Sound evaluation

The same day that we filmed in the field for the second time (21st January), we went back to my house and recorded some sounds on my piano, where there is a voice setting of 'strings'. We thought this would be ideal to make our music on because it is the usual sound made in horror films and would conform to the genre.
 

The first sound that we recorded was a general backing track that lasted for two minutes. At the same time as recording, we had our film opening playing on another phone so that we could see when to build up the noise to add more suspense and make it more like a horror sound track - hence why 'faceless1' is two minutes long. The second sound recorded was a short burst of one of the higher keys, still set on 'strings', so at any point where it became suspenseful or at the pivotal point in the scene we could add it.
 

If we were to improve next time, we would discuss exactly the sound we needed instead of playing as we went along because since recording it, we added in extra shots that don't go with the soundtrack we made. We could have also made more that were different which would then allow us to have a choice and see which were better for the scene.
 

Overall we worked well together and got it done quickly so we were able to add in sound the next day of editing.

Sound in our Student Made Production Scene

Sound plays as an important factor within a film, and is included in the post production stage of film making. Sound can range from sound effects and music, and this can have four terms, parallel - in which it fits with the on screen images, which is what most films should do as they are trying to create something believable and something that is not ridiculous. Contrapuntal is where the sound does not go with the on-screen images, and usually ruins a scene with how the sound within it is different to the scene we are watching, unless it is done for comedic affect but done in a horror film would not work as well. Visible sound on screen is diegetic, and an example of this would be when the demon in Insidious listens to his recording of Tiny Tim's Tiptoe Through The Tulips, and in the same film, non-diegetic film would be the original score for the theme of the film which played during the title sequence as this cannot be heard by the characters and is not visible. When creating a student made film, we have to be careful not to use copyrighted material, including sound effects. We could not use music from famous horror films as the score created for those are copyrighted and not available to anyone who doesn't pay for the rights to use a certain song. For our student made production, we had to create an original piece of music for our film that we would use, or get a piece of music that is uncopyrighted and royalty free. We also need sound effects that we created ourselves, or sound that is not copyright and one that is royalty free because we do not want to have our production, if it was real, sued for copyright or taken down due to a copyright law that does not allow us to use a certain piece of music. Creating our own things also makes us more practical. We need to find sound with instruments that we think would fit parallel and non-diegetic with the on-screen images, and something that would not make a mockery of our production with wacky cartoonish and out of place sound effects and music added for dramatic tension that is turned into comedic keyboard sounds.

Sound editing

After creating the sounds we needed for the scene, we had to incorporate them into different parts in the background that would sound appropriate. Unfortunately the sounds that we made were basic and just the one instrument didn't sound professional, so even though we used them at certain points, we still had to edit in some horror sound effects.

We looked up non-copyrighted horror sound tracks and looked through videos until we found one that was appropriate and suspenseful enough for the chase scene at the end. We also looked for more basic ones that would run through the whole time and overlapped with the ones that we made to make it sound better. This didn't take long yet still sounded professional, because we edited it to go along with different parts of the scene and added the options of fading in and fading out - something we used when the main title ('Faceless') appeared.

If there was anything that could have been changed, it would be that we could have made all of the soundtrack and used it because it would provide us with a more original piece, but it also allows us to know that we should plan for next time to make it as good as possible.

Sound in Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Sound in New Nightmare

Wes Craven's continuiation of the Nightmare in Elm Street series with the title 'New Nightmare', effectively uses sound that is both non-diegetic and diegetic to the scene in it's opening.

The scene begins with the production logos, with the sound of children playing in the distance. This of course for the fans who watch this film for the original, will know that this links to the accident occurring in a school, which has playgrounds. This is almost a homage to the originals, and builds tension to what the fans will see next of their franchise as the production logos end.

Non-diegetic sound is used in the opening scene too, with movements of a robotic hand that seems sentient, and a hammer being smacked against an anvil like a blacksmith. There is also fire crackling in a furnace, which relates to the anvil as that is how blacksmiths make their things. The sound clearly indicates this, and they are very loud with the hammer banging against the anvil, and the robotic hand now on it's own, banging against a surface. There is also steam seeping into a room, the noises clearly audible as paying attention to the sound can build or create tension, but because the lack of sounds in a dark setting makes the audience scared and prepared for a jump scare or anything related to horror.

