The Three Listening Modes

The objective of this exercise is to recognise the importance of the Three listening modes, in
the ways we perceive sound in a motion picture. This exercise entails reading theory,
watching the film and responding the following:

1. Describe three different scenes in the film All is Lost where you clearly identify causal,
semantic and reduced listening modes.

a) Casual Listening: Consists on listening to a sound in order to understand where is it

coming from and/or how it's caused. When the cause is visible, the sound provides
supplementary information about it. For example, if you knock on a wall, you can
identify how hollow it is. When we can’t see what's causing the sound, we can still
identify what’s causing it, either through common knowledge or logical
prognostication. In the first part of the film, when Robert Redford tries to fix his radio
to communicate with someone, he fails and goes downstairs. Then, he starts hearing
a sound, interference, and he deduces it’s the radio, to which he goes back to the
surface and finds it’s working. The man understands what’s causing the sound and
can identify it’s source.

b) Semantic Listening: Refers to which code or language is being used to interpret a

message. It can be spoken, morse code or other codes. It works in a complex way,
as it has been the object of linguistic research and is differential amongst different
languages. When the movie begins, we hear Robert Redford monologue from the
message he left. His message is being listened to through spoken language.

c) Reduced Listening: It focuses on the characteristics of the sound itself, identified

through perception, and we can identify, for example, if it’s

2. In general terms (not necessarily the film) name at least three sounds of our everyday
life,that you know for certain are part of your causal listening realm.

As my bedroom window is right next to main street, I’m used to hearing a lot of
sounds. For example, when I hear screeching from the street, I can deduce it’s from a car
breaking suddenly. When I hear a bark from the sidewalk, I know it’s a dog barking that's
being walked. And at last, when I hear keys clacking into the lock of my house door, I know
someone is trying to come into the house.

3. Apart from the spoken word, and codes such as morse, name at least 3 sounds we use in
an everyday life situation, to communicate in a semantic mode.

When we’re clapping, we’re communicating the excitement or approval of something.

When we honk a horn when where driving, it’s to communicate and prevent other drivers
from an accident or just to be carefull. When where in public public transport, we press a
button, which emits a sharp noise, and the driver understands that he needs to stop at the
next bus stop and open the doors son passengers can get down.
4. How would you apply Reduced listening when listening to a film?

As an audience, most of the time, we don’t recognize when a sound is “fake” or

“real”. What I mean by this, is that an audience, most of the time and depending on how
good the sound post production is, won’t recognize when a sound is captured straight from
the place it’s filming or when it’s produced in a studio. For example, when a sound experts
needs to create the sound of horses stomps, they don’t actually bring in a real horse, the
make the noise out of something that sounds like a horses stomps, using different things,
such as coconuts.