Researching Sound Mixes

 

The Conjuring

There is no voice overs in the conjuring and music is only played at the beginning and end of the trailer. The music played at the beginning is playful to connote the children playing hide and seek with a hint of menace for what terror is to come.

The music falls to the heightened synchronous sound of the opening wardrobe this connotes the presence of the antagonist and suggests the antagonist has sucked all the good feelings and happiness out of the atmosphere.

The trailer mostly possesses back and fourth of dialogue and sound effects. The sound effects of the destruction of broken picture frames signify the witch haunting the house and connotes that evil tears innocent families apart echoed by the mother frantically shouting.

The absentness of music and gaps of dialogue create an uneasy atmosphere and build tension because we know as a audience the mother is being lead into trap by the antagonist.  This also makes us more wary of what is going on in the narrative and not concentrating on what is being said or what music is playing.

You're Next

The music is the first sound in the trailer and is also the last it begins in synchronous with the shot of the cd being inserted by a mystery character this immediately creates uncertainty amongst audiences. The sound becomes asynchronous allowing us to view the remote locations.

The alpha male or head of the family speaks over dinner in synchronous and continues in asynchronous as the couples are intimately getting ready for bed. This is to keep the narrative going and builds tension.  The music stops when the problems and events occur in the trailer. The asynchronous music returns and bridges for emotional tone as this time the lyrics are in a ironic sense as the perfect escape they planned has been transformed into there worst nightmares.

When the music is played for the second time there is no dialogue this signifies the shattered family, there is no communication between them connoting the broken bond and slipping away from each other. this is seen also in the conjuring and is a common theme in horrors.

The music then pauses and sound effect are dominant creating immense tension. The sound is then silent followed by a sudden thud with the antagonist launching his head into the frame terrifying the audience and releasing the overflow of tension built. The music replays as the titles appears leaving audiences shocked and wanting to see more

 

Insidious

The ticking begins synchronous when the man is asked in the dialogue if he is ready. This leaves us as an audience wondering what he is suppose to be ready for in the narrative. Constant ticking immense tension, clocking down of the victims life's. The ticking pauses and we think the threat had died down but then the husky voice of the antagonist sends the audience and the character into spasm connoting the antagonist is unstoppable and he the fate of the victim is inevitable.

The editing speed matches the sound as problems and events are spiralling out of control and when the dialogue reveals the revelations "it's not the house that is haunted. It's your son" the immediate sound of crashing is maximised stunning the audience.

Towards the end of the trailer the sound completely stops and we as an audience believe the trailer as the title and realise appear when suddenly the antagonist is halted out of no where. This deception petrifies the audience and the haunting supernatural antagonist sticks in the audiences mind.

Reflection

Voice overs seem to be non existent in horror trailers so I will not use them in my trailer as I believe they ruin the tension and remove the realism making the situations seem artificial falsifying fright to audiences . Therefore I will use text during ... so they have to concentrate on the trailer luring them into false comfort to suddenly rock them.

All the trailers effectively used music. You're Next and The Conjuring at the start and end of the film to signify entrapment of the victim or sharp eery music mid way through like Insidious for a unsettling effect.

I plan to contrast fast editing pace in the latter stages of the trailer with heightened sharp sound effects then absentness to build suspense and sudden crash as I've seen in all three trailers to catch the audience off guard

For the dialogue I may use snappy lines to make the audience feel uneasy creating tension or a may have a character speaking coming in and out of synchronous so that the narrative flows and is fluent.