One use of effective sound in the opening scene is the classic horror theme that is used in all of the previous films. This creepy nursery rhyme musical notes are diegetic, and they welcome the audience back to the characters that were in the franchise and absent for a while. This is effective because it creates an effect of nostalgia, a good example of this is Star Wars, hearing the main theme is nostalgic and magical for some people; so if fans of Nightmare on Elm Street return to the franchise with the chilling theme playing, they will like it more for the nostalgia that they remember. The music is made up of a piano playing high notes that drone for a short while, and it almost sounds as if a child is humming to it. This of course, makes the sound a lot more chilling and effective, because there is something awfully eerie about children singing nursery rhymes in horror films, and is also a conform for a horror to have such a thing. The notes for the piece of music become louder and more audible as the scene progresses, which fits with the scene on hand because at the beginning where it is faint you can only see tools and a normal hand, but as the scene progresses you recognise the character for his signature appeal, such as his red and green jumper, and his 3rd degree burns on his hands. The reason for the music picking up at this point is because the theme relates to your brain, as you slowly recognise who those hands are, you remember the eeriness of the character and what he does, and the special theme that he is remembered for, just like the character Darth Vader and the Imperial March theme, the two are connected, and play a big part for the character and who you want to see him as depending on what music they play when the character is on screen. The presence of this character is scary, and creepy, for the nostalgic presence of him and the theme for him that follows. Near to the end of the scene where he sets down the robot hand, things become calm, and then there is an unsteady musical note as the cleaver comes into shot, and then it picks up as he aims at his other hand, and just as he is about to strike it the scene cuts.

Sound is a very effective element within a horror, and using non-diegetic is usually more scary than using diegetic, because if the characters can hear the sounds too, then you feel like you are truly with them. They can hear the haunting music, and the chilling screams too, and tension builds as it either becomes louder or quieter depending on where they are.

Sound in Student made film opening

Analyzing Sound in a student made film opening

I decided to look on youtube for horror AS media film opening's in order to get an idea at what other students previously have done for their own music and to see how they might have made it themselves

A video I found of a short opening scene was Sleep tight:

This short opening has lots of good examples of what diegetic and non-diegetic music would be good for sound. As the scene begins there is almost instantly slow strings being played as a shot of the house appears, giving the impression of suspense. 

The camera cuts to the girl in the house, on her computer, diegetic sound used of the keyboard being used as the girl types away. 

The camera once again changes to outside as we see a person approaching the house. There is diegetic gusts of wind to suggest a change of location, outside. Also footsteps have been put in and have been made to 'grunch' against the gravel as the mysterious person walks towards the house. This enhances the sound and brings the audience's attention closer to it. Diegetic sounds such as the keyboard typing and footsteps are used to show realism. it would be made simply by recording the noise pre-filming in order to get the exact sound wanted without background noise and place it in during the editing process.

 The non-diegetic sound ends as there is a knock on the door to signify that the 'stranger' has reached the house, creating suspense as the audience is drawn in waiting to see what danger lies ahead. The silent noise after the knock is meant to create  sense of isolation for the girl who we presume is home alone with someone dangerous knocking on her door. 

As the girl approaches the door there is a jump-scare, which is typical in horror film opening's to remind the audience that it is a scary film. As the 'monster' jumps out at the girl the strings become high pitched to signify danger.

Soundtrack for our Opening Scene

Opening Scene Soundtrack

For our opening scene we wanted to create our own soundtrack using Olivia's electirc keyboard, but we may not be able to create the sound that we want with that so I thought it would be a good idea to look for uncopyrighted music to use. 

We need a few different tracks for the scene; one for when the victim wakes up, another for while she's looking around, when the killer walks in and a final one for when the victim is being chased.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 

This youtube video is an hour of horror music which contains a large range of music that could work in certain situations in our scene. I really like the music from 24:13 to 26:26, it would be really good for the shots in the lair as it is dramatic but in a subtle way. I like the end of this section of music as it gets louder and the sense of tension increases which is what happens in the last few shots in the lair. So, I think that this music would be very good for our scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlLGwW7eHTI 

The music from 1:58:00 to 2:01:00 would be really good I think, I like how there is range of different sounds and some random piano notes over the top of a creepy tune that is quite quiet. I also like the muic at the start of this video because it is quiet but also ominous, so we could use it throughout the scene to build tension without having to use loud music. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjPAWbk5jKc

This soundtrack is quite good because the sounds are dramatic with a range of different noises in every part of the instrumental. At 11:41 it gets a bit more dramatic but it doesn't last for long. I don't think this one is good enough for our opening scene though because it doesn't really build tension in the way that we want the music to.

In conslusion, I think the first link of horror music would be best as it suits the scene more than the others do. If it isn't enough then we could layer in a few short parts of the other music and test it out to see how it sounds.

