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Sound and Music
One of the major elements a film maker uses to craft a finished work is the soundtrack for a film. The sound of a film can be divided into
three major categories:
Voice
Sound Effects
Music
Each of these three components help to create the total experience we have with the artist's work.
Voice:
Dialogue: words spoken between two or more characters.
Monologue: words spoken by a single character, usually to him or herself, but said aloud. This is often a developed meditation on
something, rather than just a few words.
Voice-over Narration: a form of narration in which a character's lips remain unmoving while the voice is heard, implying or expressing the
character's thoughts. This narration can be a representation of what the character is currently thinking (internal monologue) or superimposed
over the scene to imply the character's later reflections on this moment in the past.
Internal Monolgue: the presentation of a character's thoughts as the character is thinking them. These can be a conscious or semi-conscious
stream of thoughts—a conversation with oneself.
Narration: the voice of someone who is telling us the story. With narration, in contrast to voice-over, the speaker may not be in the scene
and may not even be a character in the story.
Sound Effects:
Ambient Sound: noise that comes from the setting or environment in a scene
Natural Sound: a synonym for ambient sound. Though often used to make a scene realistic, ambient/natural sounds can also be used for the
dramatic intensification of a scene.
Visible Sound: noise that comes from something we see on screen and matches it realistically
Invisible Sound: noise that comes from something off screen that we can't see, but we can hear, which matches realistically with the scene
Synchronous Sound: when a sound effect matches naturally and realistically with what is making the sound
Asynchronous Sound: when a sound effect does not match naturally and realistically with what is making the sound, creating a juxtaposition
of the image and the sound for some other artistic or rhetorical purpose
Dead Track: a shot or scene with minimal audio information, the most extreme being the total absence of sound
Sound Link: the repetition of a sound or piece of music from one shot/scene into the next shot/scene to transition from one to the next
Inner Monologue: technique of revealing a character's private thoughts or mood. This can be done with narration, as internal monolgue, or
this can be done with sound effects or music.
Subjective Sound: noises used to portray or reveal the psychological state of a character, or to emphasize particular sounds the character is
hearing, though this would be different than just emphasizing the ambient sounds. Rather, this would be more to indicate what or how a
particular character were hearing something in comparison to others.
Music:
Generalized Score: music intended to capture the overall tone or mood of a film and of particular scenes. The music here is not generally
part of something playing in the setting or environment of the scene itself.
Micky-Mousing: technique of matching the music and the action in a scene
Peter-and-the-wolf-ing: technique of matching music with particular characters, such as a foreboding score when the villain appears
Background Music: music accompanying a scene, sometimes used to create a mood, to provide continuity, or to reinforce--or undercut-- the
action. Like the generalized score, background music is not usually from a source in the setting or environment of the scene.
Local Music: music that has its source within the visual element of a scene, such as playing on a stereo, or in a club, or on someone's
headphones. Often, the music is used to add another layer of meaning to the scene, rather than just being a random piece of music.
Musical Interlude: technique of using music to separate parts of a film
Leitmotif: a recurring sound, color, image, or piece of music that serves as a trademark for a particular character.