Thursday 8 December 2016

Fiction Adaptation: Sound In Horror


For this unit, I have chosen to attempt horror. Horror relies more on sound, than visuals, so I have done some research into the use of sound in horror movies.

SOUND IN HORROR

There are two ways that sounds can be scary: by being sudden, or by generating a 'frightful' tone. Sound causes a reaction in the brain, in terms of fear, that is very different from the reaction the brain experiences when seeing something scary. Sound information also travels faster than visual information. Essentially, sounds are scarier than images.

Being scared is part of our human biology, and relates to need to survive. Sounds that makes us scare, warn us, and act as a first defence against predators. Your sense of sound becomes more sensitive when your visual ability is removed. It is clear sound is more important, and effective than visuals, and this is why sound in horror is essential. You can't just scare someone with a scary image, it's the sound that goes with it, that ultimately makes a human fear it.

Sound can be used to build tension, and it's this tension that can make a visual scary payoff more effective. Without sound, you may not know that any tension is being built up.

A study in 2010 found that horror movie sounds were made up of nonlinear sounds, like frequency jumps, nonstandard harmonies, noise/chaos, and instruments/voices pushed beyond their normal range.

This small, but important piece of research, tells me a lot about how important sound will be in my film, to ensure I built tension, and have effective, and scary payoffs.

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