Friday the 13th - opening scene deconstruction

Deconstruction of a film opening in Friday the 13th

For my deconstruction of a film opening, I did Friday the 13th Part IV: Jason Lives. This is a 1986 Horror with a sub genre of Slasher, directed by Tom McLoughin and supernatural is a follow up of the original  Friday the 13th movie 

 The opening shot is a long establishing shot of the night sky, we can see a forest below. Stereotypical 'horror' mist is on screen and the non-diegetic sound is played on shrill strings. Despite the audience not knowing what is happening yet, the music creates an already eerie setting and is fits in with the image being shown. We can already tell from this establishing shot where the film is set, in a forest which is in an isolated location. This fits in the with the genre of horror/slasher as conventionally they are set in locations away from society and away from help. In this movie they use a forest which is purposely set at night with a full moon to create a 'supernatural' feel to it

As the characters drive down the road, we see a mid shot of a dog eating a fox. This grotesque imagery shows it is a slasher through it's blood and gore. We can hear the dog munching on it diegetically as well. 

 The camera cuts to one of the character's holding the infamous 'Friday the 13th' Mask, used as an iconograpy piece to link the six parts of the movies together and show it is still off the same franchise. This is also to create mystery as we, the audience, begin to wonder why they have possession of this mask and what happened to the killer and where are they taking the mask.

 A creative transition is used of a flash. Originally we see a close up shot of a gasoline bottle which then flashes to a new scene with the characters walking through the graveyard to signify a time differences as they have clearly arrived at their destination (The graveyard) We can tell by the diegetic lighting sound that the flash was meant to signify a bolt of lighting, a typical weather conventions in horror's to portray danger. The use of the character being located in a graveyard is to show the 'supernatural' theme as they are now in the place of the dead, clearly with a purpose to bury one of the graves up (as they have a spade in their hand) Graveyards are typically known for being scary at night, used as a way to frighten the audience.

Typography:

At the end of the opening scene, the title flashes up as if it is paint that has been splattered onto the wall. The colour red, of the text, is to show blood (a convention of a slasher film) and portray danger to the audience. 

I liked this opening scene as it gave an indepth introduction to the narrative story and introduced the characters and antagonist, which is important for a slasher story. However, from looking at it you can tell it is an out-dated film which is overly dramatic, something we can remove from our own to make it more realistic. 

Sound decontruction of a film opening

A Nightmare on Elm Street

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn_DjzN8410

The opening scene to A Nightmare on Elm Street begins with the noises of heavy breathing that is heard over machinery and the killer making tools out of metal. This is effective because hearing the human above the other sounds that should be louder makes the killer seem more dangerous than any of these items. The many diegetic sounds include filing / sawing metal, using a blowtorch and tapping metal to mould it into shape. This is accompanied by non-diegetic soundtrack of high pitched strings playing quietly in the background to build tension and suspense.
 

When the titles appear, the soundtrack starts to play a tune of two notes still of strings. The killer pierces his glove with knives on the fingers through a sheet of material which is accompanied with a scream, heightening the fear felt by the audience. The soundtrack gets lower and a woman runs down a corridor where there is dripping heard from pools of water on the floor, which is an easy sound to make. As she makes it to the end of the corridor, the soundtrack gets louder which generates more suspense and there is low, evil laughing heard at some points by the killer, who remains unseen, creating fear of the unknown in what is about to happen.
 

There is then more breathing before the woman turns around at a jump and a sheep runs into the corridor too, then there is a high menacing laugh, still unseen. The woman breathes in heavily at the scare and runs away. She climbs stairs in what appears to be a factory that is creating these metal, machinery and steam noises. There is a noise of a cog turning slowly and squeaks of machines as she still looks around, moving quickly. The camera pans down from where she is on a path above to the ground below where there’s a shadow that slowly moves and a laugh is heard again, building more and more fear.
 

She slowly walks through a narrow path where steam is heard and seen coming out of machines, and then the killer scratches his metal claw against a pipe to create a high squeaking noise. She turns towards it and we can see his claw tearing through material again and tearing downwards, making a ripping noise and his silhouette bursts through, and she starts to run away, breathing heavily and shrieking. She tries to hide but it is a dead end and he catches up, and she screams extremely loudly. However he walks past and there are many sheep and childlike noises again that get quieter. She walks forward slightly, confused, and then he bursts up behind her and shouts loudly, making her scream very loudly again.
 

This ends up being a dream and there is knocking on her bedroom door when she wakes up in a fright, and her mother talks to her for a minute before leaving.

