Research into Sound - Miss Miller

                                 

Research into sound 

Sound is used in film to heighten a mood, provide us with information about the location of a scene, advance the plot, and to tell us about the characters in the story. In this essay I will be analysing different elements of sound identified in the film prom night the scene where Lisa is being chased by the protagonist. I am researching sound to find out the effect it has on the audience and what sound is conventional in the thriller genre. This research will assist me with planning my thriller to help me know what will have a positive and negative impact on my audience.

                                 

In this scene there is diegetic sound. Diegetic sound is 'sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film'(Filmsound.org). Diegetic sound in this scene is the classical music the source is the radio. Classical music is played from the start of this scene.  For the audience this is peaceful music, so it keeps them calm and relaxed; the audience become familiar to this sound and this keeps the audience serene. When Hannibal stops being a good prisoner the sound changes to non-diegetic, sound effects are then added for dramatic effect you can see this at (2.23).

 As soon as Hannibal handcuffs the police officer it changes to lower more edgy sounds. For this sound to be placed here plays on our emotions and is shocking for the audience as its unexpected. 

The switch between calm to tense music is so quick it shocks us as we weren't expecting much to happen at this point. This allows the audience to get more understanding of Hannibal and we see it is done here by displaying that Hannibal has two personality's one a very calm. relaxed,well spoken man(wee see this by the classical music) and another a scary, vicious character(we see this by the sound effects). The audience can assume he has mental problems. 

This relates to a typical thriller as sound is used to create excitement and shock; But can also represent the characters personality or inner darkness.

At (0.42) we hear the keys clanking, the focusing/zooming in on the keys at the beginning of the scene gave us a hint as

we again hear the same sound of the keys at (2.47) when the police officer is trying to escape. 

So to me this gave the audience a hint of what was going to be the ending of this scene. 

This sound is also diegetic sound as its part of the film, it's also on screen sound. 

at (2.47) it shows how anxious the character was to get to safety, as he couldn't control the keys. A typical thriller always shows the anxiousness of the character by using an item or objects in this case it was the keys to remove the handcuffs, in maybe another it could be the lock on a door. In quite a few thrillers a key is used this is because a key symbolizes 'freedom'. But by showing the anxiousness of a character in thrillers allows the audience to connect with them and feel anxious as well. To make them wonder if the character is going to survive.

Another sound technique used were sound effects, off screen sound. This was used for the police officers footsteps. Footsteps in the thriller genre create enigma and rhythm. By using footsteps in this instance created mystery and made the police officers seem superior. For the audience I feel that footsteps create tension and pace as they don't know what's going to happen next. This suspense causes the audience to feel adrenaline and wary of what is going to take place in the scene. 

There were many other sounds in this short scene but a lot of the sounds were from the police officers equipment like the spray, cane, handcuffs. All these items produced different sounds, which fit in to the scene. I think these sounds were used to show power that has been exchanged from the police officer to Hannibal. I think It relates back to a thriller as the tables always change in thrillers meaning the roles switch. And that's what happened in this scene. It went to sounds of speech of the men being rude to him to being on the floor screaming. All these sounds showed the audience how quickly power changed between the characters.

In this essay I have found out that sound plays a big role on finding out who the character's are. I found out that sound also adds more impact to the film making it more tense and shocking. Sound in this instance also helped us to find out subliminal meanings of different parts going on in the scene.

By Blessing Dada