Audio

Audio is the most essential part of our project. It will either ‘make or break’ us. The reason audio is so integral to our project is because of our horror theme. The music (or score) is the most important part of a horror film or game. The music is used to increase levels of fear and tension. The horror would not have much effect, if any, without the music. Imagine the film ‘Jaws’ without the thunderous music as the shark approaches? Or the shower scene in ‘Psycho’ without the screeching, stabbing-sound motions of the violin? It would completely diminish the fear for the viewer.

We are going to use surround-sound, which we feel will be vital for our project. With our booth set-up, we will use either 5 or 6 speakers and also a subwoofer. These speakers will be installed in a way that will do best to accommodate our sound maps for each scene.

Note: If for some reason our plan to use surround-sound with speakers is not achievable, we will use headphones and create the same effect, similar to ‘The Virtual Barber Shop.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA

The types of sound we use are also going to be very important. Sound types fall under the headings; Concrete (sounds which come from something visible in the scene), Musical (atmospheric sounds) & Voice (sounds from the human mouth e.g. whispers, breaths). We will be using a strong combination of all three of these.

Research into what makes music or sounds so horrifying/creepy lead us to the following conclusions and methods, which we will implement into our audio:

·      Sudden changes of dynamics (low notes to high notes)

·      Soundscape that disorients & confuses

·      Notes that don’t fit – puts you on edge

·      Emptiness sounds (echoes, pipes, drips)

·      Emphasis on the tension, rather than the release

·      The distance between notes i.e. The intervals

·      Muffled noises (e.g. muffled thump) – gives no distinct indication of what is making the noise

Useful techniques we plan to use:

·      Use of synthesizers – create humming, droning sound effects

·      Compilation of sounds e.g. the soundtrack music to The Sixth Sense, if you listen carefully, is actually made up of thousands of human breaths.

Because the horror of our project is based around a young girl, we are going to incorporate a ‘creepy’ lullaby theme into the audio. If used in the right way and in the right context, a sweet lullaby can be portrayed as a dark, eerie song. An example of this would be the song Rosemary’s Baby by Fantomas where it combines lullaby vocals with chunking metal and guitar sounds. It can be found at the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpOpdrcwNPI

Other musical influences for the audio include:

·      Metallica’s introduction to their song ‘Enter Sandman’

·      Korn

·      Rammstein

Movie & game soundtrack influences include:

·      The Grudge

·      The Ring

·      The Shining

·      Nightmare on Elm Street

·      Silent Hill

·      Fear

Software we will use to create our audio:

·      ProTools

·      Audacity

·      Reason