Sound

Analysis of sound in ‘The Orphan’

The use of sound in a thriller film is incredibly important because it creates and builds tension and is used to chock the audience. There are lots of different types of sound used in thriller films and each one has a very different, but important effect on the audience. Sounds help engage the audience; it leads the audience into feeling certain emotions towards the film and character.

The first sound in my clip is a non-diegetic sound. This is used when two little girls are communicating using sign language. The soundtrack played in the backgrounds is at first quiet, slightly tense and eerie. But then it gets louder and gets more and suddenly gets high pitched which creates a feeling of anticipation. The audience starts to feel apprehensive and tense; this is conventional to a thriller because the eerie, tense music creates an atmosphere of anxiety and apprehension, which lets the audience know something bad is about to happen. This kind of tense, suspense-building music is conventional to thrillers because it creates fear and subtly guides the audiences emotions, which is what people expect to hear and feel when they watch a thriller.

Another type of sound is diegetic sound; this is when the sounds you hear belong on the film world and you can see where the sound is coming from. In this clip it’s used as the little girl is walking around, using equipment on a desk. The innocent sounds of the office equipment in an otherwise silent room (except for a quiet soundtrack in the background that’s not part of the film world) give the audience almost a false sense of security. However when those sounds are combined with the image of another little girl carrying a hammer, those innocent sounds then give the character a sense of foreboding. This is conventional to a thriller because the sounds create a sense of foreboding and suspense which enables the audience to feel engaged and involved in the film and form relationships with the audience. This is something people would expect from a thriller film because the tension and suspense created makes the thriller ultimately more enjoyable for the audience. 

The use of parallel sound is also used in this clip. Parallel sound means that the image and the sound go together. This happens in this clip when the image is of a young girl, finding then loading a gun. As this is happening, the music becomes louder, more ominous, which fits in with the things going on in the scene. The use of both threatening actions from the character and uneasy music go together to make the audience feel nervous and apprehensive and they also expect something bad to happen soon. This is conventional to a thriller because the use of parallel sound worries and scares the audience and creates tension, which draws the audience in, consequently allowing them to feel more engaged in the film which is what the audience expects from a thriller.

In conclusion, sounds are very important in a film as they help the audience to engage in the film and the characters and creates relationships and bonds with the characters within the film. The sounds make the whole film scarier because they subtly alter the audience’s mood, and the audience unconsciously feels tense and scared. In the clip that I analysed, I discovered that the use of soundtrack helps set the mood of the scene and allows the audience to know when something bad is coming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc4EZmejkxw