Thematic list – offscreen

Another voice

Audiovisual effect resulting from the visual revelation of the I-voice

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

Empathetic sound

Sound that is being indifferent of the narrative situation

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.

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.

Suspension

Extreme case of null extension, suppression of sounds that are naturally expected in a scene.

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

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.

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.

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.

Adjacency

The spaces denoted by two shots when they are in contact

Cross cutting

Editing techniques establishing actions occurring at the same time.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 ...

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

Screaming point

Precise moment of maximum impact in context of a story

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

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.