Final Product - Thriller Opening

Bound Together Sound

Sound Composition : http://goanimate.com/videos/0bXX-U5gEt6s?utm_source=linkshare&uid=0FGaWGb4gDjs

As i was incharge of sound, i researched Generic thriller soundtracks from movies such as Se7en and also directors such as David Lynch, who create a more distort soundtrack which i thought would work quite well with our opening. I wanted an industrial drone tone of sound that added to the eerie ambience of the opening. I had to search high and low to find the perfect drone as i wasn't able to use the ones on youtube due to copyright. I finally found the drone i needed on a free sfx site and it was just a matter of building the soundtrack around that on Garage band.

As some of the shots in the first scene were centered around a school site, i needed to portray that with the soundtrack. Therefore i had to find sounds of children laughing whilst the female protagonist was being bullied, as well as get the sound effect of water dripping in the toilets , then imported them into the soundtrack. Whilst shooting the shots of the Antagonist arriving with the trolly, we realised we would not be able to fully hear the trolly move if we filmed the sound and the shot at the same time (if you get what i mean). So we had to go through a few steps to get the sound of the trolly.
Step 1 - Get the red bucket on top of the trolly and put the camera inside it.
Step 2 - ensure that the camera is stable and will not fall out
Step 3 - press record on the camera then walk around with the trolly a few times, making sure we have more than enough sound to select from
Step 4 - Edit the sound and import it into the scene with precise timing.

After gathering all the sounds needed it was just a matter of editing, triming, moving and pasting the sounds to the soundtrack with specific timing. with the drone continuously playing throughout the opening i had to add echoes, crescendos and diminuendos to the climax and intense points in the opening , change the key a few times and add eerie effects to it. Overall creating the final soundtrack to Bound ToGetHer. :)

 

Audio Research

For our audio research im torn between a more
abstract composition of music or either a more
conventional tone of music in relation to the thriller opening.
As our storyline is unconventional and has a twist in the end, a more abstract sound would create suspense and ambience, also adding a meaning behind to our thriller. However as our thriller is more mainstream and would be produced by film production companies such as paramount pictures, 20th Century Fox , Universal etc.

Composed by Balthazar, the first soundtrack is from Winter Voices, a game a narrative-driven, episodic, role-playing game set in an imaginary and timeless world at the start of the Industrial Revolution. The battles' music reflects the intense emotions of the young character and the dreamlike atmosphere in which they take place. The electronic soundtrack first starts off with a drum that slightly sounds like a metronome, the music then builds and an electronic piano comes in as the music crescendos, different instruments then follow creating tension.

 

The next sound track starts off with a drone, following orchestral violins and other string instruments with a drum. This composition has a great effect as it keeps the audience guessing and if used in our thriller, it would keep the suspense going and also would createa spooky ambience. As sound is a very key aspect of any productions, we have to keep in mind what effect we're trying to convey and what sound would best suit to it.

 

 

Thinking outside the box: Foreign Expectations Of A Thriller!

Hansel and Gretal (2007)

After a stressful day, and spending the night in, I decided to watch a Korean Horror film Hansel and Gretal. The film is subverted from the original Brothers Grimm tale and similarly reminded me of Angela Carter's Bloody Chamber series.

The film starts off with Eun-Soo driving whilst
 talking to his pregnant girlfriend. A quarrel arises which leads him to crash and becomes unconscious. He suddenly wakes up to find himself in the deep dark forest to which he sees light from a lantern that a young girl is carrying. She introduces herself as Young-Hee as they head for her house where she and her family live. Their large house is in the middle of the forest called the "House of Happy Children". After entering the House, many cynical secrets are discovered and revealed  to Eun-Soo which he tries to run away from.

Watching the first two minutes of the movie showed traits of both a thriller and a horror film. The beginning is first set to introduce us to the deep dark forest which gives the sense of entrapment, being lost, a claustrophobic impression. The Soundtrack for the two minutes similarly remind me of The hand that rocked the cradle in the way that the music sounded childishly cynical.



At the start of the film, extreme close up shots were
used to show the toys the children would play with. however with the low key lighting accompanied by the cynical soundtrack, an element of unease is created within the audience.



The use of showing children's toys in a faded sort of effect look almost washable, as if it were only vivid memories. The shots look as though there are two shots of two different locations applied to on which confuses the viewers as we aren't what images should our eyes be concentrating on.


Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the twisted unexpected end to the movie. Even though this film is a horror, however i felt that the plot was creative in the sense that it was simple and unexpected at the same time.

I'm listening... Slender Man Sounds- Audio Research

As I do with my free time, I venture out into playing games and one which has recently caught my eye (or should i say ear!) is Slender Man. The successful horror game is where you are set in the dark forests with a torch and the aim is to go find these pages. however doing this you get the Slender San who occasionally appears in front of you, or to which you might run into. If you stare at the Slender Man or you hover around the are he is in or too long it is game over for you. Whilst playing this game I was influenced by the backing track of this. The emphasis of the footsteps and the crunch of the leaves made me feel cautious of where i was moving my avatar. With this sounds of the wind, birds tweeting were also accompanied to make the experience seem more realistic. The static electric guitar sound give it an edge to the audience as the obscured sound rounds off the game when you die in the hands of Slender Man. Even though this isn't a film and is only a game, I think that the influence in anoher media concept could be applied to our coursework. Both the game and out film have similar motives in which they are able to start to scare or in fact literally scare the audience. What we want for our audience is to be able to experiance the thrill and the rush of adrenaline to which i think the soundtrack of Slender Man does extremely well whilst also playing the game. 

Thinking Outside The Box: Foreign Expectations Of A Thriller!

Being a BBC ( British born Chinese) and being highly influenced with oriental media, I thought it would be influential to look at foreign thriller movies and how they tackle the genre.

Old Boy (2003)    

Old Boy is a Korean thriller about Oh Dae-Su who is kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, he is finally released to which he has to find his kidnapper within 5 days. What I like about this movie is the sense of mystery and enigma it brings to the audience. What I liked about the beginning of the movie is the use of a flashback, switching from the present to the past to slowly reveal the narrative. At fist sight, it gives a complex insight to what happened to him, which us as the audience are immediately confused and a series of questions are bought up. The impression of it knowing, the lack of knowledge and information is what I think makes this a successful action thriller. The sense of suspense, thrill, adrenaline and action create a tense atmosphere when watching. It's different to the typical mainstream thriller in the sense that the villain isn't who a generic villain would be. This South Korean thriller is so successful that there is going to be an American remake of the movie with Spike Lee directing it.