Research into Sound in Thrillers - Miss Miller

The use of sound is used in a variety of ways in order to create specific effects, emphasise actions and make the audience feel something, compared to when there wouldn't be sound.  The clip I will be analysing is: Halloween H20: 20 years later - Miss Whittington's End:

The music plays a big part of this scene, this would be known as non diegetic sound.  From 0:20, the music seems to be very faint which the audience may be able to pick up on.   The music makes the audience pay more attention to what is happening as it builds tension and makes the audience pay attention to what she is doing.  The music picks up the pace when she runs out of the door (from 0:30) and the music suddenly stops when she enters the house which may give the audience the impression that she is safe but really she isn't.  The music starts again when she is faced with Michael and starts fighting with, creating a sense of suspense and tension as the audience do not know if she will survive or not.  The purpose of non diegetic sound is to add dramatic effect.  Non diegetic sound is conventional to the thriller genre because it creates suspense for the audience as it makes up the atmosphere in the scene.  Non diegetic sounds are used because it has the ability to create or build suspense than if music wasn't playing for example.  

Diegetic sound is sound which belongs with a frame can be considered to be a natural part of the narrative.   The sound does not always have to be visible on-screen.  An example of this would be when the lady enters the house and their is a background sound of what sounds like a TV playing (0:47). The significance that the TV is playing can make the audience relate to what they would hear in the background sometimes on a daily basis.

The other diegetic sound would be lady's dialogue including her speech and screaming.  The screaming would indicate to the audience that she is fearful (2:00).  Therefore, making the audience relate to her situation and feel what she's feeling.  The purpose of diegetic sound is add normality to a scene,as without diegetic sound, the audience would not know what would be taking place or what would be happening in the background.   Diegetic sound is conventional to the thriller genre because without diegetic sound the audience would not know what is going on. 

When the police siren goes off (1:28), would be known as off screen sound.  At first the audience does not see the source of where the sound is coming from but then it is revealed a few seconds in after hearing it.  This would confirm to the audience that it is a police car, so that they wouldn't confuse it with maybe an ambulance siren.  Off-screen sounds are used because it adds normality to a film, as other stuff may be going on outside of the current scene and will be introducing that to the audience.  Off-screen sounds create mystery for the audience as they don't know where it's coming from.  Off screen sounds are conventional to the thriller genre as it can make the audience wonder what is happening.  

At the very end of the scene, silence was used when the lady had been killed (2:08).  This signified to the audience that she had been killed.  This is conventional to the thriller genre because it can build tension and create emotions for an important event to happen. Silence is conventional to the thriller genre as it builds tension and shock if a loud noise happens.   The purpose of having silence in a thriller is to add suspense or have silence in a particular event which happened which is important to the film.

Overall, sound is used in many ways to communicate messages and emotions to the audience.  In my own thriller, I would use music to intensify a scene making the audience feel suspense.  Silence would help build tension if they were walking through something or if a major character died, silence would be used. Diegetic sounds such as footsteps and a car radio would be used to add normality to the scene.