'Boom' - Sound

When researching horror sound effects, as we have added many to our opening sequence, I found that most of them are used to make the audience jump or to create tension. The sound effects that are in our sequence consist of a telephone ringing, a heartbeat and a voice-over. We did however add a 'boom' sound effect at the beginning of the sequence and really liked this. This lead us onto adding more as they matched our genre.

 

When watching some horror sequences such as 'Scream' I noticed that 'boom' sound effects are used quite frequently when ever something notable happens.

 

 

Whenever the killer says something intimidating to the main character there is a boom sound effect. At 2:17 in the sequence the antagonist says "I want to know who I'm looking at" and as the fear crosses the characters face there is a quiet and subtle boom sound effect signify that something is happening and the character could be in potential danger. A similar sound can be heard at 3:28 when the antagonist says "Blondie" showing that he knows and can see the character. The sound following this is quick boom-like effect representing danger. This sound continues until the character thinks she is safe by locking the doors. The final boom is at the end of the sequence at 4:59 when the antagonist knows the name of the characters boyfriend. The sound effect is subtle and tells the audience that the antagonist is correct and whatever happens next cannot be good. This is also accompanied by the characters face of shock:

 

 

Like our opening sequence a boom sound effect signifies when something bad is about to happen. In our sequence we have a boom whenever the antagonist shows up: in the corridor, when they grab the protagonist and in the media room. This represents that this character is evil one in the film and anything including them will have grave consequences.

Group Progress - Editing + Music

Today we continued editing and changing the music which we had two hours to do. Going through the sequence again was good for the group as we all looked closely for any minor details that we might have missed the first time around. We also decided to change the music entirely and add more sound effects to make the sequence more realistic. So two members of the group played around with some new music to find something that matched our genre, another member and I continued to edit by making some cuts smoother so that they jumped less. Overall we got quite a lot of work done and we hope to start adding credits, which we will do by following the film credit order, and the music that was made next lesson.

The Shining Opening Sequence - Sound and Credits

The Shining is a psychological horror film that has a simple yet effective opening sequence. The sound used creates a uneasy, tense atmosphere that contrasts with the picturesque scene of the hills and lake. The credits are simple and cannot be missed as the flow over the screen.

This sequence has effected our group opening sequence as it has given us ideas for music and credits. The music is low, simple and repetitive similar to the one that we made for our opening. It is tense and creates a sense of mystery and enigma about the place the sequence is shot. The low and deep sounding piece of music helps represent the psychological horror genre in a different way by using sound effects such as the strange high pitch noises that can be heard in the clip from 1:25 onwards. If the music was happy and upbeat it would portray a different genre therefore the music suits the current situation perfectly: mysterious music to match a unknown location that the audience is unfamiliar with.


The credits are a soft blue that roll over the scene like end credits usually do at the end of the film. These credits are incredibly simple especially when they are compared to credits in films such as Zombieland where the credits smash when touched:



Although the Zombieland credits are interesting and entertaining to watch the simplicity of The Shining's credits is just as effective as it achieves what credits are suppose to do. They simply inform the audience of the key details in the film. This will be similar to our credits as we are unfamiliar with the program After Effects we will make simple credits which we were unhappy with at first  but after watching The Shining opening sequence we saw that it could match our genre.

Group Progress - Sound

When re-thinking our ending for our opening sequence my group and I decided that we wanted to set an atmosphere that matched the genre of our film. As a psychological horror silence is usually the best way to create a tense atmosphere however we were not sure whether that would work and needed some inspiration for our ending. We searched the internet for creepy horror films, TV shows and video games before finding a hugely popular psychological horror game called 'Silent Hills - P.T". This provided us with the inspiration for our ending and how to use sound effects alongside silence or music to make the footage more interesting. We also found that their were already many similarities between our opening sequence and the game such as the dark corridor scene in our opening and the dimly-lit corridor in the game. We now have a clear idea of our ending for our opening sequence that we think will match the genre and create a tense atmosphere.

 

GROUP BLOG POST

 

Our Opening Sequence

Silent Hills P.T

 

 

Group Progress - Sound Effects

We  have added several sound effects to our sequence to make it more interesting to watch and to replace effects that got drowned out during the recording. For example there is a seen when our character tries to ring someone and a faint ringing can be heard. This was added in to make the sound seem more real and the audience can hear everything our character hears. We have also added a static sound effect over the top of the original sound in the media room scene as it makes it sound clean and the sound no longer clips. The group and I have also discussed adding in a heartbeat or something similar to make the silence in the media room (after the static) a bit more exciting and once again the audience will be able to feel and hear exactly what the character is feeling and hearing.

Sound - (Children of Men)

Sound can make or break a film and is one of the most important factors to consider when creating one. Whether it's music or sound effects everything that can be heard when watching a film should match what the audience can see on the screen. Sound needs to be consistent from the beginning of the film right to the end. A film that has good sound at the beginning is 'Children of Men'.

 

 

The Outside Scene - Sound of Driving is Loud

It starts as a completely black screen followed by a woman's voice. The first sound heard is the woman talking about the death of the youngest man alive. As the screen is black her voice has to be focused on and she is clear and easy to understand. The tone of her voice shows that it is a newsreader and she is reciting the most important piece of news, giving the audience a insight into what's happening. A male voice then continues the story while the images on screen begin to play.

Explosion Scene - Causing a Loud Break in the Sound

There are faint building work sounds in the background showing that the place the characters are in needs fixing or updating hinting that the place is not as secure as it should be. A character then comes into the coffee shop and speaks, asking for a coffee and the sound of his change can be heard over the news story. When the screen focuses on the TV news story muttering from the people can be heard. This shows that everyone is listening intently on the story and muttering comments to those near them. Crying can then be heard to inform the audience that the story is deeply emotional to the people listening to the newsreader. The newsreaders voice begins to echo when the character begins to walk as there are several TV's in the room causing there to be more sound. The closer the character gets to the door the louder the sound of the traffic gets showing that the next location will be outside. When outside the only sound present is the traffic and it is loud and clearly sets the scene. This sound continues for a while before a sudden explosion breaks the calmness and triggers many other sounds associated with panic such as screaming, alarms and the sound of rubble falling. These sounds create a distressing scene without even looking at the film on screen.

 

The sound makes this film much better as it creates a quite tone with natural sounds such as traffic and people muttering which is interrupted by a sudden sound that no-one was expecting.