Soundtrack - Introductory Exercise

Introduction;

You have a character that is feeling stressed, think of as many ways you can tell the audience this through sound alone.

Stressed Character;
Quiet ( uncomfortable silence )
Banging
Eerie
Tapping Fingers
Deep Breathing
Increasing Volume
Echo
Heartbeat
Footsteps
Repetitive Noises
High Pitched
Classical Music
Voices
Shouting
Tears
Rustling
Inner Thoughts
Clock Ticking
Sirens
Screams
Music
Exaggerated Sounds
Gushing Wind

Audience;
How do audiences listen to soundtracks? Think about the space, the environment and the speakers?

The audience have a different view of the film in different environments with different speakers and tones, for example if you were to watch a horror film in the cinema you are more likely to get scared as the speakers are surrounding you and are louder than you are at home or watching on a smaller screen with smaller speakers.

The reason for this is that on a 5.1 speaker, the ones you get in a cinema, the sound is much louder and is surrounding you in all areas, even if you are sitting right at the back of the cinema you are more likely to hear better than sitting right in front of the TV with a built in stereo at home.



The sounds;

The video clip I am going to talk about is the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, the sounds in this clip are very strong sounds which imply strong feelings - like when you can hear the waves but cannot see them shows that it was a vivid memory and has stayed with him, I think these waves were studio recorded and then added into the film after it was in picture lock. I think that the waves were recorded using this method is because they wouldn't of been as strong if they were location recorded because you would of had all of the background noises like sea wind and other ambience sounds, using this method with this particular sound compliments the picture more because it implies a stronger memory with the stronger sounds.The sound of the chain rattling and the hand shaking had a really big impact on me as the waves were dimmed out so you could not really hear them and the chain rattling insinuated that it was important to the character, also at the very start you can hear drums and waves with only a few images this immediately connoted to me that the film was about the army. I think that if these sounds were recorded differently the audience would not have been as intrigued because these sounds recorded using these methods compliment the picture very well and even without the picture you would of been able to make those images in your head.