Planning sound- Miss Miller

I used a variety of different sound techniques throughout my thriller opening, including my independently created soundtrack that i was able to compose on garage band.The use of sound within a thriller helps impact and enhance the effects that the audience are seeing on screen, particularly tension as it is essential in creating a conventional and good thriller film.

One sound technique used is the music created on garage band that i mentioned earlier. This will be payed throughout and will serve to increase the tention as our victem walks through the set with the stalker antognoist watching her every move. I belive some non diegetic music in the background is a formality within any film let alone a thriller film. It makes the film much more dynamic and helps to highten the effects the director is hoping to achive within a shot, making it a convention to all films as well as the thriller genre. I am hoping that my soundtracks eerie feel invokes fear and tension within the thriller opening.It is conventional to that of a generic thriller soundtrack. Its dark, tense atmoshpear it promotes helps set the scence and as the music progresses as does the suspence with the use of the suspence accsent loops on Garage band.

  

Another technique we are looking to achive in our thriller opening is contapuntal sound. As our female victem is left alone by her boyfriend she puts her earphones in where a happy care free song is being played faintly in the filming. This creates the effect that she can not hear any other external sound crating more tension as she can not heart her stalker following her. The contrupuntal sound creates a eerie atmosphere as the audience feel uneasy. We hope to convay the contrasting music as a metaphor for the antagonists twisted persona, where he is out of touch from the world (as too is the music) to build suspense as the audience feel as though our antagonist is unpredictable and capable of anything, keeping them at the dye of their seats throughout our opening. Contrapuntal music is a common thriller convention used in popular thriller franchises such as scream as they help build tension (the primary effect looks to be explored in the thriller genre) which intern inceases the veiwer/character relationship as the audience feel sympathy for the victim.

Diegetic sound in the form of heavy breathing from our victem and deranged laughter from our antagonist is another key sound technique we will attempt to use to help build suspense. Our group chose to use this particular technique as apposed from dialogue from a phone call as too much dialogue can take the tension and focus away from the narrative which most of our tension and fear originates from. The use of these sounds help to increase suspense as the audience feel sympathy for the victim or in tern fear for the antagonist which helps to create a character/audience relationship which intern increases tension as the audience feel more involved with our characters as they have emotions towards them and so they care about what happens to the characters. These particular diegetic sounds (heavy breathing, and contrapuntal sounds from the films antagonist) are a thriller convention as it furthers the fear factor and tension of the scene, for example if you use contrapuntal diegetic sound in the form of laughter to present your antagonist to be more unpredictable you will then make him appear more fearful as a result which will mean the film will be more tense.

The final sound technique i will explore within this blogg is the non diegetic 'bang' as the antagonist appears. I will hope to replicate the effect created in the scream clip (left) at point 1:03 where the sudden 'bang' shocks the audience, creating a eerie atmosphere, leaving the viewers feeling uneasy. However as apposed to the clip where the killer jumps out of the truck then straight back in, i will leave our antagonist in full view using a mid shot. I'm hoping that this will leave the antagonist in a state of superiority following the bang increasing the tension as the killer now has the upper hand. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it invokes the fear in the audience as apposed to the normal effect just of fear in the character.As a result of  the viewers being scared the tension is increased as they are more on edge and susceptible to any other sound techniques used such as the music, which i mentioned earlier in the blogg.

I feel as though sound is a vital factor in my thriller film if i am to have any chance of having the tension i am hoping for. It allows the characters to interact with one another in a variety of different ways which would be unachievable through the use of cinematography, to enhance the tension for the viewers. The primary theme i am hoping to achieve through the use of my selected sound techniques is mystery to create enigma which then in tern creates tension as the audience are scared of the unknown and am confident that the sound techniques i am using will create this desired effect. By creating this blogg i am now more educated on my potential sound techniques effects and so i can use them where i feel they are required within my thriller opening.