Editing: Sound

For the use of sound in our thriller, we previously planned to create an original soundtrack recording different sound effects to create the tension building and surrounding our protagonist. However we concluded it would distract our thriller if we had too many audible sounds it would distract viewers from the action happening and they would be lost and confused. Therefore, we found many different sound effects from the school’s documented file named ‘Hurtwood RAID.’ For example, we used gunshots, footsteps, doors opening, people talking, bodies dropping and bullets being shot. We used ‘Adobe Premiere pro’ to help layer all our chosen sound effects together and similarly repeated them successfully to create a bigger impact for our sequence. However, we didn’t want to have the sound effects throughout, as we felt silence is just effective if not more.

 

When we chose the sound effects, we wanted appropriately consider which effects would be most suitable and beneficially work for our thriller. For instance, there were different possibilities for a sound effect of a gunshot, including reverb versions and durations. We specifically chose to use a variation of gunshot sound effects so it would sound more realistic and advanced instead of repeating the same one over and over.

In our opening sequence, sound helped drive and build the tension and suspense throughout as we increased the auditability to create a successful climax and to highlight time was short. For instance, at the beginning of our thriller we primarily used echoed dripping sounds, which we looped over the whole of our sequence, starting from the opening credits to the end to create a smoother tense fluidity.

After my group and I were pleased and satisfied with the sounds we had chosen and the places in which had chosen to place them onto our timeline, we started to play around with the sounds in advanced and try and build the tension successfully by adjusting and exploring with some settings. For example, we decided to add reverb and delay to the sounds to make the sounds distorted. We did this, as we wanted some sounds to sound more realistic and feel as though they were bouncing off metallic, echoed floors and walls to build rapid tension where necessary. 

We also altered some of the volumes of the effects by decreasing and increasing them, as we wanted to convey the feeling of people coming closer through increased, pleonastic sounds where necessary. However, at points in our thriller, we wanted the sound to be decreased and quieter to allow viewers to concentrate and appreciate our actors movements as well as his responding sounds, for instance his use of diegetic dialogue and heavy breathing.

When my group and I felt the need to save our work we had achieved on sound and were happy with it we understood we had to save the audio and save this as our final opening sequence instead of our others cuts and clips we had been working on.