Sound: Diegetic & Non-Diegetic // Research

Sound is an important part of any piece of film whether it's a short advert or a full feature film. The sound is the main thing that creates the atmosphere and it can give characters their preferred reading.

I felt it was necessary to take a moment to properly research sound, so that I fully understand it.

Diegetic Sound -
e.g. ambient sounds, dialogue
What is it? Sound from the world of film which the on-screen characters experience.
For example;

Wayne's World (1992)

In this film there's a scene in a car where the main character, Wayne, puts a cassette tape of  Bohemian Rhapsody (by Queen) on. The sound of this track playing is diegetic as the characters themselves can hear it.
Other examples of diegetic sounds in this scene include the characters getting in the car, the dialogue spoken and the car driving away.

Non-Diegetic Sound -
e.g. voice overs, sound effects
What is it? Sound outside the world of film, added in post-production.
For example;

The World's End (2013)

In the toilet scene of this film (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNJPPLg6aJE) we hear non-diegetic sound at the start in the form of incidental music. This was clearly added in post production and used to emphasise how hard the character is thinking in that scene or the tension for what will happen next.

Other types of sound include ambient sound, non-simultaneous sound, direct sound, synchronous sound, postsynchronization dubbing, offscreen sound and sound perspective.


Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)

This film is an excellent example of showing the possibilities of diegetic and non-diegetic sound and how they can both be used in a way to heighten emotions, increase tension and/or make the film seem more realistic.

Diegetic examples

• The wind; a haunting sound that's heard a lot throughout the film.
• Gunshots; fits in nicely with the 'spaghetti western' genre, an icon of this genre.
• A door slamming; sounds similar to a gunshot, comparing it to one makes the action itself seem more dangerous than it is.
• A bird tweeting; in some scenes this happens almost constantly, helps to build the tension.

                                                                                                       & many more.

Non-diegetic examples

• the soundtrack (incidental music) as a character appears in shot, this emphasises the importance of the characters at this point in the scene.
• the music has the tendency to build and we can hear various themes again to give a sense of familiarity excerpt this time the music has a thicker texture and appears to be more dramatic, therefore building more tension. 
• when the two characters are standing opposite each other and looking at each other the music fades out and the use of silence really builds tension. 
• the use of the harmonica in the score is also very relevant, important and again quite haunting, at multiple times a harmonica is put in someone's mouth who is struggling so the theme heard by the harmonica represents the person (with the harmonica in their mouth) breathing. 

& many more.

Therefore from this example I can see how much diegetic, non-diegetic and even how no sound can be very effective.