As Media studies blog- Jess Travers
The importance of sound
Sound plays a huge role in any film genre; thrillers typically use a film’s soundtrack to create suspense, atmosphere and tension. The violin is possibly the most noticeable instrument used to convey these emotions onto the big screen; and they typically make the audience feel uncomfortable, alongside indicating that something bad is about to happen. The violins ability to hit high, shrill notes is what makes post-production teams favour it for building mystery and tension. This is just a small insight into how the production team can create an atmosphere and influence how the audience feels in every shot. Alongside having the ability to make the film, the sound department also have the ability to break it. Matching the wrong music to the wrong shots can make a film appear disjointed and out of place. I will demonstrate with an example outside of the thriller genre: The death of Drew Barrymore’s character in Scream the opening.
The first 10 minutes of scream revolves around only diegetic sound- non-diegetic sound plays no part in setting the beginning atmosphere, (refer to the Scream Opening review in my ‘exploring genre’ section from my blog). However, as the antagonist is revealed (the Scream character) non-diegetic sound comes creeping in. Violins play crudely over the death of Drew Barrymore’s character, making the audience feel even more uncomfortable than they already were with no background music. Not only should the stabbing and abuse of Barrymore’s character dramatically affect the audience, but the added soundtrack creates depth and a realistic feel to the scene. The combination of instrumental background noise and diegetic sound creates the horror atmosphere; and this would not have been achieved if a gentle piano soundtrack was played overhead-the scenes would have been gruesome, but on the other hand slightly comedic with the completely controversial music playing. This is a great example of how music must be chosen appropriately according to the genre.
An example of how music can influence the delivery and tension of a thriller would be the end shots of Inception by Christopher Nolan. The entire plot leads up to this moment and the Hans Zimmer soundtrack played a HUGE part in creating the gravity behind this scene.
Unfortunately the ‘collapsing of the dream’ scene is unavailable to me- due to copyright reasons, but the music is.
Linking back to my previous comments about violins, this particular piece of music clearly over-uses violins to a dramatic extent; fully building up all tension and adding depth/gravity to the end of Inception. However, while in other films this loud, dramatic non-diegetic sound may have swamped the on-screen action, Inception balances perfectly between plot and music; they mould together seamlessly.
This aspect of flow between film and soundtrack is what my partner and I plan on creating with our 2 minute opening. The music for our spy thriller has to match that of the shots so the audience can become more involved in the story.
I will conclude with Jaws. The soundtrack from Jaws is famous through all generations for tension and suspense. The easily recognisable theme leaves each note short and high; leading the audience to believe something else is about to happen. The slow build-up of speed, naturally builds tension in the audience until the shark is revealed. This ‘theme tune’ is now world widely associated with sharks themselves, but is also a signature example of how music can not only give the audience clues into the upcoming action about to unfold, but of how clever use of non-diegetic sound can get an audience to the edge of their seats. Following this, my partner and I would not like to overwhelm our audience with intricate, over the top music; sticking to the thriller genre we will use earie music that suggests something else will happen.