Media Glossary : Sound...

Sound is the key element to a film as it allows the audience to develop their own ideas of the characters and plot through an acoustic form. Sound can be categorised into six key headings:

Non-diegetic Sound = This is the sound that can only be heard by the audience (non-digentic sound

can be in the format of narration or soundtrack), therefore the character does not react to the sound at all. Example of non-digentic sound is at the beginning of 'American Beauty' through narration.

Diegetic Sound = This is the sound that can be heard by the characters within the scene, therefore the character reacts to the scene. Example of digentic sound in American beauty is the Lester getting out of bed because he has heard the Alarm Clock.

There are time when films, switch from non-digentic to digentic sound. An example of this is in 'the league of gentlemen apocalypse introduction'

Narration = This is a voice telling the narrative as the film goes on. It can be used both alongside and instead of dialogue within a scene. An example of where narration is used in 'The wonder years' series one, episode one:

Score = This is music that is specifically composed to accommodate images. As well as enhancing mood and atmosphere it can be used thematically (example = the audience being reminded of a situation every time a musical theme recurs or a character can be represented by a musical theme every time they appear). The music can be discordant or melodic depending on the desired emotional effect being created for the audience.

Synchronous Sond = This is the sound that is sychronised with the visual images of screen, therefore all sychronised sound if diegetic. The sound can come from on-screen or off screen soucrse, but all sound used for it to be sychronous must work with scene therefore be in realistic hearing range.

Asynchrounous Sound = All sound which is non-diegetic is asychrounous as it is sound which is not synchrosied with the visuals, however asynchrounous sound can also be diegetic sound if the sound in reality would not be able to be heard and seen in the event simutaneously. There are two common uses as to why asynchrounous sound is used:
1. Bridging a cut - this is where we hear the scene moments before we see it in order to prevent the transition from jarraing, this is called a sound bridge which along with adding smoothness to a cut, can also be used to delay a character being revealed to the audience
2. Creating a meaningful juxtaposition