Sound design is one of the the final parts to the production stage but is still an important feature when it comes to making a horror trailer. The sound effects put together a soundtrack for our teaser trailer, without this it won't create tension, edginess, and anticipation from our audience which is crucial in terms of attraction and if they are going to decide to watch the film. The audience must be able to feel a chilly atmosphere and have sudden jumps and adrenaline in order to fulfill the affect of horror in general. In this section the following things that will be illustrated are: our inspirations in terms of sounds and what we are looking to portray in our trailer and how we developed/created the sounds in which we'll be using software such as premiere and Garageband.
Inspirations:
World War Z (2013)
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Sinister 2 (2015)
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Our group decided to use world war z as an inspiration in terms of sound due to the fact it fits our synopsis very well. The equilibrium 0.7 to 0.27 which is the beginning of the trailer it starts off with a discussion and in reference to our animatic it begins with a news report and flashes back to the stock characters watching it. This is good due to fact the beginning of our trailer are 3 very long shots. Also we liked the siren sounds as it connotes warning and danger to further come which is a great build up in terms of our synopsis. The added silences between these sounds also connotes taking a breather to process everything that's going on and at the same time a chance to hear dialogue from the characters so it flows. The ending of this trailer is in some ways similar to the pacing of our anamatic as the music moves fast along with the quick shots that connotes the build up of tension plus it gives the audience anticipation especially when the final scenes ends with shots of the antagonist and protagonist which is also evident in our anamatic. Also the sounds of this trailer illustrates its simplicity and how it doesn't want to give too much away to the audience.
The Forrest (2016)
The Forrest trailer has a calm equilibrium which is vital for a build up of tension in our trailer. With the slow paced non-digetic music at the beginning we get the impression that there's likely to be a story behind the reason for the disequilibrium. The disequilibrium begins with a mixture of different sounds including whispers, repeated thudding and long takes of eerie sounds which eventually get louder and more prominent. This connotes that the antagonist/s are soon going to be visible within the trailer, also that the story line is going to become more eventful in terms of the protagonist and stock characters in a stock situation. This is also evident in our anamatic where we've tried to make sure that important aspects of horror theories is noticeable. The sudden silences occurring mid way in some scenes connotes the atmosphere is edgy and uncertain especially as the audience are not aware of the appearances that could come within seconds.
The House October Built (2014)
The equilibrium of this trailer shows similarities to ours, as the beginning starts off sound with a small amount of eerie sounds while the caption plays. This connotes that the sound is setting the scene to unfold what happens next. This trailer also uses static and wave noises over a CCTV scene that features in the movie which our trailer has featured in the beginning as a news report. During the disequilibrium the sounds include thuds and ominous tones which connotes that the antagonist/s is gradually waiting to appear. This keeps fear within the audience but also at the same time the adrenaline makes them want to continue watching. The ending of the trailer shows a blackout witch sound coming from one of the characters followed by the scene that was suppose to be shown. In similar way our trailer has ended this way with the title of the film followed after. This connotes that potentially a stock or principle character is eventually killed.
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The sinister 2 trailer starts with a shaky equilibrium and in relation to our anamatic our main characters are watching the T.V illustrating the issue that they will eventually need to go up against. The atmosphere at this point is also chilled however the eerie music after the first scene gives the impression that something is about to happen and their will be a sudden change of music which we do see in the trailer. We also like the idea that every sound of the little things i.e. switching off the t.v and walking down the steps is clear and evident, therefore this is the standard we would like to hear plus we want our audience to be wide awake and focused on each sound that follows. The sudden snapshots of certain scenes which is connoted through as if someone is taking a continuous photo is a clever way of illustrating the flow of the synopsis especially how the dialogue mostly becomes the narrative when the scene changes. Towards the middle of the trailer we sense that the soundtrack is gradually becoming more louder which connotes that the atmosphere is becoming more terrifying. This is illustrated through the loud thuds/drone sounds occurring parallel with the natural music.
28 Days Later (2002)
The 28 days later trailer equilibrium starts of with sounds of warning sirens while other elements are going in the back ground. This connotes panic and highlights how much the zombie apocalypse creates rage therefore the sounds in our trailer needs to emphasis this as well. The disequilibrium features sounds of zombie groans, silences and bangs. This connotes that because zombies coming together they cause massive damage and are very intimidating. These sounds also emphasize mass destruction and having only a small fraction of survivors can be nerve ranking which builds up tension as zombies can appear at any point. It also illustrates that most zombies move fast and the concept of mass consumerism in zombie films highlight that the more people turn it eventually becomes harder to escape. The fast paced music towards have different sounds drills as well as the dialogue through a mixture of different scenes. These sounds connote that the atmosphere is very hyperactive as the characters are trying to find out ways to survive.
All Hallow's Eve (2015)
This trailer became one of our inspirations due to the drone sounds that begin at the begin which we've decided throughout the majority of our trailer. The heartbeats became an inspiration when making a zombie trailer as it represents the fast paced movement and gives a sense of the remaining humans are constantly in panic because at any moment they could become a zombie. The little sounds of thuds once each caption appears was also used in our trailer as we thought it was a good idea to illustrate that the captions are important and mean something to the trailer. Within our trailer we've used the concept of CCTV which is the idea that were always being watched and its recording every step that the principle cast take when fighting off the antagonists, therefore we have also used static sounds and the editing effects of waves and noise and grain which is also popular within this trailer.
