Final Research

By Rachel Chinery

Final Research

Non-Diegetic sounds - Music

Music is vital for any film, but it is most important for Thriller films, because, if there was no music, there wouldn't be a sense of a good thrill. The music in a Thriller film is usually used to build the tension. There are many ways to achieve this level of suspense just through music alone.

One way to use music to create tension, is by having the music start quite then gradually get louder as the scene progresses into a suspenseful moment. Another method of building up the suspence is just to have the music burst in with loud threatening sounds that will make an audience sit on the edge of thir seats. 

Example...

This example is from the film Angels and Demons, the music was written by Hans Zimmer who is a well known composer of film music. It can be clearly heard that the music starts off quiet with a high pitched piano and chanting vocals. These vocal really show the genre of the films as well as give it a more threatening tone. As the music progresses, the tempo picks up and more instruments are involved which creates a big Crescendo. The quite moments are often the build up to a tense moment, and the loud moments are usually THE tense moment. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JPFy1fw-uw&list=PL88A83787B7530C48 (Embed)

Caption: : Extract of Non - Diegetic sound from Angels and Demons

Diegetic sounds

Diegetic sounds are also important the the making of a Thriller film, they add to the realism of the narrative, sounds that are commonly heard such as footsteps or cars. The volume of these sounds vary depending on what is going on in the scene, or what the director think is important in their film. 

Sounds that might be useful in our production:FootstepsDeep breathingRadio/TVTicking of a clock/watchSilence

Examples...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJkamsEwato (Embed)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nrM2CJQk6w (Embed)

Caption: : Ticking clock sound effect

Caption: : Footsteps sound effect

Editing Filters

For our production, my group have thought about how we could use editing filters to create our desired effect. Most Thriller use low key lighting, and some of that lighting is added after filming, using certain filters in the editing software that is used. Some films also use Greyscale scenes, that is also added afterwards, this effect can be used to show a flashback or show that a character is disorientated and can't view the world properly. 

Directional Blur: This blurs the image in one lateral direction, most often at an angle that is user selected.   Transform The transform filter works like the transform properties of a clip. The video editor can use it to zoom, rotate or move the clip’s position on screen.Zoom BlurA zoom blur centers around a point like the radial blur, but instead of blurring the image around the selected point, it creates a linear blur out in all directions from the selected point. 

Examples...

aa64ef16-e1a0-4237-89e4-f7dfe2db9d8e (image/jpg)

Caption: : Directional Blur effect

9db4ae85-c999-4327-96eb-5fb981beb13a (image/jpg)

Caption: : Zoom Blur effect