We might think of film as a visual experience but we cannot underestimate the importance of film sound. A meaningful soundtrack is often as complicated as the image on the scene.
Soundtrack is comprised of three essential ingredients: The human voice, sound effects and music.
These three 'ingredients' must be mixed and balanced to produce impact.
Diegetic Sound
The most common form of sound.
It is any sound that should be visible on the screen and exist in the reality of the film world
Dialogue, tyres screeching in a chase, the sound of rain etc.
Non-Diegetic Sound
Sound that is added in post-production to enhance the viewers experience of the film
Sounds that the character cannot hear in the film world.
Examples of non-diegetic sound include a voice over, a soundtrack and other digital music like subtle enhancements to the diegetic sound.
Dialogue
The characters or narrators speech.
Was not used in 'old' films as they did not have the enhancements of it
A film is very hard to understand without it.
Synchronous Sound/Parallel Sound
The most common form of actors dialogue. This form of sound is when the speech matches the lip movement of the character speaking.
Sometimes actors dialogue has to be dubbed because of the conditions on set, if it is loud or windy for example.
So the actor re-records all the dialogue in the studio which is then dubbed onto the acting from the set footage.
Asynchronous Sound
The opposite of synchronous sound.
When the lips and dialogue don't match, this is either done for comedic effects or to illustrate tat a character is drugged, drink or in a dream (or if the film has been dubbed badly).
Voice Over
A type of non-diegetic sound that gives the audience a true reflection of how a character feels.
Also used to set the scene of the film world or to relay information to the audience.
Sound MOTIF
Sound or music (in the form of a repeated sound track) that is associated with a particular character.
The Motif can then be used for emotional or narrative impact.
Direct Address
When an actor talks directly at the audience. Similar to a monologue in the play, the audience are usually invited to share the characters secrets or his/her view.
Direct address is not common because the audience have to suspend their disbelief and also what is called the fourth wall is broken.
Soundtrack
Music/compositions added to the film in post-production to guide the viewers feeling at a critical time in the film, when there is an emotional beat or a period of action for example.
Sound bridge: when the music from the soundtrack is sustained from one scene to the next (to connect characters, events).
Music Sting
A music punctuation mark to suggest a dramatic climax 0 often used in horror films to highlight a shock to the audience.
Pleonastic Sound
Similar to a music sting but used more often.
These are sounds added in post production in order to increase the impact of a particular moment in a film.
for example the sound of a punch in a boxing film or the sound of a sword being taken out of a scabbard to suggest how sharp the sword is.
Silence
Sound doesn't have to be used in some movies, silence is also a powerful tool for the director and not in the way of using silence in horror films to create tension.
Silence is efficiently used in movies like A Quiet place.
Soundscape
Characteristic sound that is associated with a particular location.
for example a car horns and traffic in an urban location or the tweeting of birds in a forest.
These sounds add to the feeling of immersion felt by the viewer and can also be used to heighten tensions by focusing on specific sounds, again well used in A Quiet Place.
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