On the page Visionary Pictures will illustrate the sound as a part of our trailer as well as the importance of it in other existing trailers and the effect it can have on the impact of a trailer. Sound highlights the atmosphere within a trailer and delivers the emotions felt throughout. During this task I will explore the production of sound in a trailer, but also analyse inspirations as real media texts.
INFLUENCES
These are some of our inspirations from past trailers. These trailers all have a different soundtracks to go along with their trailer, which enhance the horror mood and largely determine their genre. This is why a soundtrack is so important for a horror trailer, it can make or break it in terms of how scared the viewer feels as well as making them feel inclined to find out what will happen in the movie. It creates a lot of tempo and generates many emotions, some of these inspirations will be incorporated into our horror trailer.
As a group we found this soundtrack very engaging towards an audience. It doesn't fit the cliche soundtrack but is largely based on voice overs and little instrumental such as piano keys, drums and noise through props such as phones, weapons, doors, floor boarding. The trailer begins with sirens, then progressing to soft playing music by a piano. The stock character then has some dialogue then trouble with the stock character is foreshadowed by a deep revenge sound then foley sounds of smashed glass (0.43), door (0.57), gun clicking (0.55) , aggressor voice (1.01), first stock character killed with gun shot (1.16) then there is a fade in sound to silence this silence is then interrupted by the mobile phone vibration (1.32). The interruption of silence causes the climax increases, fast pace, shrieking instrumental, whispering by the victims, screaming, thudding, aggressor tag line (2.04), light switch goes off (2.06).The aggressors voice increases the climax of this soundtrack. The build up is very intense through the foley sounds; footsteps (2.01), doors, gun shots and the light switch. The way the sound fades all of a sudden then quickly flashes with loud voice overs and shrieking instruments such as the piano makes the viewers keep on their toes the whole time.
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I found it very effective that the trailer began with non diagetic sound, which was is very calm yet unsettling as we are aware that an disequilibrium will occur soon. This is then combined with the diagetic sound of the protagonists gives us a clear idea of the main characters that will take place in the film, and their current happy state. The music then slows down and distorts with a creeking door (0.46) signalling the beginning of the disequilibrium. The silence then turns into the sound of the chainsaw (0.56) which makes the viewer immediately aware of the iconic weapon in this film, the sound then crackles (1.01) and screaming from the victims is heard all of a sudden (1.26) with this the sinister music increases followed by more crying to show the attacking of the aggressor. Clashhes (1.36) and the sound of the chainsaw (1.45) forms an intense effect. We then hear breathing and silence with the chainsaw running in the background (2.04) for a while to keep an eary atmosphere stimulating suspense followed by footsteps (2.09), finally the electric pulses (2.17) set an ending to the trailer of aggression.
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This trailer begins with very mellow non diagetic sound combined with diagetic sound from the main characters. The characters use lexis such as "beautiful" (0.13) and the song lyrics say "just a perfect day" (0.14) to heighten the cheerfulness in their state of equilibrium, this is followed by a prayer (0.17) which is a common convention of horror films. This cheerful atmosphere then fades as we hear the soundtrack fade into deep piano keys conveying a dark tone. We then hear high pitched shrieks (0.37) followed by the smashing of windows (0.40) after a pause to make clear that the aggressor is present- also reflecting the state of disequilibrium. There are screams (0.44), glass smashing sounds (0.45) and connection interruptions during the screams (0.47). Foley sound such as door knobs moving furniture and locks are heard to make the listener aware that they are trying to protect themselves from the aggressor (0.55). There is then a door creak (0.59) and a deep instrumental (1.09) to heighten the suspense at the aggressor's presence. I particularly liked the irony used with the soundtrack towards the end of the trailer as it reverts back to its mellow tone but this time comes across in a more sadistic way.
