Audiovisual effect resulting from the visual revelation of the I-voice
Aesthetic
Audiovisual dissociation
Visual and audio information that are not following the same spatio-temporal continuum.
Classification of sounds
Natural sounds Water: rain, rivers, oceans and lakes, ice and snow, fountains, faucets, steam Air: wind (leaves, sand, window, etc…), storms and hurrica ...
Decentering
Effect resulting from a combination of audiovisual effect allowing the spectators to have no focus on the voice.
Decontextualisation
Sonic dissonance compared to the overall context, unexpected sounds in relation to the context coming into perception.
Depth of field
Distance between the nearest and furthest object that appears reasonably sharp on the image due to the mechanical and optic properties of the lense and sensor of the camera.
Elimination
Elimination refers to the absence of vocal sound even with visual signal
Emanation Speech
Use of speech common in film
Emotional inventory
Acoustic expression of emotional states
Empathetic sound
Sound that is being indifferent of the narrative situation
Extension
Spatial dimension of the filmic sound
External logic (of the audiovisual flow)
Soundtrack that does not follow the narrative and does not tend to fluctuate organically considering the latest
Film sound colour spectrum
Classification tool to proceed to the Murch’s density-clarity mixing method
For-me-ness
The quality of a sound with a high ratio of direct to reflected sound
Listening modes
Conscious act of focusing on sound. There are three types, semantic, causal and reduced.
Loss of intelligibility
Impossibility of extracting meaning from sound, voice
M.S.I.
Materialising sound indices: all little details in sound occurrence that will make the event appear more real in the cinematic world
Set design and props
Environment that surrounds the actors and makes the visual diegesis for the audience.
Silence
Near zero degree of sound.
Sound balance
Balance between all sound sources
Sound design
Overall sonic components and their conceptual arrangement as part of the film narrative.
Sound object
Sound constructed from one or more elements to create a full filmic impact.
Sound qualities
Major attributes of a given sound.
Suspension
Extreme case of null extension, suppression of sounds that are naturally expected in a scene.
Ambiance
E.A.S.
E.A.S. or Elements of Auditory Settings refer to the punctual sound residing in the ambient sounds.
Establishing sound
Sound that establishes, from the very beginning of a scene, the general character of the surrounding
Extension
Spatial dimension of the filmic sound
On the air
Sound transmitted by Tvs, radios, etc in film space with no subject to the natural law of sound propagation.
Room tone
Raw atmosphere sound of a room, including electrical hums, traffic background, weather sound, etc…
Soundscape
Characteristic types of sound heard in a given environment at a given time.
Territory sound
Overall sounds produced by the diegetic world, usually perceived as background sound.
Cognitive processes
Auditory hierarchy
Three levels on which sound commands our attention based on the Gestalt principle of figure and ground
Backtracking
The quantity of information retained by the spectator, either in the short term or long term memory.
Bottom up perception
Absolute perception; information focused and not influenced by anything else
Language identification
The ability to identify other languages, mostly foreign when not subtitled.
Modes of spectator awareness
Film spectatorship operates in three modes: story-awareness, medium-awareness, and world-awareness
Multimodal perception
Perception that incorporates several sensorial inputs; in the case of cinema, sight and hearing mainly.
Narrative schema
Describes how an audience collects a series of episode into a focused causal chain.
Persistence
Spectator willingness to fill in or ignore some information to maintain a particular spatial and/or temporal context.
Quotation
Semantic confirmation of the reference of a sonic ocurrence.
Six cognitive dimensions
Inherently linked with the narrative schema, it explains how the audience participates in the reconstruction of meaning in film.
Temporal and spatial order
Audience cognitive construction of time, space and causality through the compilation of two parts at the time.
Top down perception
Relative perception; influenced by knowledge or expectations.
Density
Drone
Persistence of a constant sound layer with no apparent change in pitch and intensity.
Engulfment
Use of excessive volume of sound to put the recipient in a state that cannot be controlled cognitively
Masking
Sound completely or partially covered by another.
Split screen, divided screen, multi image
Frame divided into two or more parts so that different space or action can be presented simultaneously.
Superimposition
Layers of sound added to the general soundtrack.
Visual superimposition
One image, and sometimes more than one, placed over another to yield a double or multiple exposure.
Editing
Adjacency
The spaces denoted by two shots when they are in contact
Cross cutting
Editing techniques establishing actions occurring at the same time.
Cut
Fission of two separate shots.
