Week 7 - Diegetic and Non-diegetic Sound

We started by talking about Dimension of sound which is:

• Space
• Diegetic and Non-diegetic
• Sound has a spatial dimension (i.e. it springs from a source)
• What we believe of the sound can be changed from what we see

We then looked at what diegetic sound was:

• Sound which has a source in the film story
• Spoken words - objects sound - music from instruments in the film
• (Note that sounds that appear diegetic can be manipulated non-realistically)

Non-diegetic sound:

• Coming from a source outside the story world
• Music to enhance action -  the convention of movie music
• Narrator: the disembodied voice
• Some sound effects can create audio visual humour
• Fidelity - a sound that is faithful to the source

 Next we looked at some case studies, starting with the opening scene of 'A Touch of Evil'. The opening scene has two versions: version one was released by Universal Studios and was restored and version two was how the director, Orson Welles intended it to be.

Version 1 - Restored

Version 2 - Orson Welles Intended

 The restored version has more non-diegetic sound as it had music added to help with the atmosphere and ambiance that take over the sounds that should be on the screen, on the other hand Orson Welles version had more diegetic sound as you got a sense of where the sounds were coming from as they walked.


'Delicatessen' (1991) - trailer

The scene that we looked at shows how a relationship between the characters built from the use of diegetic sound. It showed the audience how all the characters are in the building and the sound has brought them together in a humorous way.

 'Tron' (1982) - trailer

Although Tron is a synthetic film as it was made artificially and all by computer, it still uses diegetic and non-diegetic sound. It has a off screen voice that kind of worked as a type of narrator which is non-diegetic. The diegetic sound comes from the computers, although it is fantasy and we don't actually know what they would sound like, we connect it the sound to the computers.

'Metropolis' (1927) - trailer

Metropolis is a silent film and so it is an example of non-diegetic sound as the sound would of been put on after they had filmed it.