What do they have in commonthe sounds animals make when they are in distresswithmovie soundtrackshorror or adventure? Much, according to a study by the University of California that has identified that in the sounds of the big screen sound codes are used similar to those that are heard in the animal world. The results are published in the journalBiology Letters.
To reach this conclusion, Daniel Blumstein, from the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) studied more than one hundred classic films trying to identify the so-called“non-linear sounds”, frequent among vertebrates – for example marmots – when they call for help or send warning signals. According to Blumstein and his colleagues, our ears are prepared to detect these types of sounds, and our brains respond to them.
Comparing with the help of spectrograms the frequencies of the soundtracks of films of four genres – horror, drama, war and adventure – the researchers identified some patterns. For example, that indramas of the big screen what predominates are thechanges between high and low frequencies-like the successions of high and low violin notes at high speed-, which enhance emotions. Theadventure moviesthey containmore male screamingthan you might expect, whereas in the movies ofterror the cries of female voices abound. In the latter there is also more “noise”. According to Blumstein, consciously or unconsciouslyseventh art sound engineers use nature-like strategies to manipulate our emotions.
