Soundtrack

Soundtracks:

Sound has been one of the most difficult parts for us as a group to get right about our thriller opening. This is because our thriller opening isn't very intense as it is a very normal situation until the end where the suspense starts to build like your stereotypical thriller. We wanted originally to look for a piece of music that wasn't very suspenseful but was quite plain to show the audience that it was a normal day for the parents before something happened. However, at some points in the scenes we have suspenseful moments that are clues and hints for the audience, for example when the mum sees the note we wanted to make the music slightly louder and tense to show the audience that something wasn't right. This was difficult for us as when we researched different thriller music background tracks they were either very jumpy or not at all.  At the end of our opening it is very suspenseful so we wanted to make sure that we added a very tense piece of music to go with the thriller stereotype.

We have each taken a lot of time researching different music on YouTube that would be fit to go in the background. I was in charge of the music so I experimented with each piece of music and put several of them in the opening to see what it sounded like but none of them seemed to sound like what we had in mind.  I decided that instrumental pieces of music would be best as we would be able to increase and decrease the volume as we wish so the audience don't concentrate fully on what the music is doing but what is actually happening. I believe that an instrumental would fit best also because when we researched other thriller films they each had this and it worked very successfully to create suspense at certain points in the opening.

 A few examples of the music tracks that we looked at are:

1. We didn't know where to find a piece of music that would fit our thriller opening as it is not like your stereotypical opening as it is very slow and nothing climatic happens till right at the end. I typed into YouTube "Suspenseful thriller background music" and this piece of music came up as the first option. I listened to the piece of music over and over again and decided that we were going to put it onto the opening. When I added the piece of music we realised that it sounded very adventurous and optimistic when our thriller opening is not very adventurous nothing is happening at the beginning. I liked a part of the music as it was very climactic which we thought would look good at the note scene. However, when I added this piece of music we decided that it didn't sound like we wanted it to so we decided to keep looking for another piece that was instrumental but not too adventurous and climatic throughout.

2. The second piece of music that I looked at is the Mafia theme song which was suggested us by Demi. We listened to it and at first really didn't like it, but when we continued to listen to it we started to like it so we decided to give it a try and put it in the beginning of the opening. I think that Alicia, Amy and I were worried about it being dramatic and climatic again which is not what we wanted.  When I inserted the music into the beginning of the thriller when the mum walks into the house and into the kitchen we were surprised with how it fitted with the opening as it didn't sound too in your face but was in fact very calm. I tried this piece of music in the sequence where the mum walks into the house and goes into the kitchen as it was emphasising that nothing was wrong from what the mum could see. I had a slight issue with the music in the kitchen as we wanted to make sure that at certain points the music increased to emphasise that something was happening. We took a long time listening to the music trying to look for parts that were climatic and others that were calm to fit the normal environment that the mum was in. We eventually found a climatic part in the theme song and inserted it into the part where she looks at the note. I feel that this looks very effective as it shows a clear distinction between the different volumes that allows the audience to see that something isn't quite right about the note. We decided in the end to decrease the volume of the background music in the other parts of the scene to make the audience concentrate on what is happening and also show them the distinct reference to when something isn't right. Overall, I am very happy with this piece of music as it suits the feel that we wanted to get across to the audience and fits our opening very well.

3. We found looking for a piece of music to fit the parts where the mum and step dad talk very difficult as we wanted the music to be soft and not very climatic to make the audience concentrate on the dialogue rather than feeling tense to give the audience clues as to what has happened. We looked for a piece of music very difficult to find again but I eventually came across this piece of music that is very slow but at the same time creates a massive amount of suspense to make the audience realise what is going to happen. I inserted this piece of music into the conversation part and really liked the way it sounded against the dialogue. However, I did have to decrease the volume of the music and increase the dialogue to make sure that the audience could hear the dialogue clearly. When I made the adjustments to the volume of the music I really liked the way that it went with the dialogue. I then listened to the first piece of music with the second piece of music and realised that their was a very sudden stop to the music so I decided to fade out the first music to allow the transition from song to song to flow better. After doing this I was very happy with way the music flowed and how it went with what we have filmed.

We looked at putting music into the scene where the children are running and are in the barn but when we continued the music we realised that the use of sound effects on iMovie would be perfect to making it have the right amount of suspense. In the scene where the children are running through the trees, Demi added the sound effect of heavy rain to empathise the dark atmosphere and a dog barking that could suggest that the children are in danger being left by themselves while being taken. I really like this as it shows that the children are in danger and I feel that music doesn't need to be added as it looks effective without music. We added the sound effect of a heart beat to show the audience that it is the children who have been taken and makes the audience almost feel as scared as the children. The heart beat really adds to the suspense and I feel tops of this scene to make it very effective.

When looking at the sound in the barn scene we realised that to keep the continuous flow of the shots and sound we decided to carry on the sound of the heavy rain and heart beats which we felt sounded very effective with the other scene. The sound of the rain creates a very tense atmosphere and adds to the tension of the children being tied up and someone watching them. I decided to stop the sound of the rain just as the person comes close to the children and just add in the simple sound of a heart beat to show how the children were scared in that particular moment and makes the audience want to know what happened to them. I feel that the sound effects make this scene very suspenseful and overall creates the feeling that we wanted to get across. We did try the piece of music that we had before but the sound didn't fit with the climax that we wanted to get across so we decided to stay with the sound effects that we originally had.