Final Terminology Flashcards
main title
refers to the music played at the beginning, during the opening credits. This music is very important because it sets the tone of the whole film.
underscore
refers to the music used to accompany a scene with dialogue. This music is almost always instrumental and usually unobtrusive; it is there anyway to “tell” the audience to pay attention to what is being said
cue
short segment of music meant for a particular scene
hit point
specific moment that the music acknowledges, such as a cut or a line of dialogue, for either a dramatic or a comical effect.
Diegetic music
refers to music that exists within the narrative of the film, in other words, music that the characters in the story can hear. For example, if two people talk and put some music on, this would be an example of diegetic music. Both the characters and the audience can hear the same music. Diegetic sounds include dialogues as well as sound effects that are in direct relation with a character, such as the sound of a person typing on a typewriter, a window that a character closes, or a knock on a door, etc.
Non-diegetic music
is the opposite of diegetic music. It is music that only benefits the audience, the characters cannot hear it. It can include narration and added sound effects. Underscoring is almost always non-diegetic as well.
temp score
A temp score (or temp music) is an existing piece of music that helps set the tone of the movie as a whole and guide the composer as to what type of music needs to be written.
Source music
Sometimes, a composer and/or a filmmaker may decide to keep preexisting music in the film. This is called source music. Source music can be used either as diegetic or non-diegetic music.
Original underscore
If a director decides to have only original music composed for the movie, then we call that an original underscore
