Construction - Sound and Editing (Elliot)

In our modern society, where technology within the film industry has progressed immensely, media products such as films have become more and more immersivee for audience members and although we cannot taste, smell or feel the environment within the film we can most certainly see and hear it. Nowadays what is audible plays as vital a role as what is visual within film and maintains a key role to aid the audience in capturing the true ambience of a film and to establish a sense of verisimilitude to their experience of the film as a media product. 

Thus, as producers of new media products, it is essential that we consider the sound effects and music of our film in order to create both an enjoyable and realistic experience for our target audience. Much like "The Hanging Tree" by James Newton Howard in 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1' an eerie and sombre musical piece shadows the action of the film to create an atmosphere that is dark, enigmatic and, most of all, complimentary to the film. It is precisely this that had inspired the choice of music for our thriller. As the song mimics a tense and virulent tone it establishes the danger that is forthcoming in the film whilst establishing mystery and excitement amongst the audience.



Music

In order to find music suitable for out thriller opening, we turned to Google in search of royalty free music. There, we stumbled upon INCOMPETECH - a website that offers a variety of uncopyrighted music that is usable for projects. It was also compiled of a search engine where we could search for music by genre, instrument or atmosphere. 

Eventually we found a few songs that we felt were appropriate for our thriller. However, when narrowing down our list we decided that some of the music was unsuitable because although they had the steady mysterious sounds that we were looking for, there was no progression of melody or harmony. Generally, the tracks had the same monotonous feel until  towards the end. We thought this would not have any impact on the atmosphere of the thriller opening and would not establish a sense of tension which is a key convention of the thriller genre. Finally we found two songs that we felt would be appropriate:





Having settled on one (Gymnopédie no.3) it was time to edit the music into our thriller. Having already edited some of the sound effects it was easy to decide when the music should begin to fade in (as is common in thriller openings). Overall, we were really pleased with our choice of music and feel that it establishes suspense very well without looking at all like a trailer as it leads into the main film gently which is conventional for most successful thriller openings. The music is audible in the background of the action and is non-diegetic. At times, sombre and calm, but others fast-paced and loud, it creates a tension towards the ambience of our thriller and sets an eerie enigmatic tone for the remainder of the film. 

Sound Effects

Whilst music plays a vital role in creating ambience to a film, the use of sound effect is key to achieve versimilitude. Sound effects help to tell a story within the film and establish setting. For example, if the setting was in a quiet woodland then birds chirping or wind whistling through rustling leaves would be audible. Although it isn't something that we as an audience consciously take note of, it is a fact that it creates a sense of realism and that without it a film can often feel unprofessional and displeasing as a result. Moreover, where there is a lack of dialogue (such as in our thriller opening) sound effects are vital to telling a story where dialogue cannot be used to do so.

Throughout filming, stage directions were being yelled to the actors whilst the camera was rolling because there was no dialogue to be recorded. This meant that the audio of the tape could be completely muted and sound effects such as crowd walla and traffic could be added to establish verisimilitude. In addition to this, we filmed traffic to use as cutaway scenes to break up the action and tension in the film opening and to establish setting i.e. in a busy highstreet. This meant that we had to include traffic sound effects or use the audio from our clips. 

However, after reviewing the clips and due to unseen windy weather, the audio from the clips was unusable - hence, we turned to using sound effects. Due to the fact that we couldn't recreate the traffic sound effects in a booth and then edit them in and our lack of equipment such as sound mics meant that we would need to use royalty free sound effects from the internet or editing programmes. In contrast, some sounds such as the panting were a part of the audio from the original footage and was usable due to the indoor quiet setting, thus, some of the original audio was also used.

Here is how I edited the sound effects and music into our thriller opening: