Sound.

Sound.

Diegetic sound.

Diegetic sound is sound where the source is visible on screen or where the source is implied to be present via the action in the film, e.g. voices of characters, sounds made by objects in the story and music coming from instruments in the frame. Diegetic sound can either be on-screen or off-screen depending on whether or not the source is within the frame. Another term for diegetic sound is 'actual sound'.

Non-diegetic sound.

Non-diegetic sound is sound that is not visible or not implies to be present via the action within the film, e.g. narrators commentary, sound effects added for dramatic effect and music/soundtracks/mood music. Non-diegetic sound is also known as 'commentary sound'.

Parallel sound.

Parallel sounds are sounds that match the scene, e.g. a happy scene may have the sounds of laughter within.

Contrapuntal sound.

Contrapuntal sound is the opposite to parallel. This would be sound which does not match the scene. If we was watching a happy scene, we would not genrally hear rock/emo music.