Talking About Sound

Diegetic sound is sound that occurs within the story. Dialgue is diegetic. If a character's alarm clock goes off, the sound of the alarm is diegetic. In Rebel..., when Jim turns on the radio and hears the song dedicated to him "from Buzz," the radio and the song are diegetic. Diegetic sound is part of the action of the film.

Can the characters in the movie hear the sound? If yes, then it is diegetic sound.

Nondiegetic sound is sound that occurs outside of the story. If there is a narrator, then the narration is nondiegetic (because the people in the movie cannot hear the narrator). Music that the characters cannot hear is nondiegetic. At the beginning of Rebel..., when Jim is playing with the monkey, he cannot hear the music that we (the audience) can here.

Can the characters in the movie not hear the sound? If yes, then the sound is nondiegetic.

"The movie uses nondiegetic sound well. The music that plays during certain scenes helps to make the scenes more emotionally powerful."

"The movie uses diegetic and nondiegetic sound for humor. The nondiegetic narrator will say something, then a character in the movie will say the same thing."