Media studies

Pixx Productions
Ayan Magudia
Diegetic sound sound that comes from a person or object in the diegesis (the world of the
story) and seen within the field of vision
Ambient sound background sound belonging to the diegesis but not always in the field of
vision. Ambient sound within the field of vision may include the hubbub of a crowd or the
quiet sound car radio or engine over which the dialogue takes place. Ambient sound outside
the field of vision might be a juke box downstairs, traffic outside or birdsong.
Non-diegetic sound sound that comes from nothing within the field of vision and has been
added afterwards in the editing process. The clearest examples of this are soundtrack music
or a voiceover (see below). Sound can be added non-diegetically but still belong to
something within the diegesis e.g. the blaring car radio in Criminal Justice may have been
added afterwards in the editing stage.
Synchronous sound where the sound is synchronised with the object emitting that sound
as in lip-sync where the actors mouth moves exactly in time with the words we hear.
Asynchronous sound this is where the sound track is deliberately out of sync (out of time)
with what we see. It is a rare effect in TV Drama. A good example, again at the end of The
Graduate is where we have a montage of faces and voices in the church, all shouting at Ben
but the voices do not synchronise with the faces we see.
Sound effects sounds added to the visuals in editing. They may be naturalistic the sound
of traffic outside the window added to a shot filmed in a studio or unnaturalistic, perhaps
for comic purpose (e.g. a booing sound) or to remind us we are watching a construct (e.g.
the whooshing sound that accompanies crash zooms in the Bleak House extract).
Sound motif a sound associated with a character or a place. This could be the humming of
machinery associated with a factory or the threatening buzzing of a power station or clicks,
whirrs and beeps in a computer lab. A character might have a particular musical figure that
plays when they appear or when they sort out a problem.
Sound bridge this is where the sound (either diegetic or non-dietetic) continues across one
or more cuts/transitions. Examples include the music running under the montage of a days
work in The Street or the phone ring tone we hear when Joe Miller dials his phone in
Criminal Justice and continues when we cut to shots of his empty house when the phone he
has called is ringing.
Dialogue the sound made by characters talking to each other. Sometimes this is rerecorded in a studio with the actors attempting to lip-sync to the footage: this is called Foley
recording.
Voiceover where a voice from outside the diegesis gives the audience information. Often
this voice tells us the story and may be a character within the story.
Volume Control-The control of how quiet or how loud sound is this is to set or emphasize
mood/atmosphere.

Media studies
Pixx Productions
Ayan Magudia
Themes and stings Themes is music that always accompanies the particular TV show or
even a particular character. Stings are short bursts of music, originally used in TV and radio
to bump together different sections and chapters of a show.