Micro Feature: Sound

Sound 

In today's lesson, we went through how sound in used in films to create effects such as realism, setting the scene or atmosphere of the scene or creating emotion or feeling towards characters or events during a scene.

The different ways sound is used are:

• Diegetic Sounds 
• Non Diegetic Sounds
• On-Screen Sounds
• Off- Screen Sounds
• Parallel Sounds
• Contrapuntal Sounds
• Sound Bridges 

Diegetic Sounds

These are sounds found within the world of the film, the sources of these are usually shown or implied to be shown at the start of the scene. They are sounds that characters within the film can hear. Diegetic sounds can be dialogue between characters, sound made by objects in the story e.g a car driving past or music that has a source within the story e.g a song playing on the radio.

Non Diegetic Sounds 

These are sounds that are not found with the world of the film, the sources of these are not present or not implied to be. Only the audience can hear these sounds i.e. the characters within the film are not aware that the sounds are playing. Examples of non-diegetic sounds are a narrator's commentary, soundtracks or sound effects added for dramatic effect or captions or titles within the film.

On- Screen Sounds

The sounds that the audience can see the source of the particular sound.

Off-Screen Sounds 

The sounds that the audience cannot see the source of the particular sound.

Could be used to create  a state of tension or mystery in a film and to enable an extension of the diegetic world.

Parallel Sounds 

These sounds match the atmosphere of the scene, such as very happy and lively music being played during a scene where a happy event is occurring.

Contrapuntal Sounds

These sounds do not match the the atmosphere of the scene, such as very lively and happy being played during the death of a character. This helps the audience to know how to feel towards the character  during the scene.

Sound Bridges

These sounds helps to create a smooth transition between two scenes e.g a sound of scream linking two scenes together.