Diegetic
Diegetic: adjective derived from "diegesis," an ancient Greek noun meaning "fiction," "plot," "story." Thus, diegetic means what belongs to the story. The character of the wizard in The Wizard of Oz is a diegetic character, because he exists within the fictional world of the movie.
Diegetic sound (CHION 2009, 474) means that such sound belongs to the fictional world; it can be heard by the diegetic characters.
- Diegetic sound, diegetic music are extremely broad categories: for instance on-the-air sounds, or music, ambient sound, are typically diegetic, even if they are very often added at the post-production level (post-synchronization, Foley).
- Examples of diegetic music in films are extremely numerous: every time a character plays a music, whether from a gramophone, a CD player, a juke-box, etc, or play himself or herself, such music is diegetic.
In Dishonored (Josef von Sternberg, USA, 1934) the main protagonist is often seen (and heard) playing at the piano, a typical case of diegetic music performed by a diegetic character. The diegetic nature of this music can also strengthen a sense of spatial mapping: here the woman playing at the piano is unaware of the officer sneaking into her apartment. Because he is in another part of her apartment, the diegetic sound of the piano sounds lower. The diegetic music, being played continuously, provides temporal continuity and helps the viewer to get a sense of the space(s) directly adjacent to the salon in which the woman plays the piano: see point of audition.
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