Week 6: Enjoying Horror Discussion

1. Diegetic sound:

In this Buffy episode, the sounds of the conversation of the figures in this video are diegetic sounds.  These sounds are the voice of characters. For instance, in the video, a girl said “You do not care about what I think? You don’t ask about my day?” The conversation between the boy and girl told us the relationship between these two people. The diegetic sounds are the main part of the video and lead the development of the story. People could know what the story is talking about according to the diegetic sounds. Sometimes people’s stream or sacred sound allows the listener to know something scary happened.

2. Non-diegetic sound:

At the beginning of the video, there is a piece of music when a man is kissing the female student. This piece of pleasant music is non-diegetic sound. The music was added for making an atmosphere that matches the things happened in the story. The use of non-diegetic sounds strengthens the effects of videos. According to the pleasant music, listeners know the figures enjoy the kiss and know something beautiful is happening. The scary non-diegetic could make people feel more scared in the world of horror. Therefore, the non-diegetic sounds make happy stories happier and scared story more scared.

3.  Mise-en-scene

In this Buffy episode video, around 15:00, a person is brushing teeth. The telephone rings. There are sounds of steps and opening or closing of doors. We could call these sounds mise-en-scene. Because there are some change of the locations and the lights or decorations for changing locations should be different. From the sounds steps of the figures, listeners could know he/she changes his/her locations. The mise-en-scene could always contribute to the aesthetic of horror by expressing some unexpected sounds or change of locations. The things that people cannot see in some hidden locations could always scared people and let them experience the aesthetic of horror.

One thought on “Week 6: Enjoying Horror Discussion

  1. Hi there,

    Great post and thanks for sharing. I think you are selling diegetic sound a bit short regarding its impact on a film. I think its impact extends much further than simply telling what is happening in the story or providing dialogue. For example, diegetic sound can help bring emotion or suspense to a film. If in a horror movie it was very quiet and suddenly there was a loud bang; that is an example of diegetic sound creating thrilling suspense. I think you are right on point on your explanation of non-diegetic sound. I live the way you said, “non-diegetic sounds strengthens the effects of videos.” I haven’t thought of it that way before. Rather than creating effects/emotion, non-diegetic sounds enhance already existing effects and emotion. I think you could include a bit more detail in your explanation of mise-en-scene given that so much more goes into it than just sound, but it was a proper example.

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