Differentiate diegetic and non-diegetic sound with examples.

• A. Diegetic sound originates from the film's world (dialogue, footsteps, on-screen music).
• B. Non-diegetic sound originates from within the film's world.
• C. Diegetic sound is always prerecorded as a soundtrack.
• D. Non-diegetic sound is the same as ambient room noise.

Answer: (A)

Diegetic sound has a source inside the film's world; the characters can hear it and we typically see or infer where it comes from. Examples include dialogue, footsteps, and music that originates from something within the scene—like a radio playing in the room or a band performing on screen. This matches the best answer because it accurately describes diegetic sound and gives concrete examples. Non-diegetic sound, in contrast, comes from outside the film's world—sounds crafted for the audience's experience, such as a musical score or a narrator's commentary that the characters don’t hear. The other statements blur where the sound comes from or mislabel diegetic versus non-diegetic (for instance, thinking diegetic sound must be prerecorded or that ambient room noise is non-diegetic).