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What we liked about this trailer's soundtrack was the sweet yet sinister tone with the techno influenced instrumental. which we thought was interesting to adopt as the film has similar influences to ours- beauty, vanity and the modelling world. The diagetic sound compliments then theme as well as letting the viewer know the theme of the film- conversations regarding modelling (0.14). A small shriek drone (0.20) begins to form an eery atmosphere for the trailer. The soundtrack then becomes slightly deeper and the pace quickens (0.31), which interruptions of camera shutters (0.37), linking to the theme. After a moment of silence the word "dangerous" (1.03) sets off the disequilibrium, smashes (1.10), deep breaths and drums are heard. The non diagetic sound increases its pitch and becomes squeeky (1.18) for this sinister tone to be unveiled, then followed by a pause and the referring back to the word "dangerous" (1.20). The music becomes deep, repetitive and slow again.
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GLITCHES
The glitches foreshadow the disequilibrium that is about to occur during the trailer. We decided to include this as a group as from watching previous trailer we found it effective to signal the bad events.
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DRONES
The easiest way to generate a dark and unsettling soundscape. We will use drones quite a lot throughout our trailer to signal the beginning of a fast paced, anxious backing track. Their slow changing tones form an eerie atmosphere.
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CRASHES
These are used to create a climax, they also work well combined with drones or followed by a deadly silence to symbolise death.
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GLASS
Sound works well for jumpy scenes, silence followed by a glass often makes the audience jump out their skin which is the effect we wish to achieve in our trailer. Glass is often used in thrillers too, to break silence or jump scares.
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HEART BEATS
These build suspense, they can also be used to set a scene such as a medical scene. Our main use for it will be to generate suspense particularly during the shots of the underground surgery.
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MEDICAL
These lines are used to foreground the setting of the trailer for example the announcement of someone's death, which will come in handy during our trailer when Dr.Brown's daughter becomes pronounced dead at the scene of the car crash.
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MUSIC
This will be used at the start of our trailer, the template trailer sound in the background of our animatic starts with music. We found this very effective and it was used in our inspiration "Your Next" trailer. It creates an equilibrium but also gives an uneasy feeling for the viewer as we are expecting the worst.
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SWISHES
This will be included within shot transitions so that all the sound is constantly flowing and still adhering to this eerie mood.
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VOICES
Voices are useful in presenting the stock characters, antagonists and protagonists. These can also be screams to show the aggressor is attacking, but also whispers for a sinister yet threatening effect.
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THUDS
This is a generic sound, it can be foley sounds, stock situations such as a character falling or the aggressor attacking.
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SOUNDSCAPE 1
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STAGE 1
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STAGE 2
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STAGE 3
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FINAL SCREENSHOT
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SOUND EXPERIMENTATION
In this section you will find our sound experimentation and how we created sound for our horror trailer. This will help us to understand the types of effects we want to achieve in terms of sound to form an innovative backing track to our trailer, by using sound to generate emotions. I used the storyboard animatic as a basis for my sound, the sound was created using Premiere Cs6, I included the sounds used above to create this.
DIARY OF SOUNDSCAPE 2
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STAGE 1
(CREATING TRAILER SOUND)
This is the first stage of my soundscape. I've started with my thuds which I have placed over my captions, I decided to start my sound from scratch as after re contructing the trailer with my editor some shots have switched places and lengths of shots have been altered.
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STAGE 2
(DRONES)
In the second stage of editing my soundscape I added a contonious drone in the background to intensify the eerie feeling my trailer should be conveying. I then experimented with some exponential fades in the place of approaching captions so the thuds were heard but the sound did not completely cut off.
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STAGE 3
(DETAILING)
In my post final stage to my soundscape I have been working with my team to decide on which sounds are best suited to particular shots. After having completed my drones and thuds which are the main aspects, all I have left to do is include specific sounds, my jump scare and my continous loops throughout particular equilibriums. In this audio you will begin to hear where I have begun attempting to establish a clear equilibrium using sound and separating key events such as the church scene.
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STAGE 4
(FINISHING TOUCHES)
This is my final soundscape formed together. I completed it adding medical sounds to enhance the surgical theme and also added a theme tune for the opening section whereby the film bbfc page is shown. I ended the trailer with a thud to entice the montage, and point of disequilibrium which then cuts off showing the title and credits, the thud gives a sense of suspense, convincing people watching to find out more by watching the film in the cinema.
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