Evaluation: Music

Music is a very important part of any film, particularly in thriller films since music helps to build and sustain the suspense and tension that is essential in the genre. Even within the thriller genre, there are lots of different styles of music that each help to build suspense in their own way. 

Before we chose our own music, we did some research into what kind of music should be used for our sub-genre. Firstly, we looked at some famous existing psychological thriller opening sequences and tried to deduce which style of music was being used for which style of film. The first one we analysed was a classic: Psycho (1960). The opening music is high pitched and uses stringed instruments such as violins and cellos to create long notes. This music creates a melancholic atmosphere and sets up a calm yet uneasy mood for the start of the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nf3D0AGZkU

The Silence of the Lambs (1991) was the second film opening that we listened to. Again, the music was very melancholic with lots of stringed instruments again and some woodwind too (flutes and clarinets). The sombre music makes the audience feel curious and uneasy as they enter this new world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyLI4eL2c_s                           

Shutter Island (2010) has, again, a low orchestral soundtrack for most of the opening sequence. This causes a mysterious and tensioned feeling from the beginning. In the character's flashback, the music remains mainly the same except from a melancholic woman's voice that echoes in the background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzZbwknwzwc

Overall, from the research, we were able to extract three keywords that we felt were applicable to all of the opening soundtracks that we researched. These words were: Melancholic, Tense, and Mysterious. We used these three words while searching for our own soundtrack to use for our film opening. We found a website called 'Purple Planet', a royalty free music site that allows free downloads for all types of projects, so long as they are credited.

http://www.purple-planet.com/using-our-free-music/4583818250

On this website, the first piece of music that we found was called 'Palpitations'. It was composed of mainly violins; a common instrument used in the other opening soundtracks. The music also had a heavy bass riff and screeching synth effects. These elements combined created tension (especially with the high tempo of 120 bpm) and mystery too, but overall it was not very melancholic. The synth effects also made the music seem very futuristic; a mood that did not fit with the isolated and suburban hostile mood that we wanted for our own opening, so we decided to search for some other tracks.

https://soundcloud.com/purpleplanetmusic/palpitations

After searching on the same site for alternatives, we came across a soundtrack called 'Turning The Screw'. This piece composed of creepy dissonant strings which added to the tension and mystery. The dissonant strings were of a similar sound to that of the 'Back To The Future' motif; the motif that was used to signify mystery and enigma. The long, low violin notes kept the music melancholic, just like they did in the music analyses above. The thing which made this piece better than 'Palpitations' was the bass riff that starts later on in the piece. This, we felt, helped to build tension at the right time: when the audience acknowledge that the antagonist was being followed. This tension from the action combined with the tension from the music would help to increase the overall tension straight away; something that we wanted to ensure in our own film opening. By this time, all three of our keywords could be applied to 'Turning The Screw', so we chose to stick with it. 

http://www.purple-planet.com/tense/4583971386

Another great element of the chosen piece of music was the fact that bass riff fitted great with the chase scene. We thought that the bass would symbolise the pleonastic heartbeat of the victim as they ran through the woods being chased by the murderer. The faster pace of the music kept the chase sequence suspenseful for the audience, while the melancholy created by the violins still played their part at keeping the sombre mood, especially after the death of the victim and the revealing of the real package at the end of the film opening.