Sound Glossary

Diegetic sound: is a sound that is part of the film, the sound’s origin is visible on the screen and present in the action happening in the film.

Non-diegetic sound: is a sound that is not recognised as part of the film, its origin is not visible on the screen and not present in the action occurring in the film.

Contrapuntal/asynchronous sound: the sound doesn’t match what’s happening in the film and it’s usually composed by two or more independent melodies.

Parallel/synchronous sound: the sound follows the happenings of the film and compliments them without being in contrast.

Ambient sound: it reproduces the sounds of a specific environment or location. Each location has different sounds and when we hear the right sounds, they’re called ambient sounds.

SFX (sounds effects): is a sound artificially created to emphasize the contents of the film or the specific action that is occurring.
i.e. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asRi8LcdAus

Theme music: is a musical composition that is often used for the opening titles, the ending credits and the beginning of the film. It’s usually contains lyrics associated to the film’s content or meaning.

Voiceover: is an off-stage commentary that gives the character perspective or we can hear it in flashbacks. We don’t see the owner of the voice that could also appear later in the film, but not in that moment.
i.e. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGKqV36sQ3Q

Sound bridges: is a sound that occurs in the ending of a sequence and that belongs to the following film sequence.

Pleonastic/foley sound: is part of diegetic sound but in an exaggerated way; the sounds are heightened creating more impact with the help of foley sound which consist in the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to the film, video etc.
i.e. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYbkRq6Iw7I

Sound motif: is a short melody composed by a recurring musical fragment that is characteristic of a composition and so it is a recognizable sound
i.e. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuMHaXr4Vxg

Selective sound: is used to emphasize key sound elements within a sequence.