Diegetic sound:
this is a sound which the characters within a film/footage can hear. Diegetic sound can include everything from traffic noise, telephone rings. doors slamming and animal sounds, to industrial machinery and dialogue These sounds may be used to generate a reality effect for the audience, but can also take on symbolic meaning.
For example: The perpetual rain of the metropolis in David Fincher's film "Seven" creates a constant backdrop to the action of the film. it also becomes representative of the inhospitable nature of the city.
Diegetic sounds can also become synonymous with particular characters and act to signal their particular presence in a film. In the film "Scream", for example, the killer harass their victim with the use of a telephone. The opening image of the film is of a phone ringing and the character who answers it becomes the first victim. From then on in the film, the sound of a phone ringing becomes associated with the disjointed voice of the killer contacting their next victim. This everyday and banal sound then becomes threatening and creates tension for the audience.
Be aware that directors can also put sounds you wold expect to hear in the story world on the soundtrack. They may do this in order to heighten the tension in a particular scene or suggest a connection between one scene and another.
Diegetic sound is sound whose source is visible on the
screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film:
- voices of characters
- sounds made by objects in the story
- music represented as coming from instruments in the story space ( = source music)
Diegetic sound is any sound presented as originated from source
within the film's world
Diegetic sound can be either on screen or off screen
depending on whatever its source is within the frame or outside the frame. Another term for diegetic sound is actual
sound.
Non-Diegetic:
This is sound which does not exist within the story of the film, but is put onto the film in post production. This type of sound could be in the form of a music soundtrack, voice over or extra sounds which enhance the meaning of elements within the film.
For example Bernard Herrman's haunting soundtrack for Martin Scorcesse's "Taxi Driver" , would become under the definition of non-diegetic sound. The shrill and repetitive violin sounds which Herrman created as the soundtrack for the shower scene in Hitchcock's "Psycho", function as a musical echo for the knife stabs inflicted on the character of Marion Crane.
A Non-diegetic sound is the sound whose source is neither
visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action:
- narrator's commentary
- sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect
- mood music
Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from the source
outside story space.
The distinction between diegetic or non-diegetic sound
depends on our understanding of the conventions of film viewing and
listening. We know of that certain
sounds are represented as coming from the story world, while others are represented
as coming from outside the space of the story events. A play with diegetic and non-diegetic
conventions can be used to create ambiguity (horror), or to surprise the
audience (comedy).
How to use Diegetic and Non-diegetic sounds:
Essentially, there are two types of sounds that one hears in
a movie: diegetic and non-diegetic. The basic difference is easily explained.
Diegetic sound is anything you hear that has a source within the story;
non-diegetic is sound that has no source within the film itself. Usually this
distinction is very easy for an audience to appreciate. When characters are
dancing to a song playing on the jukebox, which is a diegetic sound. Those
strings that accompany Norman Bates' slashing of Marion Crane are non-diegetic.
A conversation between characters is diegetic; narration from an unseen
character is non-diegetic.
A diegetic sound can be manipulated to enlarge the spatial
properties of your scene, for instance. This can be accomplished through a slow
rise in volume, or through a stereophonic effect of having the sound bounce
back and forth from right to left. Volume indicates distance. A louder sound
gives the impression of close proximity, while a lower volume can suggest
distance. How can you use this to your advantage in a low-budget film? Well, rather
than indicating a vast geographical space when constrained by a location that
is actually quite small, you can manipulate the audio to do what you can't do
visually. This isn't limited merely to volume. Let's say your scene is supposed
to take place within a cavernous interior but you don't actually have access to
such a location. By skilfully adding an echo effect to your sound track you can
quite easily create a believable sense of space. Remember, however, that a
simple echo will sound like just that. By further adjusting the quality level
of your echo you can further enhance the reality of distance between two
speakers within your enormous visual space that isn't really there.
Another fun way to mess around with sound is to combine
diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Have you ever seen a movie or TV show where
music that appears to be non-diegetic-that is, not from a source but as part of
the soundtrack intended to manipulate emotion suddenly is revealed to be
diegetic after all? More often than not, this will be done for comedic effect.
Let's say your film is a parody of a suspense movie and as your characters are
trying to remain inconspicuous as they follow their suspect, appropriately
sneaky sounding music begins to play. Then one character turns to the other and
tells him to turn off the car stereo and it is revealed that this time the
music was actually diegetic. You've seen something similar to that, no doubt.
An example of this is In an episode of Family Guy.
In the recent Star Wars parody episode (entitled ‘Blue Harvest’), we
have the classic scene on Tatooine where Luke (played by Chris) is standing
dramatically as the binary suns of the planet set and we hear the Force theme
being played for the first time in the series.
The mournful French horn solo as Luke expresses his desire to leave his
desert planet home. What happens next in
‘Blue Harvest’ (as the music swells), is that Chris/Luke turns to the camera
and says “John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra, everybody!” and the
camera sweeps left and reveals John Williams and the orchestra there, in the
middle of the desert, playing. Chris
then asks them to play the theme to the People’s Court, which they kindly oblige. Below is a poor quality but the best I could find......
The comedy of the moment is obviously derived from the sheer
absurdity of the orchestra playing in the desert. But it is also a commentary on orchestral
scores in general. One of the functions
of a musical score, as pointed out by Royals S. Brown in Overtones and
Undertones (probably also said elsewhere, but that’s the one I've read) is that
the music “mythologizes” the images.
