Sound

Sound

Thriller Sound Conventions

• Tense music which builds up pace
• Natural sounds to make it relatable
• Silence is often used to create suspense
• Non diegetic music throughout the majority of the film to create a sound bridge for the eerie atmosphere
• Not too much dialogue
• Relies heavily upon post-production sounds
• Sonic exaggeration to build upon tension
• High-pitched sounds to make the audience feel uncomfortable
• Sometimes inner monologues or narrators are used

Sounds we used

When it comes to diegetic sound within our opening sequence, we did not use any dialogue and therefore do not have a script, however the sound of the wind and crunching of leaves being walked on created a realistic atmosphere.

As you can see in the screenshot above, we used a variety of different sound effects and music clips we found in post-production editing to create a tense atmosphere throughout our opening. The most common sound effect we used was the forest one in order to add background noise, making it seem as though the opening is set in an actual wood/farm land. To do this we carefully selected and edited different non-diegetic sounds.

In order to add to the tension, we used a piece of non-diegetic music which we found on YouTube to keep the creepy tension building throughout (Creepy - tension_Suspense). This kept a smooth sound bridge through all of the clips making it seem as though we were only using one soundtrack rather than multiple short sound clips.

An additional feature to the sound in our opening sequence is the use of footsteps on mud which we have added throughout to emphasise the location the protagonist is in. As well as this, we used a sound clip of a female breathing heavily to highlight the character's panic as she realises what is going on.

To create the final noise of the gun being shot, we used a flash-bang sound clip, shown above. This, alongside the gun sound and heartbeat created an eerie tension, parallel with the video playing of a flash.