Discontinuous editing
Set of rules and conventions that maintain spatial and temporal continuity, allowing the audience to experience a smooth and concrete physical narration.
Dissolve
A dissolve is the result of a shot fading out while another is fading in, this creates a link between the two.
Eye-follow-ear effect
Editing technique that reveal visually a sound that has already been heard in the offscreen
Eyeline match
Shot revealing something that a character has seen (offscreen) in the previous shot
Fade
Change in the relative degree of darkness and lightness, the amount of contrast and the degree of clarity in a visual image
False eyeline match
Misleading the audience in showing a visual event not related to a previous character glance
Inclusion
Space of one shot included in the space of another
Jump cut
Visual cut that omits the temporal continuity of a sequence for the narrative content.
Match on action
Visual cut that preserves the action as a whole throughout a sequence.
Montage
Sequence of sound and images that omit temporal continuity, often put together symbolically.
Prolongation
Two shots that are not adjacent but connected by an itinerary.
Sound advance
Introduction of a sound before the image to which it is associated.
Tempo and cutting rate
Relative length of shots making the sequence, scenes and ultimately the whole film.
Wipe
Alternative version of a fade.
Emotional
Anempathetic sound
Sound that follows the narrative situation at an emotional level
Anticipation
Viewers’ expectation in an occurrence (visual or aural)
Archetypal sound
Sounds that are embedded in the human collective unconscious; carrying a kind of semantic meaning with them
External logic (of the audiovisual flow)
Soundtrack that does not follow the narrative and does not tend to fluctuate organically considering the latest
Impact of Musical genres
Physical, mental and emotional impact of musical genres
Rendered sound
Sound used in order to emphasize emotions conveyed by the event on screen.
Reprise
Repetition of a musical motif
Sound reference
Sound carrying meaning considering context and emotional baggage.
Subjective openness
Kind of trance that can be experienced by music listeners, lowering the threshold of belief required to open to the diegetic world.
Suspension
Extreme case of null extension, suppression of sounds that are naturally expected in a scene.
U.S.O.
Unidentifiable Sound Object: sound that cannot be identified by the listener.
Filmic and narrative architecture
Diegesis
Everything part of the story world; everything that can be seen and heard by the characters themselves.
Extra diegetic
Diegetic space which extend from the regular diegetic space; a common example is found in dream sequences. World = diegetic space Dream = extra diegetic spa ...
Film modes and genres
Specific colouration and function that give meaning to a scene or the film as a whole
Impossible space
A space that is deemed impossible to exist in the diegetic space of the film
Meta diegetic
A further extension of the extra diegetic space.
Multimodal perception
Perception that incorporates several sensorial inputs; in the case of cinema, sight and hearing mainly.
Narration
Methods of narrative exposition, how time and space are dealt with in the larger film structure.
Narrative
Way of comprehending space, time and causality.
Non diegetic
Elements that are not part of the story world per se.
Offscreen
Space implied by the physical limitation of the screen, the rest of the diegetic world.
Onscreen
Visual window into the diegetic world.
Source-connected sound
Another term to define the visual connection of a sonic event.
Source-disconnected sound
Another term to define the lack of visual connection of a sonic event.
Vococentrism
Character of anything focusing mainly on the voice.
Framing
180 degree rule
Filmic guideline dictating that reciprocating characters in the same scene always need to have the same spatial relationship to each other.
Close up
Visual display through framing of a small part of the figure of an object, person, etc…
Extreme close up
Displays a small part’s details of an object, person, etc…
Extreme long shot
Displays a large area but details can become less-defined
Following shot
Shot that follows an action, character, etc…
Framing angle
Angle of vision dictated by the camera placement
Framing dimension and shape
Physical limitations of the screen
Framing height
Height of vision dictated by the camera placement
Framing level
Level of vision dictated by the camera placement
Freeze frame
Image content that does not expose any temporality
Long shot
Displays a large area in which only important elements are visible.
Match on action
Visual cut that preserves the action as a whole throughout a sequence.
Medium close up
Displays small parts of the figure of an object, person, etc… in case of a human being, usually from the head to the shoulders.
Medium long shot
Displays the full figure of an object, person, etc… and its setting for the action.
Mobile framing
Displays areas that change all framing elements; It refreshes the onscreen-offscreen space temporally, it reveals space.
Static framing
Displays an area that does not change; all framing elements stays the same.
