This week I have been working on a sound replacement project for ‘The Arctic’. This is going really well however this style of movie is not my favourite type - at all. I thought it would be more appropriate to do a case study on a film I find interesting and sonically intriguing.
I have also been writing a soundscape for a project that has an underlying dark theme. I thought I would choose a film more related to this than to the sound replacement project. I have been looking to Australian film companies and trailer companies. I found one of my favourite horror movies was created by a company called The Solid State. They have worked on a few movie trailers for australian films and I thought it would be cool to look into the production side of an Australian film company.
The Babadook is an aesthetically pleasing horror film that is scored tastefully by Jed Kurzel. Kursel has scored many films such as Snowtown and, more recently, The Mustang. The trailer is complied of all aspects of the album in which Kursel wrote for the film as well as an impressive array of SFX and foley to fit the horror genre. The genre of the score is ambient and tense, using a lot of minor and diminished chords. There are many orchestral sounds as well as experimental sounds to create tension and a ‘doomy’ vibe.
The beginning of the trailer starts with a sustained organ chord that is in a minor scale. This sets the tone for the first scene of a mother and child reading a book together. There is an addition of chimes to this part of the score that match the mood of the first scene as it sounds rather child-like. Although the chords are sad the tone sounds bright. I think this music has been chosen and composed to fit this particular scene. I feel like there are some child-like elements to the sound of the music as well as some harsh diminished chords.
The music plays a huge role in this trailer as at first the dialogue is minimal. The dialogue is clear and the tone is very nice. I think there is some dampening EQ on the dialogue which makes the tone sound warm as they are in the child's bedroom. However, as the mother reads about the ‘Babadook’ The music suggests something sinister. There is a tension sound as the first glimpse of the Babadook is shown. This sound is a diminished and clashing chord that sounds to be in a different key to the rest of the score that makes it pop out even more.
The music progresses intensely as the trailer builds and reveals parts of the storyline. The first few shots are of the mother and child establishing that there is no such thing as the ‘Babadook’. The tone remains even in the dialogue as the mother is reassuring about her child's worries. The music builds as more and more layers are added to the score such as big tycho drums getting louder and louder. This is a popular technique for building tension in thrillers and horror movies. I have used this technique in my 'Arctic' sound replacement as I found it fitted the tone.
The other elements of sound design include the sound that the ‘Babadook’ makes. At first the ‘Babadook’ is only seen as a cartoon drawing in the children's book. The sound that is played as he appears is a low distorted rumble. The level is quite low compared to the rest of the mix. As the ‘Babadook’ is revealed more throughout the trailer the rumble turns into a growl. I really like the simplicity of the effects on this because it sounds almost human. I think the processing could be someone making a weird gravelly voice while saying the ‘Babadook’s’ lines. It sounds like there is some distortion and a flanger maybe makes the ‘Babadook’ sound more un-human. I was only able to find this quote online about the making of the Babadook sound. I found it interesting that the sound designer used a tone and type of sound which he likes to blend with the dialogue.
“As part of the mix, the sound designer used a dragon call sound effect from Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal during scenes where we see the Babadook. In other scenes, the production utilized sounds from video games, such as UFO: Enemy Unknown, Mortal Kombat 3 and Resident Evil”
The foley is very specific. At the start the first part of the trailer where the camera is flicking between different scenes in the movie, the foley is minimal and maybe there is only one or two sounds per shot. The first few scenes of the trailer are more music and dialogue driven to set the tone. As the sound of the trailer builds and more about the nature of the ‘Babadook’ is revealed, the foley becomes more important. The tension is cut when there is a silent part of the trailer. The mother is asleep during the night and the only sound is a loud and heavy thump on her door. All of a sudden, the viewer is put into her space, the tone of the room is cold and it's as if you could hear a pin drop. Her breaths are shallow but loud in the overall mix and they get louder as the camera gets closer. The thumping on the door is consistent in volume, but the tone anticipates something will happen through the pace and harshness. This also shows how parts of the ‘Babadook’s’ character traits are portrayed through the sound design.
“Some of the(se) unconventional sound effects represent Amelia's lack of sleep, and how the sounds of the TV are seeping into her psyche”.
This quote sums up how the sound designers have used a mix of both foley sound design and samples to create a feeling which is representative through audio of the main characters emotions. An example of this in the trailer is when there is an edition of a loop played throughout the second half of the trailer when the main characters fall from grace is becoming more evident. The sample sounds like a child singing but is layered and distorted to sound almost like a siren sound. This is effective as it is low in the mix but pops through during breaks in the action shots. This is a great example of how the ambient sounds are used to portray an underlying overall tone for the scene.
As the trailer builds tension there is more and more sound effects for impact. The use of these is to create jump scare feelings for the viewer. For instance, when the Babadook is in frame, the music builds in volume as he gets closer to the camera. When you think that he is right in front of the main character the scene cuts and there is a loud tycho drum hit. Some more effective sound design in this trailer includes when the on-screen text appears. There is a different crushing type sound for each time the works appear on screen. The works are text from the ‘Babadook’ book “If it’s in a word, or in a look, you can’t get rid of the Babadook”. The sound sweeps from left to right moving with the text as it sweeps across the screen. The sounds are loud and reverberated and are made up of a few elements. They sounds like a mix of growls, metallic clangs for the initial impact sound and dissonant harsh synth stab sounds. This is something I would like to try and create while working in another post production project. I really enjoy this type of ambiguous sound design. I could use these principles in music production. The layer of different sounds for ambient music is very common but something I have not practiced much.
After analysing this trailer I believe I have learnt some valuable things about post production and sound design. I like the simplicity of some of these sounds and how this trailer company have compiled some of the most interesting sounding effects into this trailer that sound like nothing else. I also have learnt about impact sounds and the way they can be used minimally rather than every time a scene cuts to create tension. I can use this technique in my Arctic film trailer sounds replacement. The most interesting thing I learnt from analysing this trailer was how music and sound design can be used to help with a character's emotional development. This trailer has inspired me to work on some more post production projects in the future as I really like sound design being used this way. I would love the opportunity to create and charters emotion through sound.
References:
EXCLUSIVES, S. 20 Wild Details Behind The Making Of The Babadook. Retrieved from https://screenrant.com/the-babadook-behind-scenes-making-of-hidden-trivia/quickview/8
Saporito, J. (2015). How does "The Babadook" use technical elements to illustrate the mental states of its characters | ScreenPrism. Retrieved from http://screenprism.com/insights/article/how-do-lighting-sound-makeup-and-costume-amplify-the-films-material
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