in Assignment, My Work

4D Project 2: Sound

Sound Clips:

Track 1: Horror Scene

Track 1: War Scene

Before starting on the project, I first made it a point to go to youtube to listen to different movie and game trailers to get a better sense of the ambience and atmosphere for each situation/genre.

Track 1: Horror

I did a quick google search, and here are some of the trailers/soundtracks that I referenced:

(list clown / creepy videos)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFLKPMLdR2c

(American Horror Story Freak Show Main Title)

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Scene/storyline:

The scene opens with the character being caught in the rain late at night. Seeking shelter, he enters the first building that he sees. It becomes quiet, and something behind her drops to the floor. She hears a sharp whistle, and a jukebox suddenly starts playing as she hears someone breathing heavily in the room. She turns behind just in time to see a clown laughing at her. Before she is able to react from the shock, the clown lunges at her, ripping her body apart. His laughter reverbs and the scene cuts back to the exterior of the building.

Breakdown of Sound Clip/Explanation:

Initially, I wanted the scene to happen in the character’s bedroom. She would have woken up from her sleep only to find that the clown from her nightmare had come to life. However, I realised the idea was a bit hard to execute without visuals and decided to change the idea. The clip was also supposed to start off with a soft rain sound (to suggest that she was sleeping soundly during a rain before being woken up).

I believe most people feel comforted, cosy and relaxed when they hear rain sounds, and I thus wanted to invoke this false sense of security before the events in the scene unfolds.

I then added in the creaking floor boards so that listeners would know that she had entered a older house since we normally associate creaky floor boards with old, large houses.

This was then followed by a low hum that ended with the sound of something crashing. This was intended to contrast with the otherwise quiet and monotonous sounds that preceded it. I then overlapped the jukebox, clown laughter and deep breathing (which was recorded by me) to create more depth to the sound. I then added in various gore sounds to imply that the character was attacked and mauled by the clown after being discovered. The sound that fades out, and the rain sounds fades back in again to give the impression of the camera panning out of the scene and into the exterior of the building in the rain.

I also added in 3 ambient sounds that stayed constant throughout the whole clip. The clips were static noises, a indoor basement room tone and a brass metal sound.


Track 2: War

These are some of my reference videos:

Scene/storyline:

The scene starts from a wide angle/bird’s eye view of the war that has just started, and war cries and various monsters can be heard engaged in battle.

Various weapons can be heard. These include catapults, swords, box and arrows and spears. The soldiers wield weapons, while the beasts fight with their own strength.

The focus is then brought to one particular battle between the 2 chiefs of the individual groups. One of them is struck down fatally with a sword, and he dies, and the scene ends as he takes his last breath of air.

Breakdown of Sound Clip/Explanation:

The setting of the story is supposed to be a mesh between fantasy and war. The original idea was to have two contrasting groups go to war at one another. One such example would be magic wielders vs melee fighters. However, I realised that it would sound very messy and confusing without any visual aids. I thus decided to focus on a war between two different melee groups.

To bring across the idea that the war is set in a fantasy world, I added in various monster growls and grunts and overlapped it with other war noises. Other war noises included horses galloping, soldiers’ war cries, bow & arrow sounds and the clashing of swords.

It was difficult to think of ways to wrap up the war scene, and I thus decided to end the scene by zooming into someone dying. This gives the impression that someone important/crucial to one party has died, symbolising the end of the war.

To illustrate the idea of the main character dying,

Rather than being the ‘main’ war scene in a movie, I imagine this clip as a flashback of a past battle/war that ended in a way that was rather swift and uneventful (as compared to the climax of the movie). If not, it could be used as the opening of the movie to establish certain contextual knowledge/history about the parties involved in the war.

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