Audio

Diegetic & Non-diegetic sound

When making audio for a movie there are two different kinds of sounds, diegetic and non-diegetic. Diegetic sound is sound that can be heard by the characters in universe, non-diegetic sound is sound that can only be heard by the audience watching the film.

The opening scene from the film Saving Private Ryan is an excellent example of diegetic sound. There is no music in this scene and the audience is left only with sound effects, this makes the scene feel more down to earth and rely helps the audience understand the movies message of 'war is hell'.

The docking scene from the film Interstellar is a good example of non-diegetic sound. In the scene the music starts of quiet but when the tension begins to rise you start to hear the sound of a ticking clock in the background which emphasizes the limited time that they have without making it something that is obvious like an actual clock.

Dialogue

Dialogue is the most important part of any movie (unless it's A Quiet Place) as it is not only how characters communicate but also some of the most memorable moments in films are quotes from the characters themselves. There is also Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR) which is when you make a dub over the original dialogue that in sync with the lip movement to make it seem like they are saying something else entirely, this is manly used to cut out profanity in movies.

Ambient sound

Ambient sounds are sounds that play in the background of a scene to give it life. This sound could be anything on or off screen, it could be rain or a waterfall or simply wind blowing. Colorful scenes tend to have light ambient sounds and dark scenes tend to have grim ambient sounds.

In the fight scene from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice there is constant rainfall and thunder & lightning which adds to the already dark scene.

Sound Effects

Out of all the things audio based in media sound effects are one of the most important parts. A sound effect is a sound created between objects interacting that would normally be too quiet to hear properly that is added in the editing stage. It's important to note that sound effects are only sounds that have been added in, not sounds that are picked up with the cameras.

Sound Track

A films sound track is used as another medium to tell the story of the film through, this is especially prevalent in movies with a score directed by Hans Zimmer. A sound track needs to have a similar feel to the entirety of the movie and the specific scene that it is being played in.

Audio analyses

For one of my lessons with Paul I had to learn about Diegetic & Non-Diegetic sound in films and how audio itself is an underappreciated form of art. The lesson covered all the important aspects of the two types of sound:

Diegetic: Diegetic sound is any sound that can be heard by some one who is in the movie's universe such as a rock falling on the ground.

Non-Diegetic: Non-Diegetic sound is any sound that has been added on top of the scene and none of the characters in the movie's universe such as the sound track of a movie.

Sound is one of the most important parts of a movie as it makes up 50% of a film with visuals making up the other 50%, to put it simply audio makes up half of the movie. If you where to take a scene and mute it so you can only have the visuals then you will find that it makes a very big difference, the whole scene will seem almost empty even if it is full to the brim with visually appealing aspects. The reason why we seem to care about sound so much (even if we don't realise it) is because before we are even born the first sense that we develop is hearing and we can hear things while we are still in the womb such as our mothers heart beat, music and other loud sounds. Because we develop sound first we have a deeper connection to it than we do to any other sense despite being so reliant on all the others. In the media industry it took a long time for sound to truly gain the attention that it truly deserved and most evaluations of sound have only started fairly recently in awards such as The Oscars.