Audio
Everything heard: dialogue, effects, music, silence — and the line between sound the characters share and sound they can't hear.
- audio
- reference
- technical-code
The sound design of a film: dialogue, effects, ambience, score, and silence. The load-bearing analytical distinction is diegetic versus non-diegetic — sound inside the story world versus sound addressed straight to the audience — which has its own note: Non-diegetic sound.
What to look for
What does the film let you hear that characters can't? When does sound arrive before its image (sound bridge)? What is conspicuously silent?
Canonical cases
Herrmann's strings-only Psycho score and the shower cue that almost didn't exist — Herrmann scored the shower against orders. And the sharpest audio hinge in the wiki: Alice Faye crooning "You'll Never Know" cut against Mott the Hoople at full glam volume — You'll Never Know, then Mott the Hoople — two eras of sound doing the work of a whole backstory in Alice — the prologue.
Sources
Bordwell & Thompson — Film Art on sound; Rebello on the scoring history.