Planning Sounds - Miss Miller

Planning sounds 

Sound is vital within a thriller genre as it builds up key elements such as tension, surprise, shock and suspense which are important within a sequence as it helps the audience build relationships with the characters and enables them to become more engaged within the sequence. Sound is also important within emphasizing certain scenario's. Furthermore, sound is important as it impacts the audience regarding their feelings and emotions towards the sequence. I find that sound is the most important element to be able to manipulate and control during productions. Planning the sounds is required as it will give the producer an idea of what particular point during the sequence they would want the audience to be engaged more or particularly want a specific relationship to start building between the audience an the characters. It is important that the sounds link with the correct images being used as it will benefit and impact on the audience; horror scenes require sounds that will emphasize the tension and suspense, and this would then help contribute in building relationships with the audience by making them more scared an paranoid. If there is no sounds or if they sound isn't matching the suited scene then it will not have an impact on the audience as it would just look immature therefore not being a successful thriller sequence. 

The first sound technique that we intend to use is the 'Non-Diegetic' technique. Non-diegetic sound is a sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in action. They are sounds that are not part of the film. We have decided to use this technique at the point where Bettie turns around after killing Kane - There will be a point of view camera technique being used as if one of the remaining characters was walking up behind her and as they tap her on the shoulder she turns around at a rapid speed. At this point when she turns around, we see that she has blood around her mouth displaying that she has just killed Kane. When this action happens, a loud, dynamic, screeching sound will be played when she turns around. We have decided to insert this technique at this point as it would alert the audience, creating a sudden shock towards the audience as not only is it shocking the audience that it's Bettie but also applying the knowledge of the blood around her mouth which implies that she has just killed Kane. At this point the audience are shocked and gradually creating tension as they are now aware of her actions. The loud, screeching sound will not only display Bettie's role but also give the audience a little fright so that they become more scared and eager to continue watching as the little shock will benefit them as a thriller genre needs to excite the audience in order to be successful. We hope that this sound will help portray Bettie's role, making her more fearful towards the audience, showing that she contains a lot of power and also give a clear display and understanding that she is the antagonist within the sequence. This sound is conventional to a thriller genre has it gives the audience a sudden shock/surprise which are key elements of a thriller genre as it impact the audience by giving a immediate alert of the scenario and also making the audience more engaged within the sequence as it makes the more interested to continue watching the rest of the sequence. Also, the shock will give the audience a small jump which is important for a thriller genre as it makes them more engaged. Furthermore, the sound also creates a small amount of tension as Bettie's role as clearly been displayed so the scare that the audience have just received makes the audience more paranoid of who may be the next victim and whether Bettie has any potential partner that helps her get closer to the victims. This will also contribute in building a better relationship between the audience and the characters as the true identity of Bettie is being revealed so they automatically draw all the sympathy to any of the remaining characters as the audience fear that any of the remaining characters will be the next victims.


