Sound in the Cinema

Sound in the cinema: Noise, Music, Dialogue

Direct sound: Music, noise, and speech recorded from the event at the moment of filming; opposite of postsynchronization. (Film Art Glossary)

Sound mixing: Usually post-production, the act of mixing various elements of sound, typically coming from multiple microphones, a music track, Foley effects, etc.

Foley (what a Foley Artist does) The art of recreating incidental sound effects (such as footsteps) in synchronization with the visual component of a movie. Named after an early practitioner. Foley artists sometimes use bizarre objects and methods to achieve sound effects, eg snapping celery to mimic bones being broken. The sounds are often exaggerated for extra effect - fight sequences are almost always accompanied by loud foley added thuds and slaps. www.bellingen.com/cinema/terms.html

Rhythm (musical rhythm and rhythm with respect to visual editing—coordination or disparity): perceived rate and regularity of sounds. (Film Art Glossary)

Fidelity: accuracy of a reproduced sound with respect to its source.

Space: On-screen vs. offscreen source for sound Diegetic sound: Any voice, musical passage, or sound effect presented as originating from a source within the film’s world. (Film Art Glossary) Non-diegetic sound: Any voice, musical passage, or sound effect presented as NOT originating from a source within the film’s world, including voice-over narration, music on the sound track with a source not in the world of the film, etc.

Time: Synchronous sound: Sound that is matched temporally with the movements occurring in the images, as when dialogue corresponds to lip movements. (Film Art Glossary) Non-synchronous sound: sound that is not temporally matched with the image Simultaneous sound: Diegetic sound that is represented as occurring at the same time in the story as the image it accompanies. (Film Art Glossary) Nonsimultaneous sound: Diegetic sound not occurring at the same time in the story as the image it accompanies.

Sound Bridge: 1. At the beginning of one scene, the sound from the previous scene carries over briefly before the sound from the new scene begins; 2. At the end of one scene, the sound from the next scene is heard, leading into that scene.

Sound over: Any sound that is not represented as being directly audible within the space and time of the images on the screen. This includes both nonsimultaneous diegetic sound and nondiegetic sounds. (Film Art Glossary) Sound motif: A repeated element on the soundtrack.

A useful site: http://www.filmsound.org/