Science
fiction (SF) cinema
has
existed for over a century. SF moviemakers have gone to great lengths
to entice their audiences while challenging mainstream science
phenomena, such as the reanimation of extinct animals, time-traveling
murdering cyborgs, extraterrestrial life, and helpful,
semi-anthropomorphic robots. Screening
Space
(1987) author Vivian Sobchack defines SF cinema as, “a film genre
which emphasizes actual, extrapolative, or speculative science and
the empirical method, interacting in a social context with the lesser
emphasized, but still present, transcendentalism of magic and
religion, in an attempt to reconcile man with the unknown” (pg.
63).
Dinosaurs,
xenomorphs, cyborgs and robots do not exist, at least, not on our
planet. Currently, these things exist only on film. Their sounds had
to be created from existing sounds and, by manipulating those sounds,
new sounds were made and used for these characters; however, it is
important to note that the character sounds were established at the
same time of character design and the background sound effects aided
in making the character sounds stronger thus evoking a greater
reaction from audiences (Whittington, 2007).
Sobchack
argues soundtracks are subjectively emotional. In contrast, SF films’
use of sound effects is more reliable to the authenticity to the film
because these sounds can be found in our external world (Sobchack,
1987). Perhaps it is this assertion that makes these characters;
sounds become a tangible thing. Having experiential and even a
loosely defined schema of these sounds prior to entering a movie
theater, makes the sound real to us although these sounds could
possibly have not been acknowledged until having the transcendence
from an idea to an actuality, or the sounds’ ability to become more
than just background noise – these sounds are now related an alien,
dinosaurs, a robot, or a cyborg .
Reference
Sobchack,
V. (1987). Screening
Space: The American Science Fiction Film. New
York: Ungar.
Whittington,
W. (2007). Sound design & science fiction. Austin, TX: University
of Texas Press.
by Alix Rael