The second sound technique that we intend to include within our sequence is the 'Off-Screen' sounds. Off screen sound is when you can hear the sound but cannot see where it is coming from, but it makes sense to the film world. We intend to use this technique in two parts of the sequence. Firstly we would like to apply it when Maisie is walking up behind Bettie while she is on the floor next to Kane's body. While this action is happening, the audience will see a point of view camera shot being used while Maisie is walking towards Bettie and Kane's body and the audience will have the ability to hear Maisie's and other characters voices of them questioning the scenario e.g "what is she doing on the floor" "what has happened" "what is Kane doing on the floor". There faces will not be displayed on screen however they questioning will be able to be heard which makes it an off-screen sound technique. We hope that this will portray that the remaining characters are unaware and oblivious to Bettie's characteristics which will then show the audience that the characters are in a dangerous position as they don't know what Bettie is capable of and how much power she holds. This sound is conventional towards a thriller genre as it builds up the suspense and tension as the characters are unaware of Bettie's role so the audience are now feeling the suspense and the tension because they are paranoid and don't know whether Bettie is going to attack any more characters. This helps create a better relationship better between the audience and the characters as the audience will tend to create a more paranoid and sympathetic relationship towards the remaining characters as they don't know what's going to happen to them so naturally they are scared for them. Furthermore, as the music here is quite haunting, the natural reaction of the audience is to be suspicious and start building their thoughts towards Bettie's actions as she is starting to look like an antagonist. Also, she looks like she is murdering Kane so they audience start to building a sympathetic relationship towards Kane as the audience feel sad for him. They then start to build a fearful and threatened relationship towards Bettie as there is a clear display that she is a antagonist and that she should be watched with a lot of caution. In addition we also insert this sound technique when the chase scene is taking place where Bettie chasing the remaining characters after they discovered what she had done to Kane. The camera frame will consist of just Bettie and the audience will be able to hear the other characters panicking and screaming even though they are not in the frame. We have chose to also insert this technique at this point so that it will display how powerful Bettie's character; the frame would display her inferiority of the victims by showing her and within the background the audience will be able to hear the panic and screaming that she is causing which shows how frightening she is. We hope this will portray how powerful and dominant her character is and what damage and consequences her alone can obstruct. This is conventional to a thriller genre as it builds up a huge amount of tension because the audience don't know whether Bettie is going to capture any of the remaining characters and also their screaming and panic displays that they obviously fear Bettie which shows that they predict that Bettie may end up capturing them so we get more paranoid thinking that they are going to die. This helps build a stronger relationship between the audience and the characters because the audience feel more fear towards Bettie now that they're seeing the remaining characters reactions so they fear that something bad is going to happen to either one. Furthermore, as the tension levels are building up the audience are becoming more engaged within the sequence as they are now feeling scared for the remaining characters. They start to feel more sympathy towards the remaining characters as their first thoughts are that Bettie is going to attack one of them. Furthermore, deep thoughts start to build up as they know that Bettie's true identity took time to be revealed so the audience wonder if there are any other characters that are hiding their identity.


The third sound technique that we would like to include within our sequence is the parallel sound technique. Parallel sound is when the sound that you hear in the film is what you would expect to hear. We would like to insert this technique when the remaining characters are screaming in the chase scene at the end of the sequence, when Bettie is chasing all of them after the discovery. We have decided to include this technique at this particular point because we know that Bettie is a dominant character and that the remaining characters fear her the most, so we would expect them to be scared of her so their natural reactions should be them screaming and panicking as they are trying to escape from her. We have included it here so that the audience can have a clear display of how much they fear her and her powers. We hope to portray the inferior victims of Bettie and how much they fear her because she is so dominant in contrast to any of the remaining characters. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it builds up the tension as the significance of the screaming displays the fear and inferiority of the potential victims and the audience start to panic as they fear that the victims are vulnerable. This helps build a better relationship between the audience and the characters as the start to acknowledge that if it was a real life scenario this would be a realistic reaction so the audience can find these sounds relatable as it would be what they do. By this, it also makes them more aware and alert of Bettie's behavior and how it's making the rest of the characters feel. Furthermore, the audience can connect to the remaining potential victims as there is a clear display that Bettie is more powerful so the audience feel that the remaining characters are threatened so they feel sympathy for them and wonder if the characters are going to survive. We would also like to include this technique at the start of the sequence where all the characters are grouped together and are having a casual conversation between themselves. At this point, they would only be having an everyday common conversation so that the audience would not suspect anything so that the surprise/shock will be successful later on within the sequence. From this we would like to portray that the characters are all behaving normal which makes them more relatable to the target audience as no unusual behavior is taking place. This is conventional to a thriller genre as it builds up the suspense because the audience don't know what to expect; as all the characters are acting normal and there is no unusual behavior, this  is uncommon for a thriller genre so the audience know that something mysterious is coming towards them so the suspense builds up as they start to wonder what could potentially go wrong between the group. This builds a better relationship between the audience and the characters as the audience find the characters more relatable at this stage because they are acting all normal as if there is nothing unusual about any of them so the audience can build a stronger bond between each character. Also, this would be more realistic than the rest of the scenes so that this give the opportunity for the audience to relate to the characters more so it build a stronger relationship.