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Sounds we have used
ominous sound
ominous_intro.mp3 | |
File Size: | 3068 kb |
File Type: | mp3 |
The ominous intro is to illustrate how the zombie apocalypse has changed the planet. As a group we decided to use this in the beginning because from listening to our inspirations some of the sounds were similar so we thought that we could add something unique.
wind sounds
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While browsing through the horror sounds, we came across sounds of wind as it emphasizes the idea that being alone in an abandoned warehouse and only hearing the sound of wind coming and going while waiting for the zombies to appear. We used the wind_3 at the beginning of our trailer will illustrate the principle cast listening to a news report on the radio. We also thought that the sound highlights that the atmosphere at a stand point is mellow yet the sudden fear of that the zombies can appear and attack at any moment. It also illustrates that the location is empty therefore their's not much necessities the characters can use except spare objects that can used to fight them off.
alarm and drill sound
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The nuclear evacuation alarm highlights a warning during a zombie apocalypse, therefore during the quick shots in a our trailer it fits well in time with the drill sounds. We believed the sounds connote panic as well as showing that the characters are always alert when the zombies are ready to attack. The drill sounds also gives of the impression of military styled atmosphere where the principle are suppose to stick together
static sounds
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We decided to add a static/scratch sound at the beginning of the animatic to illustrate us tuning a radio while we listen to a news report, which explains whats happening outside our location. We decided on record_scratch 3 because the sound was quick enough for us to add a voice-over while flashing back to scenes of the outbreak of zombies.
screaming sounds
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The sounds of screams was to add to the disequilibrium in our trailer as the outbreak of the zombies has panicked the principle cast. We liked screaming_02 because it sounded more realistic and it blended well within our animatic.
Creating Our Soundscape
The software and program we've used in this stage are Premiere and YouTube. Premiere being the fact we have edited the footage of trailer therefore it allows us to edit the sound we input which we can revive from audio effects which plays around with the sound i.e distortion or delays to make dialogue sound realistic or distant, as well as using a pen tool to fade different sounds we use, the blade tool to cut bits that are not needed and volume which selected sounds dominant than others. YouTube was used where we could find and download any additional sounds we felt would improve the trailer, in which bellow it is visible that we took this opportunity to do:
For the first bit of the task we were given time to listen to horror sounds that were placed on the desktop. Some of the files we looked into was drones, horror sfx and voice. Due to the fact our trailer is based on the zombie genre we are looking for eerie sounds, and also sounds that emphasize the concept of being alone but fearing the unknown or whats about to happen. We believe that quick paced sounds will highlight the change of how quick the zombies move from different locations and are bound to find someone different to them.
Once we chose all our sounds we watched through the animatic and listed which sounds felt best for a group of scenes. The picture above is our timeline, the sets that are coloured in green is our added sounds which consist of: ominous sound, wind and record static. The reason for our choice is due to the fact the beginning is the principle cast listening to a news report on the radio therefore the static sound is linked to the tuning of the radio. the ominous sound is to illustrate that the atmosphere is weird and how the principle cast feels that the planet is no longer how it used to be. The sound of wind illustrates a scene where the principle cast is outside listening to the news report.
The following image shows the tool box where the controls that i used for this task is the mouse tool - selecting and moving the sound, the blade tool - to dive the sounds and lastly the pen tool - which we've used to fade the sound on the timeline and mapped out when the different sounds come in. The pen tool has helped us really well as we were able to make the sounds flow together. The issue we had before we discovered this tool was that the sounds were coming in all at the same time and for this reason they weren't able to mix well.
The thud sounds in our final trailer was used before captions and our team logo. We thought it would be a good idea to use as a build to the montage scene as well as to add something in between the main sounds. The mechanolith sound which we had tested on with our animatic also was kept on our final product because we felt that during all our running scenes we needed a an action type sound to illustrate that the small scenes are moving at a fast pace plus we felt it was enough to build up the tension during the disequilibrium.
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We downloaded from YouTube a nuclear warning alarm which fits our sub-genre very well because during a zombie apocalypse the best way to alert people of a problem is using sirens. This sound is very dominant towards the action shots in our trailer. The sound also mixes well with the a drill sound which has been added to connote panic and fast evacuation. We decided that this was best heard towards the end of our trailer where the shots move more quickly because the zombies become more evident
The following image above shows another editing sequence where i can access audio effects. We can double click on the sound on the timeline in order for it to appear and listen to it separately from the other sounds. Here we were to listen to the duration of the sound and if there was any other elements to the sound that we could possibly cut out. Here we also changed the volume in order for specific sounds to sound more dominant.
The following the image above shows the second half to our animatic and the sounds still consist of drills and alarms. However, we decided to had the sound called mechanolith which we liked because there is a mixture of sounds put together. First starts off very eerie but at the same time the drums illustrate fast pace which we needed to connote the montage scenes which consist of the zombies getting closer towards the principle cast.
These following two sounds made it onto our final due to the fact flowed well with the clips we decided to use. We favored the drone sound as the quick pace moved in time with our montage scene as well as the sound of the alarm, as it gave a scene of the zombies unleashed and now attacking and finding the principle cast. The plus the sound wasn't to over dramatic as we wanted to keep it simple as possible but gave the trailer the sense of anticipation. The drip of water in echo is featured at the beginning of our trailer mixed with the sound of wind to illustrate how zombie mass consumerism can leave many crowed areas abandoned. The zombie sound of effect was sound from YouTube which we picked our favorite bit and cut and placed onto premiere for the trailer. we placed the sound before our montage scene to illustrate that the zombies are about to be seen plus we felt it was a good idea to show to the audience how animalistic they sound as well as how they act.
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