Film Section 6 - sound - chapter 5

Sound

Dialogue

any spoken words

sound effects

every noise that's not spoken words or music, diegetic or not

offscreen sound

those sounds that are heard without their sources being seen

**backstage musicals**

a film’s score is almost always nondiegetic

Title cards

words printed on a page or piece of cardboard, photographed, and edited into a film

Sound on Disc

An early method of synchronizing sound to motion picture images in which sound was recorded on photograph discs (records) and played back when the film was screened.

Sound on Film

The dominant method of synchronizing sound to motion picture images in which sounds converted to optical signals and placed on a soundtrack on the film itself.

Talkies

films with synchronized dialogue; short for talking pictures

Boom

A long, broomstick - like arm onto which a microphone is attached before being held out over the heads of actors just out of camera range.

Radio microphones

small and wireless

Shotgun microphones

Pick up sounds at some distance but must point exactly in the direction of the sound being miked - usually an actor’s speech.

Digital audio workstation

A computer and specialized application that match the digital recording with the image

Mixing

combining dialogue, sound effects, and music onto a single soundtrack.

synchronous sounds

occurring at the same time

nonsynchronous sounds

sounds that occur at a different time and/or in a different space than what appears onscreen.

Ambient sound

The appropriate sounds of daily life that accompany the image, whether the scene is set inside or outside.

room tone

inserted into conversations to fill any gaps that may otherwise occur

pitch

fundamental frequency

timbre

tonal quality