What are some of the most common sound stereotypes and logic flaws?

Sound is full of stereotypes and, sometimes, full of common logic flaws as well. These are the product of the pursuit of what’s simple and easy; however, studios and sound mixers in general, even though they are conscious of what they’re doing, sometimes they seem to be fond of integrating what the audience, subconsciously, expects to hear. Here is a list of the most common logic flaws and stereotypes you often hear in films—but perhaps do not belong to them.

Animals

This is perhaps the most traditional category where logic flaws can be found. The most common stereotypes when it comes to including animals in the scenes are:

Think of dogs, for example —they’re rarely, if not never, silent. Dogs in films always appear either barking or whining. The same thing happens with cats —they always meow or purr. Cows? Yes: they always moo. And that exact same principle applies to basically all animals even though in scenes where most animals wouldn’t be making the slightest sound. Rats, squirrels, and vermin, in general, are always shown making their characteristic noises every time they are projected in the screen. Dolphins? The more than traditional dolphin sound. In almost every film that involves the ocean, filmmakers always include an unnecessary dolphin sound. It's always the same sound, sometimes a segment of it. Snakes always rattle, and the list goes on. In fact, animal behavior is also predictable —dogs, for example, always know who is the bad guy and bark at them all the time.

Bird noises are always the same. Hawks always do that traditional screeching sound. In fact, that exact same sound applies for hawks, eagles and other big birds. Whenever a dramatic part of an adventure film is about to happen, the screeching sound always comes out. If there’s a mountain or a cliff in the background, either a hawk or an eagle can be heard screeching. Owls, on the other hand, always sound the same —like the Great Horned Owl. In horror films, for example, when there is a full moon there is always either an owl or a wolf making its traditional howl in the distance.

Bicycles, bombs, explosions and other objects

Yes, we know you’ve noticed it before: all bicycles have functional bells and whenever they come out in the film they sound. Bombs, on the other hand, always come with a fancy beeping timer display (the bigger the better, it seems), and whenever a bomb goes off, it takes about one to two minutes for the explosion to fade away. Speaking of explosions, these, for some reason, always happen in slow motion —and you have to make sure you are running away from the point where the bomb will go off so that the blast can throw you in the air towards the screen (in slow motion, of course). Additionally, if the film being projected is an action film, if there is a bombing scene, the bomb will always whistle whilst falling from the aircraft.

Cars always screech even on dirt roads; car breaks? They always squeak, and whenever a car turns, stops or pulls away, its tires must always make that particular squealing noise. On films with more budget, whenever a car comes out and makes any particular movement, it must increase its acceleration even if it was initially moving under 25 mph. On long roads, whenever a truck comes out, we always hear the traditional truck horn (with doppler effect, of course).

Now, what about computers? Every button a character presses on a computer or a laptop makes some sort of beep noise; the text being projected on screen must make some type of typing or printer sound for some reason, even though we never hear that noise on a daily basis.

Environment

Easy: if there is a castle, there is a thunder. Storms start almost immediately: there’s castle, and subsequently, there’s a crack of thunder and heavy rain starts to fall amidst a plethora of lightning. Besides: thunder is always in perfect sync with lightning, no matter how far away the lightning occurred —and the same applies for explosions, as discussed, fireworks, etc. The wind always sounds the same. Oh, underwater scene? Let me just add non-stop bubbles throughout the whole scene. Doors always squeak. Phones? Universal telephone ring. The scene in San Francisco? Easy —cable and foghorn sound. Trains? The same old classic horn.

And a fun fact: in U.S films being carried out in big cities, there’s always a police siren or horn in the background, whereas in films from other countries that thing never, never happens. If there’s fight or some sort of commotion in the second floor of a house, the individual or people in the first floor never get aware of what’s actually going on due to other sounds that are actually capable of muting or masking the chairs falling over, the yelling, the screams, etc., like phones ringing, the washing machine changing cycles, animals making their characteristic sounds, or the maid using the vacuum machine.

*The images used on this post are taken from Pexels.com