Thriller Planning // Sound Design + Soundtrack

The soundtrack is one of the most important aspects of an effective thriller, whether it be a gritty modern thriller or a classic film noir, a soundtrack (or lack thereof) is incredibly important in setting the right tone and getting the audience's blood pumping. A well made and well matched soundtrack can make a sequence much more exciting or tense, but if the sound is lacking, the film can just be made to look amateurish and cheap. When planning this aspect of the film, as with any other part of it, I felt it important to first evaluate the resources available to me, and then develop my ideas around that. I could only use a soundtrack without copyright, which meant using a piece that was either original, from a copyright free sit, or from before 1956. I felt that this was extremely limiting in terms of sound design, as many soundtracks would likely clash with the gritty tone of the film, clash with on-screen action or be too recognisable (many productions use free, creative commons tracks).


As a result of this I considered in-fact scrapping non-diagetic soundtrack altogether. There were several other reasons for this, firstly, neither myself or anyone else in the group has sufficient editing experience to effectively edit in a mixture of diagetic and non-diagetic sound without it sounding poor, other pieces I had seen had attempted to circumnavigate this by using only non-diagetic sound, but due to the selection of soundtracks available, as I had explained earlier, I felt this would not attain the highest possible quality. The kind of bombastic soundtrack, with various musical cues matching or suggesting on screen action, used for great effect in the shower scene in Psycho. Part of the effectiveness of this scene is that the sound cues take the place of actual onscreen violence,for example the strings when Marion Crane is being stabbed but we would be unable to cue sound to screen so it would be very hard to use this type of soundtrack without it seeming. Another significant reason for this choice is the incredibly effective use of a similar choice in the film No country For Old Men. The scene achieves incredible tension by removing the bells and whistles of a soundtrack, focusing on the violence and action occurring on-screen, by removing any distraction and amping up the gunshots and ricochets, the audience is drawn further into the danger and uncertainty of the scene, creating unparalleled  amounts of unease. I felt that this could be used to great effect within our piece, as it would also complement the rest of the stark, desolate mise en scene, reflecting the moral vacuum and depersonalisation of the characters. Finally, it would allow the audience to focus more on the onscreen action and free up the rest of the film for more experimentation and quality.

REVISION:14/01/2014

Following a discussion with the group, taking into consideration: the technology we have available to us, the mise-en scene we aim to achieve, what would merit marks from the examiner and the conventions of the genre.  We considered the use of two types of soundtrack, the first being an opera piece. The use of an operatic, tragic piece, similar to Puccini's "Humming Chorus" from the opera Madame Butterfly used in Heavenly Creatures or  would make the piece appear dreamy, tragic and epic, with the slow, almost peaceful pace contrasting the violence creating a sense of Kubrick like Irony. It would also allow us to foreshadow the events of the opening and make an intertextual reference. Possible pieces we could use, include Puccini's "Come è lùnga l'attesa!" from Act 3 of Tosca or alternatively "Personages With Long Ears" from Saint-Saens' Carnival of The Animals. These pieces would be appropriate as one of them is an ironic heartfelt aria and the other is a dramatic, thriller like piece. Using the site IMSLP, it would be reasonably easy to find a copyright free recording of a piece, as long as the music itself is copyright free

Alternatively, there was the possibility of using a soft, peaceful ambient or acoustic piece that either fades out as the witness spots the crime or develops into a more dense and bombastic piece. As this is a more modern style and genre, it is more difficult to find a copyright free piece, but using sites such as bandcamp or soundcloud, we could find a track from the vast online database of independent and copyright free music to use, although a large amount of research would need to be carried out. One important consideration to take into account when considering use of this kind of music is that there are no lyrics, as they do little but distract from the mood and the tension of the piece.

Revision: 24/02/14
Following a revision of storyline and editing, I decide that I needed to come up with a new soundtrack, so that it would suit the piece better. I needed something that would compliment the newer storyline, outlined here. I felt that a more dramatic drone based piece would be appropriate as the mood is sparse but threatening. To find this I went to www.incompetech.com a popular site with free, royalty free music composed by Kevin Macleod. I chose this site because it was convenient and has a wide range of tracks in a huge variety of different styles. I managed to find a total of five different possible soundtracks and will be editing to and testing them very soon.