glossary

Glossary

Diegetic - Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film

Non-diagetic - Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action

Ambient - Ambient sound or ambient audio means the background sounds which are present in a scene or location. Common ambient sounds include wind, water, birds, crowds, office noises, traffic, etc.

SFX -  The illusions used in the film, television, theatre, or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called special effects (often abbreviated as SFX

Mood – music to enhance the mood in the film

Tone – use sound to set the tone of the scene

Genre - is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, films, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time as new genres are invented and the use of old ones are discontinued. Often, works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions

Theme music- usually a piece of music written purposely for a tv series, film, radio program, video game etc. usually used in the title sequence.

Voiceover – also known as an off-stage or off camera comentry. The voice-over may be spoken by someone who appears elsewhere in the production or by a specialist voice actor.

Musical score -  usually used in films, a specially written piece of music which accompanies the film, forming a sound track.

Synchronous sounds – referring to the sound recorded at the time of filming the movie

Asynchronous sound – sounds that the source cannot be seen on the screen added to the film to create realism e.g. the background sound of an ambulance.

Contrapuntal - the playing of one melody against another but which harmonizes with the original melody - it's like 2-part harmony

Silence - the relative or total lack of audible sound

Selective sound – the removal of some sounds to make other more important sounds more audible e.g. it may make us aware of a bomb or watch ticking.

Sound bridges – refers to an audible sound (dialog or sound effects) that carry on into another scene or shot.