sound within thrillers

Sound in Horror/Thriller Sequences

The first film I am going to analyse is the film Almost Famous, in the second scene of the movie. As Anita, played by Zooey Deschanel attempts to sneak in through the door, as the audience you are able to hear the diegetic sound of church bells ringing, this is so that the audience almost subconsciously relates the characters to religion. When the camera is on Anita outside, the audience are still able to hear the mother and the boy talking about the presidents of the United States. There is then the diegetic and pleonastic sound of Anita testing her breath, it is pleonastic for the audience to notice it and wonder why she has to test her breath just to talk to her family. Meanwhile the church bells are still ringing. Anita then goes up to the door and there is a diegetic sound of her saying “Please, please, please, please”, this causes the audience to believe Anita is trying to avoid her mother. As she turns the door knob, there is a diegetic and pleonastic sound of something falling off the door knob, to give the impression that someone had put it there on purpose so that they could hear when Anita came home. The mother then turns round and the diegetic sound of her voice saying “Anita?” is present within the scene. Anita then replies “Hey mom”, which is also diegetic. While the two characters are talking, the diegetic sound of birds tweeting is still playing in the background. Anita then enters the house as the diegetic sound of the door shutting happens in the background.

The second film I am going to analyse is the film Jaws. This clip begins with somebody talking to the chief (played by Roy Scheider) about some “problems at the house” this speech is diegetic but is soon overpowered by the scream of a girl in the water, this scream is pleonastic as well as diegetic. Straight after this, the chief’s wife begins to talk, saying “Honey, honey would you come here for a minute please.” These diegetic sounds are used to create an atmosphere of distraction around the chief because what he is really looking out for is another shark attack. As the chief and his wife talk, which is diegetic sound, the main focus of the sound switches from their conversation to the conversation of the boys in the background. This is to highlight the fact they are going to go swimming. The camera then cuts to a scene of all the boys in the water and the sound of them swimming is pleonastic as the water crashes around them, this use of pleonastic sound is done intentionally to scare the audience and make them feel on edge about what is about to occur.

More distractions of speech occur around chief Brody as he desperately tries to focus on the people in the water to keep an eye out for them. The scene then cuts to the children in the water and you hear pleonastic sounds of screaming and splashing, this is used to create a hectic scene for the audience, as if there is so much going on how could the chief possibly concentrate on all of the children at the same time. As a boy is searching for his dog, calling its name (diegetic sound) a little boy is singing “The Muffin Man” it could be argued that this is contrapuntal sound as the boy has lost his dog and it is becoming apparent that something bad has happened to the dog. The scene is then underwater and the famous Jaws music is being played as the camera pans around at children’s legs. This music is non-diegetic, creating mystery about where it came from and why it is there. The music speeds up as it gets closer to a boy’s legs and then it stops entirely. This is so that what just happened has an impact on the audience and it is all they are allowed to focus on. People begin to notice and the diegetic sound of speech is used. Children still play in the water, however the diegetic sound of their splashes is suppressed by the sound of the little boy being tumbled around in the water. There is then pleonastic and diegetic sounds of the boy’s muffled screams for help as he gets dragged under the water.

my first ideas

research into different camera work

Camera Shots, Angles, Movement (SAM)

Establishing shot

An establishing shot is usually the first shot of a scene, designed to show the audience where the scene is taking place.

Extreme long shot

An extreme long shot is used to set the scene in a more detailed way than in that of an establishing shot.

Long Shot

A long shot is usually used to show the body language of characters. While the main focus is on the characters, elements of the background are still prominent.

Mid-Long Shot

A mid-long shot usually shows the character from the thighs to the top of the head and is normally used for dialogue scenes.

Mid Shot

This is used for more detail of a mid-long shot.

Close Up

Used to show more detail and show the character’s facial expressions.