The last technique that we intend to include within our sequence is diegetic/on screen sound technique. Diegetic on screen sound is a sound that is part of a film and can be seen by the audience within the frame of the camera. We would like to include this technique at the point where Maisie and the other characters are walking up behind Bettie when she is crouched next to Kane; as she is walking the audience will have the ability to see her walking on top of leaves so they will also here the crunching sounds coming from the footsteps of the characters. We have decided to include this technique at this point to build up the tension as the crunching of the leaves may represent a death as each leaf get crumpled on and make the audience more paranoid and eery. We hope that this will portray fear towards Bettie, as the characters walk towards her, the crunching of the sounds make the audience more alert and engaged within the sequence because it is showing a clear display of sound that is parallel to Bettie's personality. This is conventional towards a thriller genre as it builds up the tension and suspense. The suspense is building up as the atmosphere would be near enough silent which makes the characters more vulnerable as clearly there are no one in reach to help them and all that anyone can hear is the crunching of the leaves which then creates more alerts and panic within the sequence, as it gets closer towards Bettie the leaves are crunching more which then emphasizes the idea of the leaves representing deaths. This helps build a stronger relationship between the audience and the characters as the audience are now becoming more paranoid and tense because they don't know what to expect however the sequence is engaging them more and slowly building up the tension so this allows them to build a stronger, more fearful relationship with characters such as Bettie. We would also like to include the diegetic sounds towards the start of the sequence where all the characters are talking between themselves. This is seen as a diegetic sound as the characters are producing sound which are part of the sequence. We have decided to also include this technique at this point of the sequence so that it helps create a stronger relationship between the audience and the characters as at this point both sets have the ability to create a stronger bond because they are more relatable as they have the same lifestyles. We would like to portray from this that the characters are relatable with regards to the audience and that there is no unusual behavior between them showing that they are perfectly normal at this stage of the sequence. This is conventional towards a thriller genre as it builds up the suspense because a typical thriller genre would usually display that there is unusual behavior taking place however at this point there isn't so this makes the audience more cautious of what is going as they are more alert as they wait for something to happen. This helps build a better relationship between the audience and the characters because it shows there is hardly no contrast between the audience and the characters as they tend to be very similar with regards to their lifestyle so this helps them build a better relationship as they can become more relatable as there may only be a few small differences. This means the audience can relate to the characters and ensure that they have a better understanding of the scenario which then help them to become more engage within the sequence.


Our sequence will be more effective in terms of creating certain emotions and reactions through the use of sounds as the different sounds create different perspectives and help to emphasise on what is going on within the scenario. Furthermore, we have included various sound technique which will ensure that we have a range of different emotions and feelings so that it will not just be one continuous emotions throughout which will then help contribute towards the audience so that they  become more engaged within the sequence and create better relationships and connections with different characters. Our sound techniques within our sequence are conventional towards a thriller genre as we have ensure that all elements such as tension, surprise, shock and suspense have been created at various points throughout the thriller so that we have that range within our sequence ensuring that the audience can build more personal relationships with the characters and also create various reactions which would then determine how successful our sequence has been. I find that the planning sounds in preparation for filming our sequence has been very helpful and reassuring as it gave us the ability to identify what points within the sequence we would want the audience to build a certain relationship with a particular characters. Furthermore, it also gave us the ability to insert different elements throughout the sequence so that there is range which then will assure us that the audience are engaged and interested at all time. Also, it gave me and my group to identify why each sound should be used and what impact it will create and also displayed what point within the sequence we would need to include them so that the correct impact can be created and then will ensure that our sequence is successful.