Sound

* S O U N D *

DIEGESIS - the 'world' of the film and the elements belonging to it.

DIEGETIC SOUND - sound which is part of the film's world, even if it is added in the editing process, e.g. a door slamming, footsteps, an explosion...
There are two types of diegetic sound:

ON-SCREEN - sound that we hear that originates from something happening in shot, e.g. someone who is in shot speaking. We hear the sound and see what's making it.

OFF-SCREEN - sound that we hear that originates from something happening out of shot, e.g. the phone or doorbell ringing; or someone going to make a cup of tea, leaving someone else alone in the shot, but we hear their half of the conversation and the kettle boiling and spoons and mugs clinking. We hear the sound but can't see what's making it.

The usage of both on-screen and off-screen sound helps to build a three-dimensional world for the audience, and makes it easier to forget they're viewing images on a flat screen. Off-screen sound can be used to inform us of events and settings, e.g. we might hear shouting in another room, and know that people are having an argument; if we hear a police/ambulance/fire engine siren, we can deduce that help is coming, and the place is by a main road; we might hear the sound of lots of traffic, and know that we are probably in an urban location.

NON-DIEGETIC SOUND - sound which is not part of the film's world and has definitely been added during the editing process. If you were in the film's world, you would not be able to hear it, e.g. the voice-over of a narrator, or orchestral music that's not being played by someone in the film - soundtrack but not SFX. Music can be diegetic if it's coming from a radio, jukebox, stereo etc.

FOLEY TRACK - the diegetic soundtrack, created by foley artists. Foley artists enhance sounds and create them (if it's a CGI) after shooting - basically sound effects, e.g. footsteps, rustling, a dinosaur hatching from an egg, a gunshot made louder... Click here for an insight into the art of foley...

SOUND BRIDGES - when the sound from one scene overlaps into the next scene. Sometimes the sound from one scene continues into/over the next scene, so the images change but we still hear the sounds from the previous scene. More often than that, the sound from the next scene starts before we see the relevant images, so we hear the sounds from that scene before we see the images.

This makes the narrative flow; without sound bridges films would be very disjointed, because they give the film a sense of linking, creating a wider and coherent diegetic world. In this way, sound bridges are a factor in the film's continuity.

PARALLEL (SYNCHRONOUS) SOUND - when what we see matches what we hear. In a film, the sound usually complements what we are seeing, e.g. happy music at happy moments, sad music with sad images, and exciting music for exciting scenes. The mood of the music matches the action on the screen, which is why it is called parallel sound (a.k.a. synchronous sound).

CONTRAPUNTAL (ASYNCHRONOUS) SOUND - when what we see does not match what we hear. Occasionally during a film, the sound does not seem to match the action, e.g. in Jaws, when we see images of people happily relaxing on holiday on Amity Beach, but hear the famous sinister motif of Jaws, which doesn't fit in with what we see, but by this point know to associate it with the arrival of the man-eating shark. This is contrapuntal (meaning 'at a counterpoint to') sound (a.k.a. asynchronous sound), and can be a very effective technique.