Planning Sound- Miss Miller

 

Planning Sound

Sound is used in all films not just thrillers and is critical in conveying a story or idea to the audience which would the ruin any narrative. Sound the techniques include diegetic, non diegetic, contrapuntal,parallel and on and off screen. All these convey many emotions and help dramatically to improve any scene.Without sound things would clearly be wrong with things such such as the background not feeling real or scenes not making sense as the audience cannot tell what mood the film scene is and this can be confusing with the things going on.

Diegetic sound can be the sound that is on screen or off screen but the sound must have its source within the same background e.g police siren in bacckground for city, but not in jungle. Non diegetic is when a sound has no relevance to a scene such as music or sound effects.Contrapuntal sound is where a sound is opposite to the feeling of the scene such as happy music with a violent or scary scene. Parallel sound is where the sound matches what is happening in the scene such as a gun shot or a car going away with engine noise.

In our scene sound is used continuously, when the car is winding down the road we can hear the car engine which is diegetic sound as it is not added by effects and we can see its source and we know it is there; another is the radio which we can hear and see so it is diegetic.Then as the car is going down the road we can hear the sound of the radio but at the start of the scene we are not in the car so it is non diegetic as it was added. This happy radio music is contrapuntal sound as the road is dark and wet and the trees are menacingly leaning over the road, these are dark images and contrast the happy music. This puts the viewer in an uneasy position as you feel uncomfortable with the dark scenes but the happy mellow music makes it less fearfull. The audience has mixed feeling at this point which we were going for.When the car parks up we can hear the buzz of the lamp post light which is diegetic as we can see its source and it the sound has not been added in and is expected,another is when the car door slams we can see the place that the sound comes from. The buzz of the lamp puts the audence in a uneasy waiting for what is to come . Then when the door slams it brakes this feeling and brings the audience back to the current scene, this makes the tension build for them. Then the happy radio song is back and is again juxtaposed by the scene but it puts the audience at ease for what is to come.

When the chase is happening we can hear the wind, leaves and rustlings around her, this is diegetic sound as we can see the source of the sound and know it is there but has been added by editing.The heavy footsteps of the man behind her is diegetic as they have been added but when she turns and looks it is easy to see the source also it is obvious it relates to the source.This will give the audience a feeling of sympathy for her and more hate for him as we can hear from his boots he is the more powerfull of the two. When she is finally caught fromk the music before it will become more personal to them and be sorry for the vunerable woman.  This also creates the fear for the audience that the character is facing and helps increase the fear of the scene. The footsteps of the man are also parallel as the sound goes with the actions of the person.This makes the man seem much more big and intimidating from his footsteps that get louder and louder the closer that he gets to her. This makes the audience very uneasy as well.This is one way that we will use sound to show off physical characteristics in our clip and how a diffrent size can change people perception of them and how an audience acts to them.Lastly is the heartbeat that can we can hear when she is finally caught. That is non diegetic as we cannot see the source and it was digitally added after the filming. This is so the audience how she is feeling and when it goes the audience presumes she is dead.

The audience can use these sound very easily to create a better relationship with them and build on it. Things such as the happy music at the start when we can see the woman make the audience like her more. She seems like a positive person who is associated with nice happy music therfore the audience like her. Another example is the mysterious and uneasy music that is played just when we see the killer. It puts the audience on edge and makes them feel uneasy and negative towards the man immedietly.


These sound techniques are very  conventional in a thriller as it is mostly used around points that are meant to either increase the tension of the scene or scare the audience and this makes it typical of a thriller film.An example would be the music as the tension rises when the woman is getting out of  the car.Then when the chase begins it starts to heighten and when she is eventually caught this is where the sounds stops. These sounds make the audience more and more tense and when finally it happens it is a big shock and this is used in many films such as the Saw series , Shutter Island and Se7en.

Overall sound is a crucial part in any film and can make a good scene a terrible one and vice verse. Moreover it can help give an audience an immediate indication of what the scene is about or can mislead an audience an audience for effect.This shows how with sound you can change a scene completly and that is why it is crucial.



introduction
why is sound so important
what sound will be used and when
 4 points diffrent sound techniques
How will you use sound techniques to potray charactersistics, emotion at certain times
what is conventional abouit it