This is exactly the function of the music in this scene. We have Luke, the loner, fighting against the
simple life of his parents, but also fighting against his, then, unknown
history as the child of Anakin Skywalker, and it is accompanied by the music
that becomes “The Force Theme,” the very birth right he has but doesn't know
about. And all this complex symbolism is
undone by a simple comedic turn of a musical shift from the non-diegetic to the
diegetic.
another example of a Non-Diegetic and diegetic shift I want to discuss is one that starts out as
absurd and moves to a whole new level of absurdity, and who else is the sublime
master of the absurd by the man himself, Mel Brooks. In the seminal comedy film, Blazing Saddles,
we are greeted with our first image of Bart as the sheriff and he is dressed in
runway fashion clothes complete with Gucci saddle bags and accompanied by the
Count Basie Orchestra’s “April in Paris.”
The sheer absurdity of the entire scene is heightened by the anachronistic song. This effect is taken to a higher level as the
camera pans left, as Bart rides by on his horse, and reveals Count Basie and
his Orchestra. It is annoying that the
music and musicians are not perfectly synced, but the implication that they are
supposed to be playing live is clear.
A more dramatic effect, but this time going diegetic to
non-diegetic is Pippin’s song in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the
King. He starts out just singing to
Denethor solo, but the song then begins to be accompanied by orchestra as the
scene starts to cut back and forth between Pippin/Denethor and Faramir leading
a fruitless charge against the orcs at Osgiliath. While it’s not a true complete shift from one
space to another, since the scene always returns to Pippin singing, the song is
used as a dramatic lament to underscore to Faramir’s assault.
Another way to use this unexpected juxtaposition of diegetic and non-diegetic
sound involves the use of a narrator who is not a character in the movie. Your
narrator may exist along the lines of the narrator of The Age of Innocence only
to provide information that the characters cannot, or to provide an
informational overview of a particular time or place. The problem here is that
you need the omniscient narrator because having a character narrate your story
won't work for some reason. But this also sets up a wonderful potential for
using the two different kinds of sound to achieve an effect not otherwise
possible.
One effect is to have your all-knowing narrator pose a
question such as "If only Dr. Malarkey had known that saving Janet's life
would bring him such misery for years to come, what would he have done?"
This would immediately be followed by a close-up of Dr. Malarkey looking
directly into the camera and saying, "I'll tell you what I would have
done." The natural inclination at this point is to believe that Malarkey
is dietetically responding to the non-diegetic question even though that is
impossible. Malarkey's next line depends on how you want to juxtapose your
diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. He could either say, "I would have bet
the pot instead of folding" as you reveal that his first line was actually
in response to an entirely different "what would he have done" query.
Or, if you wanted to really play around in the sound space afforded by this
opportunity you could have Malarkey's next line be "I would have done
exactly the same thing. My God, she was beautiful!" as the camera pulls
back to reveal that he is responding to the same "what would he have
done" question, but posed by an actual character. Orson Welles' only
on-screen contribution to The Magnificent Ambersons is as an unseen,
all-knowing, God-like narrator who comments on the action. He takes advantage
of the full potential offered by using diegetic and non-diegetic sounds under
these circumstances.
Another way to use omniscient narrator and play around with
both types of sounds is as an ironic counterpoint. The great French filmmaker
Jean Luc-Godard literally took this possibility to the level of art in almost
all his post-Weekend films. But the most famously successful use of combining
diegetic sounds with a non-diegetic narrator is probably Stanley Kubrick's
Barry Lyndon, where the narration is almost entirely ironic. Barry Lyndon is a
difficult movie for many, and has never been of Kubrick's most popular films.
It does have its pacing problems, but it is worth watching at least once to
understand just how incredibly important understanding how manipulation of
diegetic and non-diegetic sounds can be in a film.
Identifying Diegetic and Non-diegetic sounds in film:
- Diegetic sound is sound that the characters in the film can hear (e.g. the character is listening to the radio)
- Non-Diegetic sound is sound that is only for the audience to hear (e.g. A soundtrack over an action sequence)
DIEGETIC: Spider-Man – the song ‘what were all about’ is
played in the scene where Uncle Ben
drops Pete off just before he is killed.
Although the audience can hear it is supposed to be on the car radio.
NON-DIEGETIC: JAWS – although the music is heavily connected
to JAWS the music that plays before the shark attacks is only heard by the audience
watching the film and not by the characters the shark is about to attack.
Action
The sound in action movies reflects the style and theme of
the movie by having noises that convey dangerous situations as well as adrenaline
pumping music. The dialogue is often weak and not very complicated and full of
one-liners. All the explosions and gun sounds will be diegetic the adrenaline pumping music, however will not.
Thriller
The sound in Thriller movies reflects the style and theme of
the movie by being very quiet and building tension. Having noises that make us think
we saw the event when in reality we didn't.
Comedy
Not a lot of Added noise to Comedy because most of it is
visual however some jokes are generally dialogue. But most are both and wouldn't work without the image. The sound effects are over exaggerated (e.g. crashes
are louder screams are funnier) musically, Comedy generally tends to have
popular songs that all age groups can relate to.
Contrapuntal sound, this when the music doesn't fit with the
images.
Example: Reservoir Dogs in the scene where Mr. Blonde cuts the cop's ear off. The music ‘stuck in the middle with you’ doesn't fit with
that scene it think the intention of this is to make it seem more violent than
it already does it makes the violence seem more twisted.
The music being played in this scene is diegetic as Mr Blonde plays K-Billy's super sounds of the 70's through the stereo.
A good example where non-diegetic sounds are used in a film is the Rocky series, especially during the training montage's. As Rocky preps himself and trains for his fight the music that is played as the scene is played is just for the audience, the character does not hear the music and is focused on training. The purpose of the music is to get you pumped up and take you through the sequence of training sessions Rocky goes through and keep you entertained and excited.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment