The importance of sound and image in different situations

“普遍公认的是，图像和声音是完全不同的信息传播方式。电影，作为本书的基本主题，客观上需要一种更直接、更容易的方式来唤起观众的某种情绪。在歌剧或音乐剧中，声音比图像更重要。然而，在电影方面，图像仍然是优先考虑的。”

Sounds in Films 

Michel Chion in this chapter enumerates on three listening modes. Casual listening is the most commonplace mode with the function of tracing the causes about its sound. But the accuracy and potential of it is not reliable. Semantic listening is related to the process of decryption and interpretation of messages received by ears. This is a more complex mode than casual listening. The third one is reduced listening, which focuses on the traits of sound itself than its causes and meanings. According to in-depth studies on reduced listening, the author explains that sounds in films or television are not just accessories serving for the visual images, figurations, not secondary to images but play a vital role in a film and exert underestimated significant influence on perception of the audience. 

Michel Chion attaches great importance to sound in films or television by means of systematical and scientific classification and analysis on three modes of listening, namely, the perceptual way of sounds. I do agree with him about his study on sound as an independent and indispensable factor in films. However, I think that his assumption that ‘sound much more than the image can become an insidious means of affective and semantic manipulation’ is rather debatable. It is universally acknowledged that image and sound are two completely different ways of communicating information. Films, as the basic topic of the book, objectively require a more direct and easily acquired way to evoke certain emotions from the audience. It may be true that sound is more important than image in opera or musical concerts. However, in terms of film, images still take the priority. 

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