Gestalt principles
Auditory hierarchy
Three levels on which sound commands our attention based on the Gestalt principle of figure and ground
Belongingness
A single sound component can usually be assigned to one source at the time
Common fate
Perceptive effect that dictates that one change in several sounds at the same time will affect the all group. Characteristics: Can be applied to individ ...
Figure and ground
Notion explaining that the perception of similar individual sound becomes a group when three are perceived at the same time
Good continuation
A single sound change in frequency, intensity, location or spectrum is usually smooth and continuous rather than impulsive and abrupt.
Law of closure
Perceptive phenomenon that joint two separate entities (ex: lines lying along the same trajectory).
Law of proximity
Perceptive phenomenon that groups separate entities or events.
Law of Similarity
Perceptive phenomenon that groups the same entities or events even with considerable break in time.
Mnemo-perceptive
Anamnesis
Effect of remembrance brought by the perception of a sound
Asyndeton
Selective remembrance in a dense sonic environment; perceptive or memory deletion of a sound or a group of sound in an audible whole.
Delocalisation
One’s error in recognition of the locale of a given a sound event.
Hyperlocalisation
Perceptive effect linked to the irresistible visual focus of a sound source by the person experiencing a sound.
Phonomnesis
Sound heard not physically but mentally.
Multi-modal
Added value
Expressive or informative value that the sound supplements to the image and vice versa
Audiovisual dissociation
Visual and audio information that are not following the same spatio-temporal continuum.
Synchresis
Perception that a certain sound belongs to the visual experience.
Synchronisation point
Meeting of a sound event and a sight event.
Narrative
Another voice
Audiovisual effect resulting from the visual revelation of the I-voice
Archetype
Universally understood character behaviour or elements
Classification of sounds
Natural sounds Water: rain, rivers, oceans and lakes, ice and snow, fountains, faucets, steam Air: wind (leaves, sand, window, etc…), storms and hurrica ...
Clichés
Element that have been overused.
Colours
Colours that are used and/or underlined as part of the image track
Context variables
The factors, aspects and their variables that affect and determine the context of a scene.
Decontextualisation
Sonic dissonance compared to the overall context, unexpected sounds in relation to the context coming into perception.
Dialogue variables
Type Examples Word choice Sentence structure Rhythm Education High Low Wide vocabulary range Limited vocabulary Precise sy ...
Editing
Construction of the film spatio-temporal continuity
Exposition
Act of revealing information to the audience
Expressive visual content
Emotions that can be felt through the visual content of the image
Flashback
Temporal window within the diegesis that reveal a past event to the spectators
Flashforward
Temporal window within the diegesis that reveal a future event to the spectators
I-voice
Non diegetic voice of the narrator, usually dead, etc…
Impact of Musical genres
Physical, mental and emotional impact of musical genres
Internal logic (of the audiovisual flow)
Soundtrack that follows the narrative and tends to fluctuate organically considering the latest
Internal sounds
Subjective sounds; physical and/or mental interiority of a character
Listening modes
Conscious act of focusing on sound. There are three types, semantic, causal and reduced.
Loss of intelligibility
Impossibility of extracting meaning from sound, voice
M.S.I.
Materialising sound indices: all little details in sound occurrence that will make the event appear more real in the cinematic world
Montage
Sequence of sound and images that omit temporal continuity, often put together symbolically.
Narrative cueing
Any types of information helping the audience to orient to the setting, character and/or narrative events providing a particular point of view
Reprise
Repetition of a musical motif
Screaming point
Precise moment of maximum impact in context of a story
Silence
Near zero degree of sound.
Sound design
Overall sonic components and their conceptual arrangement as part of the film narrative.
Sound imagery
Parallels to the figures of speech that semantic and/or rendered sound can have.
Subjectification
Narrative elements presented from the perceptual perspective of a character.
Titles
Revelation of information to the viewer through text onscreen
Physical / acoustic
Cut out
The Cut out effect refers to the sonic difference of ambiance sounds when passing from a place to another. For instance, a person going from a busy café to a qu ...
Doppler Effect
Physical modification of a sound when in motion
Point of audition sound
Sound identified by its physical characteristics as it might be heard from a character within the film.
Resonance
Room shape, dimensions and surfaces that gives emphasis to certain frequencies
Reverberation
Reflections of the sound emission on the surfaces of the surrounding space.
Scale matching
Sound and image correlating in terms of their dimension.
Sound colouration
Frequency content added by the environment to a perceived signal.
