What is sound design in film?

First, we were taught about diegetic sound. This consists of sounds that we would hear if we were in the scene aka this is what the characters in the scene can hear. An example of this is a bell ringing. Ambient sound is one category of diegetic sound. This could be chatter in the background of a café scene for example. This is crucial in helping establish location. 

The next diegetic sound used in film is dialogue/ conversation. This typically happens between character talking to one another in a scene. Finally, there is ‘Foley sound,’ which is another name for sound effects, for example someone walking. These sounds are created by people called Foley artists, who record the sounds effects separately from the film footage.

The second type of sound we were taught is non diegetic sound. This sound cannot be heard by the characters in the scene and there are two types. Firstly, there is ‘voice over.’ This can be heard by the characters, but it can also be non-diegetic. It is essentially narration. Secondly there is soundtrack, which is often used for ‘mood building,’ e.g happy music if there is a happy moment in the scene. Theme music is under the category of soundtrack.

Theme music has a recognisable melody upon which part, if not all of the composition is based. A Leitmotif is used in soundtrack as a recurring theme which is composed and associated with a specific person or theme. It is used to indicate specific characteristics of a person e.g major/ heroic music for the hero and villainous minor music for the villain.

Here is an example of me incorporating soundtrack into my short film sequence I made last week.