One of my favourite film soundtracks is in Marvel’s 2014 film Guardians of the Galaxy, where it’s main character, played by Chris Pratt, has almost complete influence over the tracks played throughout. The film features a soundtrack consisting mostly of songs from the 1980s-1970s, taken from Pratt’s character’s Sony Walkman – one of his last pieces of memorabilia from Earth that he had before being abducted during his childhood years in the same era. The soundtrack also often works diegetically, as the music is often needle dropped into the scene by Pratt.

A needledrop moment in film is when a pre-existing song is played. This is often used to set the tone of a scene.

Diegetic: The news channel on the TV in the background throughout the whole scene.

Non-diegetic: The music in the background of the fighting scene between them and the zombies.

Diegetic: The news in the background (ambient sound), The smashing of objects (eg windows and records), Dialogue

Non-Diegetic: The music in the background of the fight scene

Diegetic: glass breaking, dialogue, the TV

Non-diegetic: music- to influence the atmosphere, sound effects on scene transition.

I enjoyed working on my joker project even though I was not in for most of the filming. I think our ideas for shots were good however there were a few continuity problems since we filmed a few shots on a different day (costume & lighting). Next time I would like to have a clear understanding of how to use Adobe Premiere Pro and prepare by knowing exactly what props and shots I would want to use.

Sound editor– refers to sound recorded for or created on set (pre-production)

Sound mixer– Controls the volume and tone of sound picked up by microphones in order to obtain the desired effects for recording.

synchronous sound– sound matched with action/ movements being shown.

asynchronous sound– not matched to a visual source.

leitmotif– reoccurring theme tune for characters, locations etc

needle drop– when a pre-existing song is added to a movie or show as a diegetic or non-diegetic sound.

atmos track– non-diegetic tune that sets mood

underscore–  a soft soundtrack theme that accompanies the action in a performance

ambience– diegetic sounds of the shown location or place

diegetic sound– sounds that the characters can hear

non-diegetic sound– sounds that the characters can’t hear

needle drop- when a pre-existing song is played in a movie or show as either a diegetic or non-diegetic sound.

Example:

In American Psycho, Patrick Bateman plays ‘Hip to be square by Huey Lewis & The News’ as he is about to murder Paul Allen. The upbeat music contrasts his violent actions.

(Christiane F)

Diegetic- any sound that characters on screen can hear like dialogue in this instance

Non diegetic- any sounds that the audience can hear but the characters on screen can’t eg: creepy music when zombies are getting closer;

Needle drop: this is when a song that already exists is used in a movie; when the movie uses a song that wasn’t written in the soundtrack.

The shepherd tone: sound consisting of sine waves separated by octaves; this creates the auditory illusion of a tone that seems to increase or decrease in pitch but never actually gets higher or lower.

Leitmotif- music that connects and relates with the the situation, character or emotion.

Ambient sound- background sound like birds or rain

Sound perspective: the distance of a sound source given by its pitch, volume, timber etc.

Synchronous sound- sound that is matched with the actions and movement;

Asynchronous sound: use when the director wants to create tension- the viewer can hear the sound but does not hear its source.

Sound bridge- a sound/ soundtrack that is connected and blends in from a scene to another; eg- in The Matrix when the music from the club blends in with Neo’s alarm.