Research into Sound in Thrillers- Miss Miller

Unbreakable

Sound is a very important element in all films but especially thrillers.Sound helps to create a sense of what the film will be about and help shape the mood of the scene, for example with a action scene fast paced music would be appropriate. It can also help to create suspense which is essential for a thriller film and this shows how it is different for each film.

Diegetic sound is sound that we can see the source of in the scene.An example of this is at 0.18 when rain is splattering on the flour and we can hear and see it on camera.This sound makes the scene immediately feel cold and dark and tells us about the scene without even seeing the images. This diegetic sound also manipulate the audience into believing that the following scene will be violent or have negative aspects.This keeps the audiences attention and helps the film to become more engaging for the audience who now want to know what will happen.

Music in the background of a scene is non-digetic as you cannot see where its coming from.When this happens in the scene it is at 1.20 and it has music that is suitable for a slow violent scene.This music makes the death feel important and that it is not necessarily a bad thing even though we do not know why.This makes the audience feel quite unsympathetic with the man and helps to not make the scene quite a offensive. This makes the scene more questionable as now the audience want to continue watching due to how the murder was carried out. 

Parallel sounds are sounds that go along with what is happening on the screen.An example of this is the noise the man who is being strangled.When this happens we can feel his pain and need to breath but we know that he will eventually die.This makes the death feel more real and make it seem more painful for the man.This keeps the audience entertained and makes them concentrate on what is going on in the scene and feel for the man who is being murdered.This happens at the time of 1.20.

When the woman falls to the floor we hear a thud, this is diegectic as it shows the sound on the screen at 2.06. When she falls to the floor we know she is in pain and has been there for a long time she does not wake as we can tell by the silence after.This creates sympathy for the woman as we know she has not been treated well.This makes the audience want to continue watching as now we want to know what will happen to her a we have an emotional connection.

Overall sound is a very important part of any film and can make or break a film completely. This is seen if you see a scene with no music the elements of the film are not there and the film seems dead to the viewer.This is how critical they are to making a good thriller film.