Research into Sound - Miss Miller

Scream 2

 Introduction:

Sound is often is often the single most important element in setting the mood for the scene in a horror film. Music may build to present that a dramatic event is about to happen or it may be upbeat but is unlikely in a horror. Horror films rely a lot on sound clips to create a scary scene. If  you removed the sound from a horror film its fear factor from the audience would drop dramatically, this is because the music makes the scene even more intense, when the music starts to become more dramatic and loud, you know that something bad is about to happen. 

I have chosen this scene from Scream 2 as it represents how the sound/music can make the scene become a lot scarier and intense, as the killer is chasing the victim the music starts to become louder and sharper which tells me that any second from now the victim would'nt be able to get away as the killer catches her. 



 

Main:

Diegetic sound: You could hear the killer on the other end of the call when he kept on calling the victim. After the killer comes and creeps up on her from behind, the victim screams and starts to run away, this is when off screen sound occurs as the music dramatically starts playing off screen. You can hear the killer grunting as to show he is frustrated as he is trying to stab her with his knife but she kept getting away, this creates suspense as everything happening in the scene starts to become a lot more dramatic, building tension for the audience. This is conventional to the thriller genre as the audience can see how scared and vulnerable the victim is, this helps us to build a relationship with the victim as the audience sympathise for her. 

Non diegetic: The sound track starts playing, as the killer is chasing the victim you can hear sound effects which are emphasised each time he lent in to slash her with the knife, you can also hear things breaking for example when the victim throws the plant pot at him, the sound of it smashing on the floor is loud, which is over the top of the music playing, this is conventional as it adds more suspense as we are wondering weather the victim will escape or not.

Parallel sound: The sound you hear in this film is very typical for a thriller film, its loud, intense, upbeat and dramatic. The parallel sound in this particular scene occurs when the killer is stabbing the girl as the music sharply stops so the audience can hear the knife penetrating her skin, and the girl starts screaming until he chucks her out the window of the house falling flat on the concrete. This is conventional as the music builds tension, telling us the girl still has hope of surviving and when the music stops, it is game over for the victim.

Contrapuntal sound: straight after the victim dies, the camera is moved to the masked killers face, showing the knife covered in her blood giving us a clear understanding that the killer did in fact stab her. At the end of the scene a sound track starts playing but nothing you would expect to hear in a thriller film, it was upbeat and quite happy, a sound track you would expect to hear in a comedy not a thriller. This is an example of contrapuntal sound as the sound does not match the expectations of the clip, it also confuses the audience as they don't expect upbeat music to play after sombody has just been murdered. This particular sound is conventional as it twists the plot around, confusing the audience.

Conclusion:

My research has taught me the different ways that sound can be used to create a particular outcome in a thriller scene, the sequence deffinutely builded up the tension and suspense by the music and the sound affects used, if sound was not used, the scene would not of scared me half as much, which tells me that sound really is such an important element in a thriller film. 

It has given me an idea of what kind of sound techniques i would like to use in my own sequence, for example i would use loud, dramatic music if i decided to use a killer and victim in my clip, or quiet music to build tension and suspense.