The course I took on Lynda is called Introduction to Video Sound Design. As a music student, I have experience working with audio, but not in the context of film. The depths of my sound design within video basically only includes projects I have made for class that have music and/or audio in them. With this course, I was hoping to gain a better understanding of how music and sound effects can help to convey they correct tone in a video.

When I was at SXSW this past March, I was lucky enough to attend several panels about VR horror experiences, which is actually what inspired me to choose that topic as my final project. One thing that really stuck with me from these talks is the emphasis that they put on sound design. On director who was on a panel of speakers discussed how he almost scrapped a project after watching his footage and deciding he hated it, until he friend chose different music/sound effects. After that, he said it was like a brand new movie, and it went on to win several awards. What he said that really struck me was that, in regards to the horror genre, sound design is responsible for about 90% of the scares. Between building suspense when a character is in danger to loud, sudden bangs for jump scares, to a slow and detuned piano track, horror movies just straight up wouldn’t work without sound design.

The three main takeaways I have from this lesson are regarding:

• Timbre, color, and energy of sound
• Internal or external sound
• Diegetic or non-diegetic sound

In regard to timbre, color, and the energy of the sound in your video, the lesson discusses how essential it is to keep these relatively similar across scenes. For my short horror experience, I plan on using very sharp, dissonant sounds to convey stress and fear. One piece of music I am using in String Quartet No. 3 by George Rochberg, which is a famous post-modernist violin piece known for its atonality and jarring chord structure. I was drawn to this piece of work because even though it is quite a famous musical work, I believe it fits well in the horror genre. In addition to this, I have found numerous sound effect packages that I have downloaded and plan on using where appropriate in my film

The next topic the lesson discussed was about internal or external sound. This is referring to whether what the audience hears is something happening inside of a character’s head, such as an internal monologue or narration, or whether the sound is coming from the environment around them, like the sound of wind blowing, doors slamming, or footsteps approaching. I plan on using mostly external sound in my film, as I have no plans currently for something like a narration by the main character. Again, I plan on using many of the sound effects I have downloaded. These include background environment noise like wind/cars driving by, screams, laughs, bangs, and other such effects that you would expect to hear in a horror movie. If I had more time or more experience with screenwriting I would love to dive inside the head of my main character to hear what they are thinking at different times throughout the film, but am limited in that capacity.

The final topic that this lesson discussed was diegetic vs. non-diegetic sound. This was a completely new concept for me, but I find it extremely interesting as it is not something I had thought about before. Basically, diegetic sounds are sounds that originate from something within the movie, while non-diegetic sounds are those that only the audience can hear. An example of diegetic sounds are very similar to that of external sounds in a movie. These can be any sound that something within the movie makes, such as dogs barking, people screaming, gunfire, someone playing piano, etc. Examples of non-diegetic sounds are soundtracks (when not played/sang by a character in the movie) as well as ambiance. Horror movies are especially known for non-diegetic sounds, and often employ these types of sounds to build tension throughout a scene. This includes sound effects like FX risers, which is a tool used both in fil and music to build tension and let the audience/listener know that something “big” is going to happen. You can see this in most EDM songs during the buildup before the “bass drops”. In a similar vein, these types of effects are used in horror movies in scenes usually before something scary happens, such as when a character is slowly walking through a room by themselves looking around. In horror, this helps to tense up the audience, and make them more likely to react to an upcoming scare. I plan on using FX risers in my film to help build tension in a similar way.

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