Sound

There is a number of different sounds used when making a film, each performing a very specific role, the types of sounds are;


diegetic
Diegetic sound is what the people in the 'film world' can hear, such as talking or cars, these exist in the sound world to increase the realism and add to the scene.
non diegetic
Non Diegetic sound is the sound that the characters cannot hear, but we can, this is usually in the form of music that adds to the scene and makes tension or increases the thrill. Examples of where this would be used is in a horror, specifically when there is about to be a reveal of the thing hunting them.
parallel
Parallel sound is when the music in a film matches what is happening, such as a very energetic song is playing while there is a chase scene.
contrapuntal
Contrapuntal sound is the opposite to parallel, it is when sound does not match what is happening, a classic example of this would be in the film 'jaws' when the people are partying on a beach, but the music is very dramatic and serious as the shark approaches.
offscreen
Offscreen sound is pretty self explanatory, it is when there is sound off screen that we can hear, it is usually when something is happening, similar to a wood chopper or people talking, it adds to the realism of the scene by having more things happening within the world besides what we can actually see.
onscreen
Onscreen sound is the opposite to offscreen, it is sound that we can hear, whilst also seeing it, such as someone speaking or a gun shot, as the gun is usually in the scene