I believe the initial scene of Eyes Wide Shut is an example for this. I am sure I've heard a fancy term for the use of a piece of soundtrack that turns out to be heard within the film itself. How is that called?
2 Answers
What you're looking for is called diegetic music, or more colloquially Source Music. Switching back and forth in a single scene is called a "diegetic switch", or "cross-over diegetic music".
TVTropes has other terms for various incarnations of this, some of which are probably "official" and others probably invented by the site's community, e.g.:
- 'Interscene diegetic': when the same song plays continuously, in-universe, across multiple scenes.
- "Left the Background Music On": a specific diegetic switch where the music starts out as background music, until one of the characters "notices" it and it becomes diegetic.
- "Theme Tune Cameo": (the other answer that gave this seems to have vanished) a specific form of diegetic music where it's the main title theme that later appears in-scene somewhere.
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This fits some Movies, but falls before the scope of others: The Long Goodbye, for one, uses it's 'Theme song' both diegetically and non. May 13, 2014 at 20:59
Any music heard as part of the 'reality' of the film's universe is called Source Music. I've never heard anyone say diegetic music on a production.
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that's not surprising, as it's the "scientific" term that's probably only used for artistic or analytical discussions, but it is the right term: filmsound.org/terminology/diegetic.htm Feb 15, 2017 at 19:52