Planning Sounds - Miss Miller

Sound within films is just as important as the image as it helps to manipulate the mood, perspective and emotions of the audience as well as adding rhythm. It helps to build shock, surprise, suspense and tension in several different ways. For example, in a thriller film, if a sound is fast paced and loud then this may represent danger that the victim may be in or silence could represent the end of a characters life. Sound links in with images used by representing or emphasising on what the audience can see.Additionally, sound helps the audience to understand the characters as they represent their thoughts and emotions and sometimes what is about to happen to them. This keeps the audience more engaged in the film.                                                                                                                                   Sound in film is split up into several categories: diegetic sound is sound that is part of the narrative, for example dialogue or footsteps. Non-diegetic is the opposite and therfore it is sound that is not a part of the narrative and is edited in later, for example sound effects or music. When a sound is off-screen it means the audience cannot see where the source of the sound is while on-screen sound is when the audience can see the sound source. Planning sound is required in order to produce excellent sequences because it gives my group a chance to consider the different effects we can create for the audience using sound. It also helps us to create a guideline for our thriller sequence so we have a structure when creating it.

A Non-diegetic sound we have decided to use is the sound effect of a heartbeat. This will show the panic of the victim and will be played during the chase scene when the victim is running through the forest. I hope that this sound technique will portray the victims fear, stress and panic as the antagonist chases after her. I will ensure that the audience build a relationship with the victim throughout this sound as their heartbeat will be speeding up also and beating along with hers. This allows the audience to put themselves in the victims position  and understand the emotions they are feeling. This causes them to feel sympathetic towards them.  This is conventional to the thriller genre because it creates tension and suspense, making the audience wonder what all happen next.

We will also include several diegetic sounds such as screaming, heavy breathing and footsteps. All of these will also be included in the chase scene. This will emphasise the anxiety and fear of the victim, heightening the emotions so the viewer can see the sequence from her perspective. This will allow them to build a relationship with her because tension is being built and the viewer will feel uncertain and worried about the victim. They hope that she will escape and are scared that she will not. These sounds are typically used in the thriller genre as they provoke suspense and tension.

The contrapuntal sound my group has decided to use in our sequence is music that is positive or possibly 'happy' or 'cheerful'.  This will be played when the victim is being dragged back to the house by the killer after the chase scene. This juxtaposes the two themes because the sound does not match the expectations. The happy music is not expected when a aggressive act is taking place. The music conveys the antagonists happiness as it is clear he is enjoying carrying out the gruesome activities on innocent victims and he is glad to have finally caught her after she attempted to escape. This emphasises on his sadistic nature. He has now overpowered the victim which is demonstrated by the happy music overpowering the tension building sounds of her escaping (footsteps and heartbeat etc). The audience now understands that there is no chance that the victim will survive and therefore feels pathos and sympathy. This is conventional to a thriller as it creates an unnatural atmosphere to highlight that the antagonists acts are also unnatural. This implies uncertainty and disturbance which in turn creates suspense.

The off screen sounds that will be used in our sequence are a creaking door and the same door shutting. The creaking door will take place when  the girl is trying to escape the house and the slamming of the door will be when she escapes and the killer notices she has gone. The sound of the door creaking highlights the nervousness and anticipation of the victim as she is desperately trying to be silent so she can escape without being caught. This sound provokes panic as the audience and vicitm wonder if the killer heard it. The sound of the door shutting may shock the audience as it will be a sudden loud sound thast may be accompanied by a non-deigetic bang. The audience will also feel nervous and worried for the victim as they know thatthe antagonist did hear that sopund that time and therefore he will attempt to chase after her. The sound symbolises the start of a chain of events that all increase tension more and more until the end of the sequence.

Our sequence will be more effective in terms of creating certain emotions and reactions through the use of sound because the audience will feel more engaged as they understand the emotions and thoughts of the characters more. Also, they are kept guessing of what will happen next when tension and suspence is built through thte use of sound and they may be shocked or scared when a loud sound takes place.  Sound is conventional in relation to the thriller genre because it helps to create shock, suspense and surprise. For example, suddenly cutting to silence after building tension will make the audience expect a 'jump scare.'

I found the planning useful in preparation for filming my opening thriller sequence because it gave the rest of my group and I an idea of what sounds we need to consider using to create certain effects in our sequence and make it successful. It also helped us to visualise the way our sequence will look and when we will add our desired sounds to the sequence. It hwlped us to understand how much sound we will have to edit in and how many will be created naturally as we film due to thinking about how many diegetic and non-diegetic sounds will be used.