Sound in Film

Sound is a key aspect of film, without it there is a big chance none would understand what is going on and its almost guaranteed that the audience wouldn't pick up the entire storyline either. Aside from the sound of dialogue, which many would agree is one of the more obvious contributors to sound, there are several other aspects of sound that make the audience relate to or empathise with the characters in the story, that can put the viewer in the audiences shoes or that can change the entire mood and atmosphere of a particular scene in the film.

Diegetic sound is sound that can be heard by characters within a scene. Examples of this are the rustling of leaves as the character walks through them, splashing of water as the character jumps into the pool, shutting the door and of course, dialogue. All dialogue is diegetic, even if one character is whispering to himself whilst the others can't hear, because if one character can hear it that is enough. Voices heard by the audience in a flashback or memory of a character are also considered a part of diegetic sound because the character experiencing them can hear them. Narration by a character is also considered diegetic as it is labelled an 'internal monologue' which means it is in and a part of the story.

Non-Diegetic sound is sound that the characters can't hear and is not part of the story, this is the opposite of diegetic and includes a musical soundtrack or voiceover.

Other types of sound include sound effects and something called a 'score'. Sound effects are sounds that are added to a film during the editing process. This may be rain in an animation film where rice is dropped onto a hard surface creating a sound similar to rain drops falling. These appear diegetic whilst we are watching the film - and they are, however some are also artificial.

Finally, a score is the musical component of a programme's soundtrack that is usually specifically composed for a scene in some films, mainly children's. In Disney films, audio (singing) is added above these tracks for example in their 'Frozen' film the songs 'let it go', 'for the first time in forever' and 'do you wanna build a snowman' are all composed specifically for that film.

Overall you can see that sound is very important when it comes to film. Personally, I believe music touches people and in sad films, just adding relevant music can make people more emotionally connected to the story just like a happy and upbeat song can make an individual feel happy. All the different types of sound come together and if used correctly, can help to make a film 10X more interesting to watch.