While soundtrack is often used by the general public to refer to popular music in a film, here, the soundtrack of a film refers to all audio that accompanies a motion picture. I will often use this term interchangeably with “sound for film” or “film sound.”

Sound design is a term that has both broad and specific meanings. It is sometimes used to refer to the specific job of creating new sounds (such as the sound of a lightsaber Star Wars). For our purposes, I will be using Leo Murray’s definition which is the “deliberate use of sound” (Murray 11). In other words, it is any intentional use of sound that contributes to the soundtrack.

The same problem arises with this term as above. On this website, sound designer refers to an individual who creates and shapes the soundtrack. This is particularly applicable because there is often only one person who handles post-production sound on a student short film (usually credited as sound designer). This role on a student film often encompasses many professional roles such as dialogue editor, sound effects editor, foley artist, and re-recording mixer.

In film and television, diegetic means that something is occurring within the context of the story. For our purposes, diegetic sound is sound that has a source in the world of the film and can be heard by the characters. Conversely, non-diegetic sound can only be heard by the audience.