Sound and music effects of some scenes in The Colour of Money

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#1 Diegetic Sound Effect

In a movie, diegetic sound can be a very effective way to grab the attention of characters, and also the attention of the audience. At the beginning of The Colour of Money, the conversation between Eddie and his girlfriend is interrupted five times. This is to generally move his attention to the other main character, Vincent Laura. It also makes the audience begin to notice and focus on a new character. The process of the whole transition is done smoothly. When Eddie is chatting with his girlfriend, the first interruption comes in a sudden. 茱莉亞n touches Eddie's shoulder to lead his attention from his girlfriend to the pool game, which indicates the audience about the other character, Vincent. As Eddie is looking at Vincent, a sharp car horn comes suddenly. This is a non-diegetic sound because it is only shown to the audience. The car horn indicates Eddie's mind and symbolizes the transition of his attention. Also, it is a subtle way to move the camera back to Eddie's scene. Additionally, the second interruption happens when 茱莉亞n is trying to get the money on the table, while Eddie is astonished and quickly grabs 茱莉亞n’s hand in a loud and sudden sound. The purpose of this diegetic sound is to tell that 茱莉亞n is beaten by that young guy, which is a big suprise. The third interruption is Carmen's voice, calling Vincent by name, along with a ball colliding sound. It makes Eddie turns his head to the table curiously. At that time Vincent's face is first shown. When Eddie turns to his girlfriend later, the fourth interruption comes again. Vincent wins the pool games. He shouts like a kid and kisses Carmen. His shouting and the kissing sound are obviously diegetic sound because Eddie turns to them and observes them for a much longer time. This time, he shows the real interest to Vincent, the talented young man who might remind him of his early age. That's why after the fifth interruption, when Eddie hears Carmen's voice again, he cannot sit still anymore. He stands up, and walks to Vincent. Five steps, the director successfully raises Eddie's interest to Vincent, and transfers the audience's attention to the new character from Eddie.

#2 Non-diegetic Sound Effect

 A diegetic music may switch to non-diegetic music to indicate the change of character's moods and feelings. For example, a nice, smoothing bar music is on as Eddie enters the pool game room. This is the first time he decides to play pool game again after so many years. Therefore, the bar music, which is the diegetic music, is very soft and relaxing. The music shows Eddie's happy feeling and his great expectation for pool games. He hopes to give an excellent performance as goog as twenty years ago. With this kind of confidence, Eddie plays his game with a young hustler. He keeps winning at first, just like what he expects. It seems that Eddie is still a skllful and professional player. However, along with the hustler's ball dropping into the pocket, the bar music changes dramatically to non-diegetic music. This is a very loud, sharp interrupting sound played by the guitar, which acts as the turning point of the pool game. Eddie begins to lose, and realizes that he is hustled. After the first shot of the guitar, the music turns down, and becomes diegetic again. This time, the bar music is no longer in a happy tone. Instead, it is a sad music about a man laughing at his ridiculous life, which is like Eddie's state for now. He feels himself like a fool. After the game, he picks the white ball, and drops it down into the pocket. The ball keeps going down, down, down into the system under the table, along with Eddie's heart. At that moment, he feels down and upset like the falling white ball. In a pool game, a person will lose if he hits the white ball into the pocket. The white ball symbolizes losing. After all these years, Eddie still feels like he is a loser. The sound of the ball is so clear, but it should not be heard by characters. In this situation, the sound is neither diegetic nor non-diegetic. Still, the characters can hear a little bit of the ball crashing into the system, but most of the time the sound is imagined by Eddie. It is the sound of his heart filled with disappointment. According to the third scene of the movie, the music keeps changing between diegetic and non-diegetic. Sometimes it does not even belong to diegetic or non-diegetic music. All these changes are for one purpose only. To make the audience feel what a character feels.