General Knoweldge

GENERAL

Analysis: the process of splitting up an action, an event or an idea in order to understand how it works

Synthesis: the process of bringing the pieces of an analysis together to make a whole

Diegesis: the fictional world created by a film, television programme or other story, for example the Wild West, Middle Earth.

Synchronised: from Greek words meaning 'in time with'; refers to sounds synchronised with images. Sync sound is recorded at the same time as the image, and played back at the same time. Non-synch sound is either recorded separately, or played back separately (for example in a voice-over) or both.

SOUND

Soundscape: the whole sound environment

Silence: the absence of sound, and we bet you can't achieve it (short of a visit to outer space)

Volume: how loud or soft a sound is

Timbre: how harsh or soothing a sound is

Pitch: how high or low a sound is

Rhythm: the dynamic movements of sound in time

Melody: the musical organisation of sounds in time

Texture: the the intermixing of sounds, for example in musical harmony, where several voices blend together, or in a film soundtrack where cars, guns and street noise combine to provide a physical sense of the location

Noise: random sound

Music: organised sound

Dialogue: the sound of speaking voices

Sound effects: all other noises used in the audiovisual media, radio and recorded music.

on-screen: sound whose source is visible in the image, for example a radio or an actor

off-screen: sound whose source is not visible in the image, for example an approaching car, a telephone caller or a voice-over

diegetic: diegesis is the fictional world constructed by a film, the world in which the characters live, for example the Wild West, the Starship Enterprise, the Spanish Main, or even a 'real' place used as the setting for fiction. Diegetic sound is then sound explained by the fictional world of the film, for example street noise,music played on record players, dialogue between characters.These are sound that are to do with the film.

non-diegetic: sound which cannot be explained as deriving from the fictional world of the film or TV programme, such as incidental music or a voiceover by someone who is not a character in the story.However non-diagetic can sometimes mean that is not part of the scene and its added after wards to create atmosphere.

synch: (short for 'synchronised'): synch sound is sound recorded at the same time as the image

non-synch: (or post synch): sound recorded separately from the image and dubbed onto the soundtrack during postproduction, for example almost all the sound in an animated film or TV programme, non-diegetic music, or special sound effects such as footsteps which are difficult to record (you would hear the sound recordist as well as the actor walking)