Sunday, September 24, 2006

242 - Subjective Sound

A student asked about the assignment, and I suggested using subjective sound. She responded:

Alright, so to show my ignorance I had to ask 3 kids in our class to confirm my definition of subjective sound and none of them could quite define what it is. I'm guessing it refers to non-diegetic sound, something that isn't necessarily related to the picture but evokes an emotional response? Am I way off?

From Lecture 1:

Subjective sound - using the wrong sound for the right (emotional) effect, even if it is completely illogical. Frequently it is layered with reality-based sounds and/or played at a subliminal level.

So yes, it could be considered non-diegetic. A good example would be the earthquake-like rumble in the Oval Office scenes in Oliver Stone's NIXON. Not at all logical, but very effective.

2 comments:

GabilĂș Escribe said...

Thanks a lot.
I couldn't find a simple definition for subjective sounds.
This was very helpful!

Bondelev said...

Thanks for the comment.

You could also say subjective sound plays a psychological perspective instead of reality.