Sound And Visuals In Rod Daniel's Teen Wolf

In the film world, sound and visuals play key roles and contribute to one another. They help communicate and tell the story that the writer, director, and other contributors want to present to a large audience. More specifically, I find that the sound design used in films and television is interesting in how it is mixed, the music that is used in certain scenes, and how some sound effects work and don’t work in some instances. One film that I enjoy watching for it is a nostalgic piece for me is Teen Wolf (1985), directed by Rod Daniel. This comedy, coming-of-age, fantasy is an iconic 1980’s film that most people have seen at a young age. The story centers around a young high-school student, Scott Howard (played by Michael J. Fox), whose goal

Scott experiences this exact warning at the school dance when Mick, his high-school bully and basketball adversary, pushes his buttons and Scott almost loses control of the wolf through anger. Subsequently, he realizes that he's been using the wolf as a way to conceal who he really is. By the time of the basketball semi-final game, he realizes that he just wants to play as Scott and not the wolf. The team plays together for the first time, Scott playing as himself and not the wolf. He doesn't do what everyone expects him to do, rather he does it for himself. His team wins the game, and Scott realizes that all along he can "be somebody" by just being true to himself. With that said, going back and rewatching it now as an adult, it is interesting to analyze the film, especially in terms of sound. For this blockbuster, the supervising sound editor was Eileen Horta and Sam Horta was the supervising sound effects editor. As for the music used in this piece, Miles Goodman composed the original score and underscore that the audience hears throughout the film. As an audience member, the sounds were effectively used in this piece

Prior to this moment, Scott enters his father's hardware store, where he also works. Everything sounds “normal” and in sync, until there is a screeching, overpowering whistling noise that only Scott and the audience can hear. This sound of the whistle is an example of an acousmatic sound, in which the audience can only assume the sound’s origin and where it is coming from. Then, it cuts to a scene where the audience discovers that this sound is coming from a child blowing the dog whistle, de-acousmatizing the sound, even though Scott is still not aware of this sound's origin. He finally sees the young boy and the dog whistle, understanding where this ringing noise is coming from. It is irritating enough to Scott that he ends up popping the dog whistle out of the child's mouth. I feel that this scene in particular uses diegetic sound very well; the noise was not only irritating to Scott but also to the audience. As the sound loops in addition to reverb and manipulation of the whistling noise, it created this annoyance that both the protagonist and the audience experience simultaneously, even though the rest of the people in the hardware store could not hear it.