DPHU1005 Chap.7 Film Sound
Film Sound
The soundtrack has three components, speech, music and noise, and each can be placed inside or outside the story world and on or off screen.
The Week 6 lecture introduces these distinctions, and because Week 7 is a flexibility week with no classes, they are discussed in the Week 8 tutorial with two readings: Bordwell and Thompson's chapter on sound in the cinema and Michel Chion's chapter on how sound is projected onto image.
Chion's idea of added value, the expressive effect that sound lends to an image, is the key concept.
The Week 6 screening is Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974), about a surveillance expert who records a couple's conversation and replays it until he believes he understands it. Almost every scene turns on something heard rather than seen, which makes it ideal for practising how to write about sound.
This chapter maps the types of film sound, introduces acousmatic sound, empathetic and anempathetic music and the sound bridge, and prepares you for the second short answer in the Week 8 tutorial and for Quiz 3.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Three components: speech, music and noise
- 02
Diegetic and nondiegetic; on screen and off screen
- 03
Silence and offscreen sound as deliberate choices
- 04
Chion: added value and acousmatic sound
- 05
Empathetic and anempathetic music
- 06
The Conversation: listening as the drama
- 07
The sound bridge and other transitions
- 08
Writing about sound by timing and labelling
Worked example · free
Labelling sound in a scene
- +1Market chatter and the radio song are diegetic, with the radio visible on screen.
- +1When the song continues into the office, louder and cleaner, it has shifted toward nondiegetic score.
- +1The carry-over across the cut works as a sound bridge between two spaces.
- +1Effect: the song links the man's crowded outer world to his isolated inner one.
Key terms
- Nondiegetic sound
- Sound that comes from outside the story world, such as a musical score or an unseen narrator, which the characters cannot hear.
- Offscreen sound
- Diegetic sound whose source is not visible in the frame, extending the story space beyond its edges.
- Added value
- Michel Chion's term for the expressive effect sound gives an image, so that the effect seems to belong to the image itself.
- Acousmatic sound
- Sound heard without its source being seen, which can create curiosity, unease or mystery.
- Sound bridge
- Sound from one scene that begins before the cut or continues after it, linking two shots or spaces.
- Anempathetic music
- Music that continues indifferently to the emotion of the scene, often making violence or grief feel colder.
Film Sound FAQ
What is the difference between diegetic and nondiegetic sound?
Diegetic sound belongs to the story world, so characters could hear it, such as dialogue, a radio or footsteps. Nondiegetic sound comes from outside it, such as a score or an unseen narrator. A sound can be diegetic even when its source is off screen.
What does Chion mean by added value?
He argues that sound changes how we perceive an image so smoothly that we credit the image with the effect. A punch feels painful and a door feels heavy because of what we hear. In analysis, ask what a scene would lose if you watched it silently.
Why is The Conversation a key film for this topic?
Its central character is a surveillance expert, and its plot turns on a recorded line whose meaning changes when the stress shifts. Because we hear the tape as he does, the film makes listening itself the drama and shows that sound is an interpretation rather than a neutral record.
When is the short answer on sound?
The second short answer is written in the Week 8 tutorial, after the flexibility week, on the Week 6 lecture topic and screening. Expect to apply the readings by Bordwell and Thompson and by Chion to The Conversation.
How do I describe music in a scene?
Say whether the music is diegetic or nondiegetic, then describe its qualities, such as tempo, volume, instrumentation and whether it rises or falls with the action. Finally, say whether it supports the emotion of the scene or works against it, and what that relationship adds to the image.
Assessment move
Rewatch one scene of The Conversation with your eyes closed and list every sound, then watch with the picture and add what each sound adds. Learn the types of film sound as a two-by-two grid. Before the Week 8 short answer, write two sentences applying Chion's added value to a specific moment, and time a full 40-minute answer during the flexibility week.
Working through Film Sound in DPHU1005? Sia is AskSia’s AI Arts and Humanities tutor — ask any DPHU1005 Film Sound question and get a clear, step-by-step explanation grounded in how DPHU1005 is taught and assessed. Read this chapter free, then take your hardest questions to Sia.
DPHU1001 Journalistic Voices and Values · DPHU1003 News Fundamentals · DPHU1007 Media, Society and Politics
