the emotions in this film were angry, which can be easily shown with the characters’ shouting. The contrast of the fun songs during difficult or disturbing scenes gives a comical feel to the darkness inside the director’s mind. If the songs were chosen differently, or were chosen to be more somber, this movie would be near impossible to watch because of the ferocity of certain scenes. Tarantino chose his sounds wisely and sparingly to create a lighter and grittier feel to his films. Different actions would change the entire feel the director was attempting at. Most sounds in Pulp Fiction were diegetic to create the “natural or real” feel. Week 4: Discussion 2 Week 4: Discussion 2 In this discussion, I will be discussing the three categories of sound, (Dialogue, Sound Effects, and Music). I am keeping the theme from Discussion 1 with Pulp Fiction (1994). Genre: Crime, Drama Director: Quentin Tarantino Writers Quentin Tarantino (stories by) Roger Avary (stories by) Editor: Sally Menke Actors o o o o o o o o John Travolta: Uma Thurman: (Mia Wallace) Samuel L. Jackson: (Jules) Bruce Willis (Butch) Harvey Keitel (Wolf), Christopher Walken (Koons) Ving Rhames (Marsellus Wallace) Quentin Tarantino (Jimmie) The three basic categories of sound: Dialogue, Sound Effects, and Music. Dialogue: Dialogue occurs when fictional characters are talking to one and another in films, normally when more important details are shared. Dialogue is not normally done on set. Dialogue is mostly conducted in a separate location so when filming the actors, no other sounds are picked up. The actors just move their mouths in sync with what was recorded. This is purposely done to keep unnecessary sounds from being recorded on the film, thus possibly saving time and money from re-filming the scene. In Pulp Fiction (1994), To keep it “gangsterlike” for the genre, the dialogue between the characters often used “colorful metaphors” to get their message across, Goodykoontz, B., Jacobs, C. P., Meetze, J., & Pritts, N. (2019). Sound Effects are meant to add momentum to a scene and are an important part of the film. Sounds need to fit the scenes to keep the audience engaged with the film. There are different sounds for different situations. Pulp Fiction (1994) uses both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. A good example in Pulp Fiction (1994), Is when Vincent and Mia are out dancing, music is playing in the background from the bar as they are dancing, sounds voices and glasses clattering in the background to indicate they are in a bar, this is non-diegetic sound. [See movie clip 1], Imagine the two dancing with no music playing, [See movie clip two], this video shows Mia and Vincent dancing without the sound. This is diegetic, all you can hear is the movement of the two characters dancing along with a few finger snapping sounds. Also, sound effects like loud gunshots in Pulp Fiction (1994), sound natural with no enhancements needed, and no other sounds are in the background to give a realistic sound. This also serves as an example of the genre of the film and magnifies the dialogue. Some sound effects can be easily made by crumpling up cellophane to make a sound of a fire and another example is as simple as taking your thumb and squishing it into the sand to make the sound of putting out a cigarette. This process is called Foley named after Jack Foley who develop a studio to create sound effects while watching a film. Those who make the sound effects are called Foley artists, Goodykoontz, B., Jacobs, C. P., Meetze, J., & Pritts, N. (2019). Music: Music had played an important part in films including during the “Talkies’ era. From having a separate orchestra in the theater as the film was playing on the screen, to the current theaters with surround sound and technology that make you feel you were in the movie such as IMAX or Disney theaters. Seats that move around and some even produce fog or mist to add to the effect with the enhanced sounds. Music creates a certain nostalgia or feeling with the film, music is selected in certain scenes to make the audience they were along for the ride, an example of a scene in Pulp Fiction (1994), where Vincent is in a drug haze. The music is added to a fun cool mellow song. See movie clip three. This scene fades as Vincent arrives at Mia’s home and fades into the music inside Mia’s house as the scene leads up them going out to the dance scene. The movie has an incredible, a few all-time favorites (huge fan of the Surf instrumentals). A soundtrack is a collection of songs that are played in the film or at times, inspired by a film. For this film, Song titles Son of a Preacher Man (1968) by Dusty Springfield See music clip, Bustin’ Surfboards (1962) by the Tornadoes, and Bullwinkle, pt. II (1963) by the Centurions to name a few, Tarantino, Q. (1994). A music score is most of the time written, as a former tympany player for a symphonic orchestra, I know I had sheets of music I had to site read and memorize it for the film it does not always have to be written. The score can be played by a soloist, an ensemble, or artificially with a synthesizer. Some of the music is recognizable style and some not. Vivaldi’s Double Cello Concerto music is played in some action scenes or opening scenes like in The Bourne Identity (2002), Composed by John Powell. While I disagree with the textbook about background going unnoticed as a good thing, being a musical person, I listen for it. The music in this film is an essential part of this movie. With Pulp Fiction (1994), there is no way I would have gone to the theater when this movie was released in 1994 if it had no sound or music, both are integral parts to the movie. V