 

The sounds used are very effective in this opening scene because they add a sense of horror and fear, and build a lot of suspense for jump scares which are always in horror films. All in all, most of these noises can be recreated quite easily. We wouldn’t ever be able to film in a factory that would make the machinery noises so couldn’t make them, nor would it be easy to make steam sounds from pipes. The rest of the diegetic sounds would be simple and effective to use to build fear in the audience. The non-diegetic soundtrack would be easy to make for me because there is a ‘voice’ setting on a piano I own called ‘strings’ and plays string music, so it is quick and wouldn’t cost anything to make or take a lot of effort.

Deconstruction of Sound in 'Halloween' (1978)

Halloween (1978)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELF1DCf1ChA

The opening scene to John Carpenter's 1978 horror film titled 'Halloween', begins with noises of just the wildlife that lives outside of the characters home. The sound of crickets chirping in the grass as the camera shot slowly zooms in to the house we are shown at night. The use of crickets establishes a continuity of how there is a sense of reality and time moving forward, as it is night and you can hear things around the house instead of it being focused on just one thing.

In this scene, there is no title that says 'Halloween', it is an opening scene to establish what the film is with the gruesome and random murder that occurred in the house at the beginning, with no reason as to why, and we watch to find out.

Once the male and female teenagers go upstairs, the camera jump cuts back to outside, to slowly with a steadicam, pan around the house and explore. Little do we know until we see a hand reach for the kitchen drawer with the knives that we are watching from a point of view from the killer. To make this scene even more disturbing, we cannot hear the diegetic sound of him breathing, showing that he is a sociopath, and has no real emotion that causes a thrill inside him when he is committing a murder. Sound from the characters and effects are rather absent from this scene, but when we get the point of view shots from the killer, there are a few high pitched notes that happen, to show that he is progressing. After, there is a steady two high pitched noise, a non-diegetic sound as the characters cannot hear it. The two notes become low as the point of view character walks around, and alter between low and high to keep a calmness of the scene until the killer goes upstairs, once he sees the woman he is about to kill, the same beginning high pitched notes are head. Even though we know it is a point of view shot, because the killer is wearing a mask and we can see through the eye holes, we still do not hear him breathing, even when he is about to murder someone, showing how he is a sociopath, as his heart does not race at the thrill.

Then the sounds heard are stabs into the woman's body, where he is stabbing her repeatedly, as well as her muffled screams of pain, and the sounds from the non-diegetic are louder and continued at a high pitch to scare the audience with the eeriness of the scene. Once the woman is dead, the music dies down to a calm and slow tempo after its rushful and thrilling scene.

The sounds used for the opening scene of this film are effective, as they add a sense of fear into the scene with the fact that there is a sociopath who will quietly walk into your home, take your own kitchen knife and stab you to death without remorse. The fact that there is a tempo which picks up during the woman's murder is effective as it builds horror into the scene, and when the tempo slows back down to a few notes it has a new tension building scene where you wonder what will happen to the killer next as he walks away. The non-diegetic sounds would be rather easy to recreate, as all we would need is a keyboard that can play the same notes but in different pitches, and we can create the diegetic sounds of the stabbing with something simple, like a knife digging into a piece of meat.

Practical: sound effects

Inspiration:

I thought this was good inspiration because it was a montage of little sound effects that could be easily recreated in our film opening.

Using Final Cut Pro, I was able to make a similar montage of possible sound effects to use.

1. The first sound effect I made was a hammering noise. I made this by hitting an old sofa that was in the garage. It sounded realistic when I compared it to a real hammer noise, so I think it worked out well

2. The next noise I recorded was a door opening and closing from the outside. I used my garage door as it is very stiff and creaky, giving a good effect of the place being isolated and run-down. Recording it from the outside is also good for match on action shots when she emerges from the 'lair' and to get background noises like the wind that aren't easy to capture inside

3. Next is the same noise of the garage door but recorded from the inside. As mentioned before, it is effective for match on action purposes and was easy to make

4. The next noise is a knife sharpening sound that I created by scratching the tip of a metal knife against a wooden chopping board. This is a good noise for when Kelsey sees the killer 'preparing' something in the corner of the room

5. I created a dripping noise that would be used, for example, if there's a pool of blood that constant blood would be dripping into. I was able to make this noise with my mouth, so it was simple to make but hard to record for a long time because maintaining it after three drop noises was difficult as the mouth needs to not dry out

6. The last noise I created was a slow, sinister strings track. I own a piano that has different 'voice' settings on it, one of them being a 'strings' setting. This noise is just a sample of what the strings sound like, so I can make more and record more if needed which is extremely easy

Overall, all of these sound effects were very easy to create and would be good to use in a horror film. However, a disadvantage is that these were recorded using my phone so the quality wasn't of a high standard. To make these sound better and pick up less background noise, I would have to purchase a piece of recording equipment that would be expensive and difficult to use.