Sound Analysis
The sound within horror movies is an important aspect as it helps build the suspense and create tension. This is ideal as it can be a make or break of a horror movie. Within a horror the conventional sound could be used for example, a scream, heavy breathing and low music. Or to challenge convention happier music could be used for example in Insidious a rare high pitched non-digetic sound that although is seemed as a happy song is turned sinister by being used to portray horror; this works effectively.
The Grudge (2004)
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This trailer has both diegetic, sound where the source is visible on screen, and non-diegetic, sound where the source is not visible on screen, sounds. the spooky music in the background is an example of diegetic sound. And the woman's breaths and mumbles are examples of non-diegetic sound. This makes the movement/scene more effective. The intense soundtrack playing in the background make the audience feel uncomfortable as it builds up and up until the audience are on the edge of their seats, waiting for something to happen. The odd little sounds of the uri in the backgrounds, grabs the attention of the audience. The soundtrack placed on The Grudge is not the best. This is because it doesn't fit well with the clips and doesn't cause an intriguing atmosphere. It is beneficial to us to realise this mistake because it mean we will be a lot more particular with regards to the sounds used in our trailer.
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The Conjuring (2013)
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There is a lot of diegetic sound in this trailer. The dialogue is the most prominent in the first part, with just a few slight background sounds. This is good because it means the audience can understand the story and may become relaxed to begin with, before it all changes. As we progress further into the trailer we come across some contrapuntal sound. 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' by Donovan plays in the background. This is unusual because the scene is not a light-hearted groovy scene, like the music, it is dark, with creepy subtitles appearing. We then experience the traditional sounds, there is loud screaming and dramatic banging as the story unfolds. The music and sounds near the end match what is really happening rather than contrapuntal sound. For example, when there is something scary, the sound gets louder and scary, with banging sounds at each significant point or title.
The Omen (2006)
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This trailer has a very unique use of sound. Basically, it uses hardly any sound, but in the most effective way. This trailer has no background sound, just slight noises of all of the things in the shots, when they move. This is very interesting because it encouraged the audience to concentrate on one sound at a time within the shot. This allows the audience to overthink about what might happen and make them feel overly uncomfortable throughout. We feel that this is an amazing use of sound, and the director has really considered how the audience will feel whilst watching it. This will help us an awful lot when I consider sounds for our trailer because we will be more open to assessing how the audience will react.
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Orphan (2009)
To begin with, the trailer has happy music and does not seem like a horror movie. It builds up with only dialogue and a positive background music. Then the sounds gets a little more creepy, but still with dialogue. As the trailer progresses, so does the music. The music and sound effects get more and more intense until the audience are waiting for the climax. This is very powerful because it makes the audience want to watch it more due to them just waiting for something more to happen. Not just the sound effects and music progresses throughout, so does the dialogue. We can notice that to begin with the dialogue has a, sort of, angelic ora. However, towards the end, the protagonist's voice changes, it sounds much more sinister and has been well edited with extra sounds included.
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Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)
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Insidious 3 uses a very interesting choice of sound. Half way through this trailer, 'tip toe through the tulips' by Tiny Tim plays. Insidious therefore uses contrapuntal sound, which is where the sounds contradicts the setting. For example, happy music in a sad scene. Insidious have taken a light hearted, comedic song, and given it a sinister twist. The nice music makes it even creepier because it could be trying to give the audience a fake sense of security, however, it makes the audience feel much more uncomfortable and builds tension because it is very unexpected for this song to be made scary.
After researching the sound within other trailers we decided on the sound we wanted to use within our trailer. We decided to go with convention with our sound and we used tension building slow music at the start and towards the end (alongside fast pace editing) we included up beat dramatic music in order to show the panic of our victims.