Soundtrack

Music/soundscapes

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMp7ooAryLA - Dark ambient, suspenseful soundscape

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVXyDYEUdRg - into the depths – suspenseful soundscape

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7NpG1I0i-c - Scary ambient, creepy, mysterious soundscape

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djQvjW0lEX8  - The Maze runner,

Triumphant/ thriller music

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3-YGVb6Tbw - Gravity theme – triumphant/thriller music/ Build up

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmL9FfEWjrc - Final chosen soundtrack

Our choices of songs were quite similar in most aspects as they were all soundscapes, which I felt would work best for our thriller opening. They were quite dark and mysterious which was the right feel for our opening, as upbeat or even climatic music wouldn't work, as our character is not shown to be in any sort of climatic situations. However one soundscape I compared our choices to was one from the film ‘Gravity’ in which the sounds begin quiet and calm, then getting progressively climatic, this type of sound had potential to work well with our piece as it begin s calm with ‘Frank’ simply walking to/around his house, but climaxes when we see the bloody arm.

The main influences of our choice of music (5 & 6) were very useful as they showed us what types of music was used in actual thriller films. The music from ‘The Maze Runner’ was useful in demonstrating how music can be used at a faster pace to show suspense or even triumph in a scene using an array of sounds, mainly by including strings. However the opening music in the video (5) we found was far to triumphant for a thriller opening like ours so we wanted something far more mysterious that didn’t make the opening too much like a horror film.

The theme music for ‘Gravity’ was very influential in our final decision because it showed more of a build up in the music and how that can be used to create suspense and build up to a certain point in a scene. The music begins very quiet with few string instruments playing, showing more of a peaceful atmosphere but the music gradually built up, intruding more and more instruments however, this was again too triumphant for a film like ours but the idea of a gradual build up would be useful for similar music for our opening.

Sound 1

I felt that the first song would work well for our opening as it gave it the most ominous/mysterious feel without making the opening seem to much like a horror opening. That was the main problem in finding suitable music for our opening, the mystery and dark atmosphere around the footage gave a danger of it becoming a horror opening so we had to find a suitable sound that would help maintain this mysterious atmosphere, while keeping the thriller genre.

The music is a soundscape and was easily accessible to us as long as we simply emailed the copyright holder for permission to use it first, this did not appear to be a problem as it was evident in the comments of the video on YouTube that many people to

Sound 2

The second song we found was similar to our first one as it was a soundscape, however this one had a range of horror like sounds (e.g. short high pitched string sounds and mysterious whispers). I felt that parts of the soundscape could have been useful for our piece however the majority of it had too much of am horror like aspect.

Sound 3

I felt that sound 3 was far too horror like for our opening and would instantly make it sound like horror opening because as the music progressed, it had a lot of sudden high pitched string sounds which conformed to those used in horror films

Sound 4

The actual music we decided on (6) I found was most effective because is had the right balance of mystery and suspense for our opening. The music is mainly piano with the addition of some string instruments that is played at as fast yet casual pace but builds as the song plays. I believe this was the most effective music as the building up towards the end correlated well with our opening as it first appears calm with Frank walking towards his house, but the suspense builds and builds as we see things like the bloody hammer.  This means that the music would appear casual at first but would build up as the suspense of our thriller builds up.

 Audience feedback of chosen soundscapes

For our audience feedback we asked 2 people questions about the different soundscapes we chose and which ones they believed worked best. They were shown around 30-60 seconds of each piece of music and then answered a series of questions

Questions

• Which of the 4 soundscapes did you think was most effective?
• Do you think they conveyed he right amount of suspense?
• After seeing our thriller opening, which sound do you think would work best?Why?
• What elements did you think worked best in the soundscape you chose for the previous question?