Why is sound so important in film?

Blog task 16: Why is sound so important in film?

Sound is a key element in film due to the fact that it adds a lot of realism. In class, we individually watched a couple of clips online, I watched them with and without diegetic and non diegetic sounds. The film we observed was an animated version of Star wars. When I watched the clip with only the non diegetic soundtrack music, it had a big impact due to rising tempo's which forms synchronisation and almost can foreshadow what is going to take place on screen. This brings suspense and tension. However when there was only diegetic sounds, this presents the film to be very boring and plain, I was very confused as to what was taking place on screen, for example the first couple seconds of the clip is just a character on screen , with the ambient sounds removed I couldn't quite grasp where he was or what was really happening. Finally, the final mix with a layering both non diegetic soundtrack and diegetic sound effects brought the clip to life, it added a lot more emotional factors and made it realistic, this allowed me to want to understand the plot significantly more. Another factor is the fact that there was a constant use of a  sound motif of low and sinister music which was played each time Darth Vader appeared. This aids the audience to understand that he is the antagonist of the film.