Sound Design By Blesson Bangula-Zola
In every trailer, especially and specifically horror, sound makes up 70% of the effectiveness. In this case, the shock factor, intensity and suspense is what we are looking for in horror trailers and without sound, none of the things stated will be felt by the audience so sound is very important. Another important thing to add is how to make the sound apply these things. Judging from the horror trailers I analysed, they all have things in common (which I will state later on). For my sound design, I will make sure that the audience can almost escape from reality and feel like they are actually there with non-diegetic sound (sound from an outside source). Also, sound is important for the jumpscares because the exaggerated effect to it makes it scarier since it is unexpected.
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This teaser trailer is one of my inspirations simply because for the first 30 seconds, it was quiet. This helps to build the suspense as the camera kept moving forward so that viewers will feel like they are the ones walking when it was actually the mom. The silence goes with the slow editing too because it builds up to the shock factor, what the audience always waits for. After the 30 second mark, you can hear the subtle rising note play its role which means that we are now in the disruption/disequilibrium stage of the trailer. During this part, the rising note starts increasing to make it feel like viewers are getting closer to the danger which makes them feel even more nervous as they are waiting for the scare. Then you hear the daughter break her neck which is considered diegetic sound (sound that all characters can hear in the trailer in this case). There's also the scream (diegetic sound) which was expected of course. The rising note plays for 26 seconds after the initial 30 seconds and when that stops, it falls into silence.
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In the beginning, you can hear birds chirping which is diegetic sound. This is to show that a peaceful place like this is going to be disrupted by an evil force. It also sets the mood for what's about to happen next. This goes on in the first 15 seconds. After that happens, an eerie sound note starts to play which then now sets the mood for a horror movie. Now the viewers can now expect the disruption very soon at this point. As this goes on, at the 24th second, you can hear dialogue from the characters. She talks about Jason drowning in the lake which also adds to mood viewers are currently in. This gives a very creepy vibe and the piece of info gives viewers a clue as to what's going to happen next. Then, the door creaking audio note plays.
This eerie underlying sound note plays for about 30 seconds but becomes underlying as more audio notes start playing to build up to the scare factor. During this part of the trailer, you can hear an occasional bang on something metal every 3 seconds and it gets louder each time to make t feel like the antagonist is catching up to the viewers as they escape into that reality. |
This is the sound design I have come up with using FL Studio.