Today we talked about the importance of sound. We noted down the difference between diegetic and non-diegetic sound. The main part of the lesson was built around the importance of sound in a horror sequence. We looked at a few minutes from near the end of Halloween.(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077651/)
What became clear was that the film is much, much less scary if you only see it. The sounds, especially the music really add to the tension of the scene. Oliver noticed how the score sounded a bit like Psycho (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/).
What also interesting is, that with only hearing the sound we could still tell what was going on. Seathera noted that she could imagine a tracking shot being used as Laurie (the main character) searched the house. She was right. In fact it a lot of horror movies use tracking shots and POV to great effect.
One other point; we briefly mentioned the difference between scary and gross. 'Halloween' is scary, whilst something like Saw is gross (another term used for these films is 'torture-porn' because they sort of enjoy, and ask the audience to enjoy watching the really gross-stuff). But which is scarier? The scariest bit in the 'Halloween' clip is when the villain's mask appears from the shadows.
Homework: watch a sequence from a film you know well with the sound off. How does it affect your viewing of the scene? Write some notes in your blue film diaries.
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