Sound in films

For individual research I have studied the use of sound in films, and have summarised the work that we did in class.

Diegetic and Non-diegetic sound
-A film's world is known as the diegetic
-Thing's in this world are it's diegesis
-On and off screen sound is used to create a 3 dimensional world
-Off screen sound used to give us clues, for example smashing glass, or a scream
-Non-diegetic sound is added after the film, for example music or a voice over

Sound Bridges
-Used to link scenes together
-Will often hear the sound from the next scene before we see the image
-Gives the effect of a continuous world rather than a disjointed one

Contrapuntal sound
-These are sounds that do not match
-This can be the soundtrack or on screen
-Contrasting emotions e.g. sinister music in a seemingly happy scene
-Also called asynchronous sound

Parallel sound
-This is when the sound matches what is on screen
-Music fits with emotion of the scene
-e.g. suspenseful music in a stalking scene, loud fast paced music in a fight scene, beautiful slow music in a love scene

Foley sound
-SFX sounds
-These are added sometimes to enhance sounds or to create sounds which don't exist
-In Star Wars III they mix the sound of a lion and a zebra for one of the animals!
-Often gun shots will be enhanced to sound much more dramatic


All these different effects are used in films to add to the overall experience. They are useful things to think about when planning my own opening sequence, for example:

-The soundtrack
-On and off screen sounds
-Dialogue
-Foley effects
-Clever use of parallel and contrapuntal sound