Sound distance
The amount of loudness and high frequencies remaining in the emitting sound that allows the listener to perceive its distance.
Sound movement
The alteration of distance and directionality that provides us enough information to detect its movement.
Sound qualities
Major attributes of a given sound.
Sound scale
Apparent size attributed to an object, character or event by the characteristics of the sound they make.
Spatial signature
Testimony provided by every sound to the spatial circumstances of its production.
Psychoacoustic processes
Directionality
If using a multispeaker projection, a sound coming from the right speaker will reach the right ear first, creating a temporal delay and sound shadow in the left ear; making us perceive upon hearing that the sound is coming from the right hand side.
Habituation
Tiring of the auditory nerves that result in a loss of awareness of a particular sound
Integration time of sound
Time for the hearing system to register the full volume of a sound.
Masking
Sound completely or partially covered by another.
Temporal resolution of sound
Ability to detect sound changes over time.
Recording
A.D.R.
All dialogues that have been recorded in studio once to the image track have been captured
Back voice
Sound perspective of a person heard as if speaking with his back facing the listener.
Dead sound
A dry sound is a sound which is incorporating little or no sound waves reflections.
Dialogue recording and post production
Any recording added to the footage in post production.
Direct sound
Sound recorded on location, it can be close or back captured.
Foley sound
All sounds that have been recorded in studio from a Foley artist
For-me-ness
The quality of a sound with a high ratio of direct to reflected sound
Frontal voice
Voice heard from a frontal perspective.
I-voice
Non diegetic voice of the narrator, usually dead, etc…
Live sound
All sounds that incorporate enough room reflections and colouration.
Location sound
Sound recorded on the set live
Point of audition
Point with which the sound perspective is heard in a filmic situation.
Real sound
Sound capture that includes the attributes of the space in which it is recorded.
Room tone
Raw atmosphere sound of a room, including electrical hums, traffic background, weather sound, etc…
Rumble
Sound of the needle added to the music in vinyls
Selective
Asyndeton
Selective remembrance in a dense sonic environment; perceptive or memory deletion of a sound or a group of sound in an audible whole.
Attraction
Process of instant focus on a particular sound in the audible whole.
Cocktail party
Perceptual ability with which a listener can focus on a conversation in a busy sonic environment Characteristics: Active focus of the viewer The dens ...
Synecdoche
Selective listening with which the listener is able to valorise one element over others.
Selective
Asyndeton
Selective remembrance in a dense sonic environment; perceptive or memory deletion of a sound or a group of sound in an audible whole.
Attraction
Process of instant focus on a particular sound in the audible whole.
Cocktail party
Perceptual ability with which a listener can focus on a conversation in a busy sonic environment Characteristics: Active focus of the viewer The dens ...
Synecdoche
Selective listening with which the listener is able to valorise one element over others.
Semantic
Cause – effect relationship
A cause must precede an effect
Clichés
Element that have been overused.
Dialogue variables
Type Examples Word choice Sentence structure Rhythm Education High Low Wide vocabulary range Limited vocabulary Precise sy ...
Editing
Construction of the film spatio-temporal continuity
Editing dialectics
Human ability in wielding and extracting meaning from consecutive shots, sequence and ultimately the whole film
Emotional inventory
Acoustic expression of emotional states
Establishing shot
Establishes the environment of a scene
Establishing sound
Sound that establishes, from the very beginning of a scene, the general character of the surrounding
Generic sound
Sound that clearly represents a specific, easily recognisable type of sound event, but without salient particularities.
Group music
Music that is used in particular events coordinating the emotions of a group of people (ex: marching, rites, war, etc…).
Imitation
Sound consciously reproduced considering a reference
Listening modes
Conscious act of focusing on sound. There are three types, semantic, causal and reduced.
Quotation
Semantic confirmation of the reference of a sonic ocurrence.
Scale matching
Sound and image correlating in terms of their dimension.
Semantic sound
Sound providing information about the narrative.
Sound imagery
Parallels to the figures of speech that semantic and/or rendered sound can have.
Sound qualities
Major attributes of a given sound.
Sound reference
Sound carrying meaning considering context and emotional baggage.
Sound scale
Apparent size attributed to an object, character or event by the characteristics of the sound they make.
Subjective
Digression
Sonic occurrence that change the overall sound ambience without affecting memory.
Internal sounds
Subjective sounds; physical and/or mental interiority of a character
Point of audition sound
Sound identified by its physical characteristics as it might be heard from a character within the film.
