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Film & Television vocabulary · Sound and Music

Walla

Meaning in film & television, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In film & television, walla means: Background crowd chatter recorded or performed so that individual words are usually not clearly understood.

In Turkish: anlaşılmayan kalabalık konuşması

How it is used

Sound teams record walla to give public places a sense of human activity.

Example sentences

  1. The walla makes the empty restaurant sound full of quiet conversations.

    Background voices create a crowd without clear individual lines.

  2. Lower the walla when the detective begins the important phone call.

    Background chatter must not hide the key dialogue.

Common collocations

  • record walla
  • crowd walla
  • sound designThe creative work of creating, choosing and shaping all the sounds of a film so that they support the story and the atmosphere.
  • sound effectsRecorded or created sounds, other than dialogue and music, that are added to a film to make actions and places feel real, such as doors, cars, rain or explosions.

More terms: Sound and Music

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