Extreme Close Up

The shot is so tight only a person’s eyes, for example, can be seen. Usually used to create an intense atmosphere.

sub genres of thrillers

Thriller Sub-genres

Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer’s moods, giving them a high level of anticipation, heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and terror.

Action Thriller: This is more common in movies than in novels because of the visual appeal of explosions and violence. An example of this kind of thriller would be The Dark Knight.

Crime Thriller: This sub-genre focuses on crime and is usually from the criminal’s perspective. Physical action and eluding the police take the place of gathering evidence and trying to discover the criminal. An example of this type of thriller would be The Usual Suspects.

Psychological Thriller: In this sub-genre a lot of the conflict is mental rather than physical. The protagonist has become involved in a dangerous situation which literally threatens their sanity. They use mental prowess to overcome their opponent, whether the battle is inside their own head or it is a battle of wits. An example of a psychological thriller would be Shutter Island.

Medical Thriller: A medical thriller involves something usually used for medical purposes becoming a deadly weapon. Often this is some sort of virus leaking out into the public. An example of this kind of thriller would be Contagion.

Romantic Thriller: In a typical romantic thriller, the plot line follows a thriller’s tension, suspense and excitement. But the main element of the movie is the growing relationship between two characters. Ex Machina is an example of a romantic thriller.

Supernatural Thriller: In this sub-genre otherworldly elements are introduced, usually as an antagonistic force, but just as in a romantic thriller, the plot line and feel are distinctly that of thrillers. Some characters may have psychic abilities. A well-known supernatural thriller is Paranormal Activity.

Mystery Thriller: A mystery thriller differs from a mystery by being much more fast paced, with the protagonist on the run and the threat of another crime serving as the “ticking clock”. Psycho is a mystery thriller movie.

prelim task part 2

Preliminary Task Shoot

Two weeks ago we went into groups of four as a class and shot the preliminary task. We were given a script to follow and were left to our own devices to create the video. Last week we spent the lesson editing the shots together to create a video.

We began with a wide shot in order for the audience to establish the scene and get an idea of the kind of space the characters were in. We then cut to a close-up of character “A” as she says “You’ve got to do it before they come” which displays an example of diegetic sound. We cut to this close-up shot to give the audience more detail of the characters and it also helps to intensify the scene.

After a second close-up of character “B” we cut to an extreme close-up of character A’s eyes, this was also used to intensify the scene and helps the audience notice small details about the characters, and brings across a sense of the emotion the characters are feeling.

After the audience establish the small details of the characters and get a sense of the intensity and emotions shown through these small details, we cut to a mid-shot of character A walking out and pausing with her hand on the door and as she just started to pull the handle we cut to an extreme close-up of the door handle opening and left the camera hovering over the scene in order to let the audience watch character A walk away and the door handle close. The sound of the door closing, which I feel would have worked well if we had exaggerated it to make it pleonastic, gave the scene a sense of closure.

To add to this sense of closure we cut to an extreme close-up of character B looking out at where character A had just left. We did this to encourage the audience even further towards the idea that character B was left alone in the room and were thinking through their decisions. When filming this extreme close up, character A was actually still walking out the door so we decided to get rid of the sound in this clip as you could hear the door shutting. Despite this being a good idea, it means that the end of the clip is entirely silent meaning it makes the audience feel slightly disorientated and gives a sense of the scene being other-worldly as in our world, there is always background noise. If we had more time I would have added in some background noise on the end shot of the close-up.

If I were to redo this task I would probably have chosen not to be character B as I’m not a actress and I feel as if I could have contributed a lot more if I were behind the camera or directing the camera. The director of our group did not really push us as a group in the right direction so the person on the camera was left to sort everything for themselves which was unfair I believe.

I also think I would have made it more interesting and put a twist on it like either made it humorous or gone all out serious because I feel as though the mood of the sequence is trying to be very intense but is actually relatively relaxed.

