Just to add a little to the Wee Con music panel observations on diegetic music, specifically the drumming of the British Navy member as the tender approaches the Revenge in 108.
We all remember how hard this moment hit the first time we heard it because the drumming isn’t really diegetic (within the show’s setting). The drumming begins as extra-diegetic, outside the world of the show, as we see a white flag raised, focalised through a telescope effect. We also hear the early guitar notes.
There’s then a trans-diegetic shift where the drumming from the musical score is lent in diegesis to the drummer. It’s around this point, our brains start to ask… ‘Isn’t this Fleetwood Mac?’, but the visual throws us slightly because we’re hearing the drum set to a visual within the diegetic setting.
It’s a technique which reminds us that what we are watching is artifice, a construct. That idea is continued as we see the capture of the Revenge Crew in choreographed slow motion, suggesting The Chain is both extra-diegetic, but also enmeshed with the diegetic events in-world, the characters moving in time with the score. (I think there’s an argument for a brief trans-diegetic moment with Frenchie and the guitar strains / lute too).
And it’s so emotive! The presentation of Ed, Stede and the Revenge Crew’s capture told in a grittier, more realistic way, just wouldn’t have contributed the same effect.
The Chain sequence is the moment many people claim broke their brains (👋 ), and they were hexed by OFMD. It’s the blurring of the diegetic and extra-diegetic that I think is part of the magic why.
@insteading has provided a summary here of further diegetic sound explored
Media analysis isn’t my strongest so please, those with expertise, jump in with anything to add



















