Planning sound - Miss Miller

Sound is important in thriller film as it helps to build up tension and suspense within the audience. Generally, when the sound increases pace there is danger for the films victim, and when the sound goes silent it resembles a victim being killed and their life ending. Additionally, it is used to create a response from the audience and engage them in what they are watching. The sounds create an understanding for the audience and creates more meaning about the characters and their emotions. There are different types of sound in films, diegetic sound is sound which is part of the film for example diologue or music and this can be on or off the screen. Non-diegetic sound is sound which is not part of the scene for example a soundtrack or sound effects. There is also on-screen sound which is where you can hear sound and see where it is coming from. Opposite to this there is off-screen sound which is sound that you can hear but you cannot see where it is coming from. However this sound, makes sense to the film. Furthermore, there is parallel sound which is sound that you hear in a film that is expected. And there is contrapuntal sound, which is sound that doesn't match what is in
the scene. All of these help thriller films to achieve its over all goal of creating tension and suspense for the audience.

The first sound that my group and I have decide we want to use is diegetic sound. The diegetic sounds that we have dicided we are going to are screaming, heavy breathing and footsteps, which are all going to be included in the chase scene through the forest. These are common sounds that people hear in everyday life, however due to the seriousness of the situation is will show panic from the victim and that she is scared. As mentioned before these every day sounds will make the opening sequence more relatable to the audience and will help them to build up a relationship with the victim. Also because the tension would have built up within the audience from watching the sequence, their heart beat will also be quite fast, again making it more relatable. These sounds are conventional sounds to the thriller gener as they are used to show the fear from the victim, which builds up the tension and suspense.

The next sound we are going to use is off screen sound. Off screen sound is sound that matches the content of the scene but is not visiable within the camera shot. We will use this when the floor bloards are creeking as the girl is trying to escape and the audience will hear a door shuting when there is a focus on the killer and he realises that the girl has escaped. The creeking floor boards will show that the victim is trying to not get caught and that she is in fear of getting caught. The door shuting will show that the girl has successfully got out of the house but it also will show the realsiation of the killer that the girl got out. It is the start of chain of events that lead to the death of the victim, from this point the heart rates and tension levels within the audience will continue to rise. This helps to build a relationship as the audience dont no if the girl is going to fully escape from the killer and not get caught, which creates fear for the victims life. Our aim with this sound is to increase the tension of the sequence by creating a sense of enigma as to whether the victim will survive or not. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it shows the audience what is going on and makes the scene clear, which creates suspense as they find out what is happening before or at the same time as the victim.

Following this the next sound that we are going to use is non-diegetic. We are going to edit in the non-diegetic sound effect of a heart beat, during the chase scene in the forest. We are going to use this sound technique to portray the vicitms fear and panic. It also shows that they are exhausted as well as frightened, from running. This would build up the panic and she might slow down making herself easier for the killer to catch up to. We are going to enusre that the audience will build up a relationship with the victim through this sound effect as a heart beat is a very common sound that everybody is well associated with. The audiences heart be would be copying the one layered over the sequnece through the suspense built up. This will allow the audience to compare and put themselves into the situation of the vicitm making it more relateable. They will also be able to understand the emotions that the victim is feeling and this will cause them to feel symapthetic towards them. This is conventional to the thriller genre as enigma of whether the killer is going to catch up to the vicitm or not creates tension and suspense.

The last sound technique that my group and I have planned to use is contrapuntal sound. Contrapuntal sound is sound that does not match the content of the sequnece. We have decided to use contrapuntal sound when the girl is getting dragged back by the killer as we have decided that we are going to layer happy/positive music over this. The music and the content will juxtapose eachother, as although the music is postive, the girl is getting dragged back to her death. The happy music could symblise the happiness of the killer that he has recapted the victm and overpowered her. This would make the audeince feel anger and resentment towards the killer as they would be confused at how someone could be happy they have recaputred someone. It also shows little hope for another escape of the victim as the killer is dictating the action in the sceen and his emotions are also dictating the sound being used and the music is going to be quite over powering. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it creates an unnatural feel to the scene and implys uncertainty, which helps to build up the suspense.