7/31/2019 Sound Project - Reflection

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Sound ProjectReflection

I have researched and analysed how sound and music impacts a video or film. It is one of the most

powerful elements to a production as it has the power to determine whether the audience feels happy,

scared, tense or excited. In order to study the power of sound further, in groups we were given a silent film

opening (except speech) and were required to find/ record sound and music and use it effectively to create

the atmosphere.

Firstly, a sound I felt was important to find first was the sound that would go over the titles. I believe that

this is one of the most important because it is one of the first sounds that the audience hears, therefore,

needs to be carefully considered. This sound is a non-diegetic sound as the character in the film cannot hear

it yet sets the atmosphere for the audience. I chose an electronic radio scratching type of sound that I found

online at www.freesounds.org. I chose this sound as the titles flickered and were presented in a font I

thought represented the internet, which was relevant to the film. It instantly set an atmosphere and hinted as

to what the film may have included. I believed the flickering of the sound implied a type of hijack which I

really liked as it unsettles the viewer and makes them eager to see whats to come next.

A further way I tried to create an eerie atmosphere was by adding atmospheric music and a sound bridge.

This begins right from the production credits and is a slow high pitched piano; this is typical of athriller/drama type film and so I found it appropriate so that the audience has an idea of what to expect. The

high pitch gives an unexpected audience chills and creates a cold haunting atmosphere.

Although the diegetic clicking and typing on a keyboard may seem like pretty minor sounds, I discovered

that without them, not only would the shot look strange and muted but it also gives the viewer a gage on

how quiet and tense the surroundings are, therefore, we again searched the web and found some clicking

and typing foleys and cut them to fit the shots. A further diegetic sound we felt should be emphasised was

the gulp after the man drank some of his drink. We added a gulping sound effect here to emphasise the

mans feelings and emotions and I feel a loud gulp demonstrates how he may be feeling nervous on how

the events to follow may occur.

One of my favourite sounds in this sequence is the heart monitor beeping that we added. We choseto add this as it represents the suicidal girls heartbeat and really gets the audience worried and on the edge

of their seats. It does this by starting with the usual healthy heartbeat; it fades in so that it doesnt startle the

audience. We matched up the sound to the shots as when the man questions whether the girl has killed

herself, that is when the constant beep signals which classically represents a heart thats stopped beating;

this worries the audience and makes them feel sympathetic towards the girl. The beep stops and for a few

seconds its silent. The audience questions what will they hear next. When the heart beeping returns the

intended emotions we wanted the audience to feel is that of relief.

A different atmospheric music begins to play which sounds very dramatic and cinematic. We

chose this one as the many instruments used including violins makes for a tense situation. This worked well

with the shots as this is when the girl is making the decision to fax her address. Clearly this is a key part inthis film and is what begins the series of events that are to follow.

Weaponry is a key feature in the shots to follow. In order to portray that harshness and chaos in

these shots to the audience we incorporated classic noises you would hear from a tool box in order to get

the sound of clashing metal. The foley for metal chains was found online and cut in order to mirror the

movement and actions that included the chains on screen. This is a very imposing and intimidating sound

and was the feelings we hoped to gain from the audience. Another sound that would get this type of

reaction from the viewers is the sound used to represent the knives on screen; these sounds were again from

www.freesounds.org and are strong metal scratching sounds; these are frightening and shocking for a

person to hear and easily scare. The weapons are placed and encased in a hard plastic briefcase; in order to

give a final idea of this harshness it was important to us that these sounds were realistic in order to be

believable. If the situation does not feel as though it could actually happen then it no longer feels scary, this

led us to the idea of recording our own sounds. To get this plastic closing and snapping of the case holding

metal we recorded the sound produced when snapping down files in a binder folder. It is made from similar

materials making it sound realistic while maintaining the atmosphere previously created.