Furthermore, we could have perfected the shots more as some of the shots we began in one place, realised it was the wrong place for this type of shot, and decided to pan the camera across so that it was in the right place. However I feel it would have been much cleaner if we had set up the camera in the correct place to begin with, and it would mean editing the shots together a lot easier.

We should have had someone in particularly looking out for continuity as instead we were all looking out for it while trying to focus on our own personal tasks. This lack of a lookout meant that when going back through the videos we spotted a few continuity errors that should have been prevented.

prelim task part 1

prelim part 1

Last lesson we were in the studio learning how to film a sequence. Matt talked us through everything and told us what we had to do and how to do it and then we were split into groups and were told to film a specific task which was given to us on a piece of paper.

As a group of four we were working with the editing suite as our set, using the Sony FS100. We assigned ourselves different roles within the set, we had a camera man, a director and two actors. We began with filming the wide shot as this is the first on the scene and once we have this shot established and done so that we are happy with it, it means we can then get on to the more interesting shots and move the camera around a lot more for close ups etc. We filmed the entire sequence with this one shot to make it easier when it comes to editing. The scene involved two characters, “A” and “B”. I played character B and although it was a simple script, we attempted to make it more dramatic by using different camera angles.

The second shot we filmed was a behind the shoulder shot. We first did this behind my shoulder, looking at Sofia or character “B”. When filing this we filmed the whole script through from beginning to end so that when it came to editing it means we can cut and edit the clip to what we want, it makes the footage easier to manipulate. We then did the same over the shoulder shot but this time it was over Sofia’s shoulder, looking at me. Again we filmed the entire sequence using this one angle.

After doing those shots so that we were happy with them, we moved on to close ups. The first close up we did was of my face as I spoke. This shot was used to help the audience establish the kind of emotions they should be feeling and the kind of emotions the character is feeling. We then did the same close up of Sofia, again going through the whole sequence again.

We then, after establishing these essential shots, decided to play around and see what else we could do. We decided to film a shot of Sofia walking out through the door to add to the dramatic effect of her last line. We then filmed a shot of the door handle from beginning to end when she first opened the door, to when her hand lingered on the handle before she stormed out.

We attempted to make Sofia look like she was the powerful one in the scene. To do this we put the camera up high and I looked up at it. This was an attempt to make me look small and weak, vulnerable even. Despite our efforts, the shot just wasn’t quite working in the way we wanted it to so we gave up. It would have worked if we had filmed all of the shots at this same angle, however we didn’t have time to redo the shots and decided to work with what we had already.

This was our set last lesson:

editing workshop 1

IN THE studio (01/10/15)

Last lesson we were learning about how to edit together the videos we had made the week before. We were using a programme called Adobe Premiere Pro to help us do this. We were given a quick tutorial to begin with on how the programme works and general terminology we need to know in order to work the programme efficiently.

We began by getting into pairs or groups of three and watching the videos from last week so that we could get to know our footage. These clips are kept in folders called bins.This was so that when it came to putting it all together we were aware of the kind of shots we had and could easily and quickly manipulate the footage. We then saved copies of the footage we think we might want to use so that we don’t mess up the original data if we decide to change something.

After watching the clips a few times we learnt how to cut them to the footage that we wanted. To do this you click where you want the clip to start from and press CTRL+I for IN, and to cut the clip so it stops where you want it to stop you press CTRL+O for OUT. We then drag this clip onto the video timeline where we can put in more clips and create a whole video. You must always put the clip you wish to be played on top of the previous clip as the programme will always play the highest clip.

We repeated this step with all of our chosen clips until we had made a full scene that we were happy with. We had one issue with our clips which was that one of our extreme close up shots was very short and so when we cut from a mid-shot to the extreme close up it didn’t quite look right.

This lesson was so helpful as this is the programme we will be using throughout the year so to get a basic understanding so soon is very helpful and means we can get to grips with the more detailed stuff later on without having to learn about the basics as well as that.