Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Communication Dissertations Department of Communication 8-11-2015 Sonic Vocality: A Theory on the Use of Voice in Character Portrayal Cindy Milligan Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_diss Recommended Citation Milligan, Cindy, "Sonic Vocality: A Theory on the Use of Voice in Character Portrayal." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2015. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_diss/64 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Communication at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. SONIC VOCALITY: A THEORY ON THE USE OF VOICE IN CHARACTER PORTRAYAL by CINDY ANN MILLIGAN Under the Direction of Patricia G. Davis, PhD ABSTRACT The primary purpose of this study was to discover whether and how the voice alone can change audiences’ perception of character in films. It further sought to determine some of the specific changes in vocal performance that might construct that difference. Data were gathered from three focus groups that screened film clips between two and five minutes long. The clips were edited from five pairs of matched films—an original and its remake. Films were chosen to represent a variety of genres and release dates, and they included scenes where the dialogue was identical or similar. Although each focus group experienced the same set of edited film clips from the matched film pairs, one group experienced only the sound without any visuals, a second group watched only the visuals of the same clips without any sound, and a third group watched the clips as they were produced with sound and visuals.