Repulsion
Sound that produces an attitude of rejection in its listener.
Ubiquity
Difficulty or impossibility in the identification of a sound source.
Synchronal
Freeze frame
Image content that does not expose any temporality
Incursion
Sound occurrence that modifies the event and the behaviour of its participants.
Repetition
Successive appearance of a sound
Syntopic
180 degree rule
Filmic guideline dictating that reciprocating characters in the same scene always need to have the same spatial relationship to each other.
Acousmatic motion
Motion from the visualised to the non visualised field and vice versa
Acousmatic sounds
Sound heard without visualising the source; can be applied to any sound
Acousmatisation
Sound moving from the visualised to the non-visualised field.
Acousmètre
Voice remaining in the non-visualised field
Character glance
Orientation of the look of a character onscreen; its direction orients the audience to something in the diegesis and enables to build spatial relationships within a scene
Continuity editing
Set of rules and conventions that maintain spatial and temporal continuity, allowing the audience to experience a smooth and concrete physical narration.
De-acousmatisation
Bringing of a non visualised event or character on to the screen
Establishing shot
Establishes the environment of a scene
Impact sound
Impulsive sound usually expected through visuals or context.
Intrusion
Sound or group of sound inside a protected space that create a feeling of contextual violation when perceived.
Multilingualism and foreign language
Use of any other language than the film’s original
Set design and props
Environment that surrounds the actors and makes the visual diegesis for the audience.
Shot-reverse shot
Features of the continuity editing method that exposes a character looking at another, and then, the opposite when the action permits
Sound hermeneutics
Notion that encompasses the question and answer that the audience might ask of a sound occurrence.
Technological / practical
Clear density
Film sound mixing rule that apply across the colour spectrum to reach a dense but still clear mix.
Film sound colour spectrum
Classification tool to proceed to the Murch’s density-clarity mixing method
Foley sound
All sounds that have been recorded in studio from a Foley artist
Rendered sound
Sound used in order to emphasize emotions conveyed by the event on screen.
Semi sync
A characteristic of sound that is apparently synchronised with the onscreen actions of secondary importance.
Sound object
Sound constructed from one or more elements to create a full filmic impact.
Worldising
Incorporation of a post production sound into the physical diegetic world.
Visual
180 degree rule
Filmic guideline dictating that reciprocating characters in the same scene always need to have the same spatial relationship to each other.
Character glance
Orientation of the look of a character onscreen; its direction orients the audience to something in the diegesis and enables to build spatial relationships within a scene
Colours
Colours that are used and/or underlined as part of the image track
Depth of field
Distance between the nearest and furthest object that appears reasonably sharp on the image due to the mechanical and optic properties of the lense and sensor of the camera.
Impact sound
Impulsive sound usually expected through visuals or context.
Magnetisation
Mental spatialisation of a sonic event onscreen independent of its sonic location in the cinema space
Mattes
Visual shape that covers the screen disabling the sense of vision to the audience
Shot-reverse shot
Features of the continuity editing method that exposes a character looking at another, and then, the opposite when the action permits
Split screen, divided screen, multi image
Frame divided into two or more parts so that different space or action can be presented simultaneously.
Visual modulation of time
Reproduction speed of a visual track.
Visual superimposition
One image, and sometimes more than one, placed over another to yield a double or multiple exposure.
Vocal
A.D.R.
All dialogues that have been recorded in studio once to the image track have been captured
Acousmètre
Voice remaining in the non-visualised field
Debureau effect
The Debureau effect is resulting from the voluntary mutism of a character. It is the spectators’ expectation to hear the sound of his voice.
Elimination
Elimination refers to the absence of vocal sound even with visual signal
Emanation Speech
Use of speech common in film
Language identification
The ability to identify other languages, mostly foreign when not subtitled.
Mutism
Voluntary silence of a character.
Proliferation
Layers of vocal sounds added to the general soundtrack
Prosody
Tone and rhythm used by a person when speaking.
Screaming point
Precise moment of maximum impact in context of a story
Submerged speech
Dialogue covered by the territory sounds of its originating surrounding
Superimposition
Layers of sound added to the general soundtrack.
Textual speech
Speech having the power to make visible the images that it evokes.
Theatrical speech
Speech having the purpose to inform spectators and affect other characters on dramatic and psychological levels.
Vococentrism
Character of anything focusing mainly on the voice.
Voice personality
Formant attributes of the voice that can provide identification of a character type.