Sound planning - Miss Miller

Sound is important within films as sound is essential as it creates different effects, films would be ineffective if they did not have sound and the audience would find it hard to follow the story line. Sound effects, diegetic and non dietetic sound effects are all elements that help create the mood of a sequence. Sound helps create suspense surprise and shock three features that are conventional to thriller films. Sound also helps push the narrative forward and liked in with the conventions that are typical to thrillers.

Parallel sound is when the sound or imagers on screen compliment each other. We have decided to incorporate parallel sound at the beginning of our sequence the noise will be of children screaming and laughing in the playground, the images show on screen will be the children at break time, these two elements compliment each other as they emphasise the fact that the scene takes place in school. This will create tension for the audience as they would not be expecting anything bad to happen in a safe place like a school. This is conventional to thriller as everything the audience hears, will make them feel nervous as they will be awaiting for the antagonist to make his move creating suspense. It will also help the audience create a relationship with the victim as they can tell she is just a regular teenage girl who comes to school. It also shows how mentally unstable the antagonist is if he even stalks her at school. This makes the audience nervous as they are scared something is going to the victim at a place where she should be safe which is a result of the parallel sound.


Silence is another sound that is commonly used in thriller films, it helps build tension which is stereotypical of thriller films. My group decided that silence was the best sound to use at the end of the sequence when the killer. My group decided that silence should be used after the victim has killed the antagonist, the silence will be used to create an enigma as the audience are not given any more information about the scene therefore ending on a cliff hanger. This would be effective, as it would contrast from the loud screaming of the victim as she is tying to escape, into the immediate walk away of the victim. By having this silence in our opening sequence the audience should feel nervous which creates a conventional  atmosphere, it will also allow the audience to build a relationship with the victim as they worry about her well being.
Non-dietetic sound is when the sound in a film or a movie has been edited in, it is a sound that the actors cant hear. My group will edit in soundtrack, creepy music, this will be at the end of the scene it will be quite eerie music, that will connote something bad has taken place which leads the audience to anticipate more bad events to come. Most importantly it creates a divide between the characters and the audience almost suggesting that the audience knows the victim is helpless. This creates a relationship between both the audience and the characters as the audience begins to feel empathy fro the victim. The use of non dietetic sound in our sequence will create suspense as the atmosphere will be intensified, the scene will seem more scary as the music will create an atmosphere that other elements would not be as effective to create. The non dietetic soundtrack is conventional to thriller as it would manipulate the audience as they can only imagine what is happening through sound as they can not see anything. This causes the audience to feel nervous. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it will mean the audience experience the full effect of a thriller, they will be more shocked to see how the scene ends .
Another sound element we will incorporate into our thriller sequence is the use of our non diegetic sound track which we will edit in after we have filmed our sequence, the soundtrack will be used through the sequence in order to create an atmosphere throughput the whole sequence. We will use the eerie music to create suspense surprise and shock. We will use soundtrack to help the audience understand the mood of each scene it will also help foreshadow events to come. Using a soundtrack helps to engage the audience with the scene as if there is no music and only dialog the scene becomes boring. In addition it also creates suspense for the audience as they will not be able to hear most of the scene clearly which will leave them wondering for when the killer is going to attack. This is conventional to the thriller genre as the audience are commonly left waiting for something to happen.
We decided to include parallel sounds that the audience would expect to hear in the most common thrillers, firstly we will use parallel sound when the antagonist is being stabbed by the victim. Although the soundtrack will compliment this image, the onscreen sound the audience will identify is the sound of the knife stabbing the antagonist. The use of this gives the audience an idea of the surroundings of them, it helps create a relationship between the audience and the victim as we feel sympathetic that she had to take it that far in order to escape the killer. Another on screen sound we will use is the sound of children in the play ground, this is conventional to thrillers as it helps set the scene which gives the audience an idea of where the sequence is set. The use of this sound is conventional as it helps clarify where the scene is set and what the character is helping the audience to develop a relationship with the victim as they can tell she is just an ordinary girl.