Introduction to Sound

Sound; although often overlooked, plays an important role within the filming process. To me film is mostly a visual concept however, sound is used to heighten the mood, provide us with information about the location of a scene, advance the plot, and tell us about the characters in the story. There are two categories of sound in film: Diegetic and Non-Diegetic.

Diegetic Sound

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

Digetic 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 Sound

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 a source outside story space.

Another term for non-diegetic sound is commentary sound.

Decibels

"A unit used to measure the intensity of sound. The decibel scale can appear slightly off odd since the human ear is incredibly sensitive"

Number on the decibel scale can go from 0 to -infinity and it is best if you start recording at -12. This is optimum recording for when you want to add any extra sound in post production; if someone makes any extra sound like sneezing then this will not have a massive harm on the ears of the human.

Audio signal flow is the path an audio signal takes from source to output. The concept of audio signal flow is closely related to the concept of audio gain staging; each component in the signal flow can be thought of as a gain stage.

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