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 # The Language of Film Sound

The distinction between diegetic and non-diegetic sound is a standard framework used by film critics and theorists to explain the relationship between a film's audio and its narrative world. Understanding this framework reveals how filmmakers manipulate sound to shape our emotional experience and immersion in a story.

Diegetic sound is produced within the implied world of the film. In these instances, the audience can specify or assume that characters in the narrative can also hear the sound. In the film industry, this is often referred to as source music. When the source of the sound is visible on the screen—such as the nonhuman musicians seen performing in the bar sequence of *Star Wars*—we call this visual source music. Sometimes the sound's source is not visible, but its presence is inferred. If a character is in a bar, for instance, the audience assumes musicians are playing on an unseen stage. Source music rarely matches every cue in the rest of a film; it typically only responds to extraordinary narrative events, such as musicians stopping their play when a fight breaks out.

Non-diegetic sound, by contrast, is produced from an unspecified external source and is not part of the characters' world. Film composers typically call this dramatic scoring or pure scoring. Common examples include orchestral strings playing during a romantic kiss, fast-paced music during car chases, or the famous "shark" theme in *Jaws* that signals menace to the audience. Unlike diegetic music, dramatic scoring is designed to maximally match visual events, moving concurrently with the action to guide the audience's emotional response.

While the diegetic/non-diegetic dichotomy is standard, many theorists argue it is insufficient to describe sound that falls between these categories, a technique known as source scoring. Source scoring starts as diegetic "source" music but transitions into a closer relationship with the narrative, matching the nuances of a scene like dramatic scoring. In *Dead Again*, a neighbor's piano scales begin as diegetic sound but become faster and more polished as a character's fear increases, acting like a dramatic score. In *Mississippi Masala*, a harmonica tune begins as dramatic scoring over one character but is later revealed as source music played by a different character in a separate location. The movie *Once* effectively blurs these lines even further, transitioning songs between diegetic, meta-diegetic (originating in a character's mind), and extra-diegetic (heard only by the audience) planes.

The technical execution of these sounds also impacts the audience's perception of narrative reality. Dialogue is often recorded with overhead boom mics to capture natural room reverb, which helps the audience "buy into the reality" of the characters' world. During filming, sound recordists prioritize capturing the actors' performances over ambient effects, as it is easier to add foley sounds like footsteps six weeks later than it is to re-record an actor. This careful balance between production and post-production creates seamless soundscapes that feel authentic while remaining precisely controlled.

Integrating songs into a film can create a "cinematic listening" experience that goes beyond simple recognition of melody. By using the "refrains of time," filmmakers catapult the viewer into a unique sensory experimentation of the world, where sound becomes not just an accompaniment to the image but an essential thread in the fabric of storytelling. The interplay between what we hear and what the characters hear shapes our understanding of their reality and our emotional connection to their journey.