Soundtrack

The soundtrack of a thriller film contains many components, as music is not the only element to accompany the action. 


Diegetic Sound

Diegetic sound is any sound emitted from a person or object within the diegesis, and seen within the field of vision. Such as a phone ringing or,more relevant to thriller films, sounds such as gunshots and screams. Diegetic sound is important in building up the story as the most common form of diegetic sound is the dialogue between characters.  

This clip, an extract from the 2006 spy- thriller 'Stormbreaker' demonstrates a lot of diegetic sound amongst the action. For example, the sound of the bicycle tyres screeching and car horns although exaggerated in the editing process are still diegetic sounds which build tension. Furthermore, other sounds such as a power washer in the garage and the machinery in the scrap yard are all diegetic sound and the building music indicates that Alex may be in danger and a fight scene may follow.  

Non- diegetic Sound

Non- diegetic sound is sound that does not come from the diegesis or usually seen within the field of vision, but is in fact added afterwards during the editing process. 

The most noticeable of non - diegetic sounds used within the thriller genre, is the score or song accompanying the action. The following link gives samples of lots of soundtracks to thriller films, I focused especially on the fifth up from the bottom entitled "Suspenseful mystery 1" 

http://www.yookamusic.com/playlist/soundtracks_suspense_thriller

This soundtrack is a good example of the orchestral, building music often used within thriller films to build tension. This piece especially is minor which adds to the eerie sound, as well as building slowly to a crescendo and there is an intentional high pitch, squeaky sound produced by the string instruments which adds drama and an ominous quality to the piece.

Sound Effects

Sound effects are the enhanced / artificial sounds that are created and added to a sequence during the editing process. Typical sound effects include things like the exaggerated sound of a gunshot, a scream, a car horn, tyres screeching and so on. The following links are all examples of sound effects that could be used to enhance a Thriller and create/ build tension. 


http://soundbible.com/1998-Gun-Fire.html

http://soundbible.com/1627-Female-Scream-Horror.html

http://soundbible.com/1707-Hearbeat-2.html

Application

Within our own thriller opening we will be using various elements of the soundtrack to help add to the tense atmosphere of the clip. For example, we have within our thriller the diegetic sound of the actresses heels on the concrete making a clip clop sound which intensifies the scene as he have enhanced this sound to be louder and more dramatic during the editing process, moreover our opening includes non- digetic sound also such as the score of our film which includes slowed down, orchestral music. Lastly, our thriller opening contains the sound effects of a gunshot, dripping tap and the sound of falling rain which is also an ambient, background sound before the intense and suspenseful score takes over. 


Sources: www.yookamusic.com, Wiki, Google, Youtube, soundbible.com

Editing Process 4

Last week as a group we were continuing to edit and decided on this style for the name of the film and as the initial opening shot to introduce our thriller opening as we felt that it set the style of our Hollywood glamour 1940's theme from the offset.

In between making minor changes to the titles we were mainly focused on the soundtrack last week which we have been really struggling to get right. The transition from the up tempo jazz piece as our main character enters to the ominous and intentionally difficult to listen to music as the murder takes place was extremely difficult to get right as an abrupt change from one to the other did not sound quite right, therefore we spent time on garage band attempting to create a new piece that would blend together better.

After spending time on garage band we are far happier with the new piece as there is now not such an abrupt ending and it is a far smoother transition which matches the tone of the piece and adds dramatic effect to our piece.

The screen shot above shows how our titles currently appear on top of a shot, we are pleased with the overall presentation of the titles and researched the correct order that the titles should go in, to further authenticate our thriller opening.

On returning after the Christmas break we intend to re - film some footage to increase the quality of our thriller opening and improve the overall piece as we feel that it is not long enough as some of the footage did not turn out well and therefore by re filming we will be able to add another shot to the sequence.

Editing Process 3

During this week as a group we had been continuing to edit our thriller opening but had been focusing more on fine tuning the last details as opposed to making big changes. We were adding certain sound effects to make our opening more authentic such as the sound of rain, the clip clop of the actresses' high heels for dramatic effects and the sound of blood dripping into a glass. The only issue we had with this stage of the editing process was matching the timing of the sound with the image but after some trial and error we were happy with the end result.  

This week we also added the titles to our thriller as can be seen from the screen shot above, originally we used multiple different style of font and effects for the titles but after looking over and researching further opening titles we decided that we needed to chose just one key effect and style to keep consistent throughout the entire thriller opening. Eventually we settled on the above font type as it is bold and we liked the contrast of white and red which fitted the theme of our story well and we were pleased with how it looked.

Lastly, we were making some final edits to our titles as we decided to have some title screens breaking up shots for dramatic effect, not just accompanying an image over the top.