Post production: sound effects

When planning our film trailer, we wanted to use inspiration from the 'Me BeforeYou' trailer, which shows the main protagonist involved in a car accident; it is shown in such a way that reveals to the audience that he has been involved in a collision without showing any graphic scenes that may be distressing. We liked the way this was shot, as it suggests what has happened to the audience in a way that doesn't involve complex camera work showing the impact. Having shot this scene, we wanted to include sound that also hinted to the audience about what has occurred, making it as realistic as possible. Following similar guidelines as last year, we searched for royalty free music online to find sound effects that were effective in delivering the scene we wanted. We finalised 3 different sound effect; one of a car engine revving, one of a car horn beeping, and one of a collision between two cars - this effects weren't fully as we would have liked, so further editing was required to change the volume and timings to make them fit.

To edit the sound clips, we opened them in Adobe Audition, an audacity programme that allows sound to be edited with detail and precision. We positioned the clips in the sequence that we wanted them in, and this began with the first shot of the car appearing round the corner; this was accompanied by the sound of the car revving. To make the sound right for the speed of the approaching car, we cut the clip down and used it multiple times to make the length and revving level right for the timings of the car. Following this we introduced the sound of the car horn, as it began when the female walked into the road, suggesting that the car driver was making her aware of their presence. This was overlapped on top of the car revving to increase the sound and gain the audiences attention. When the female realises the car is heading towards and the shot become slow motion, we have cut the shot to black before introducing the third sound, the car collision and thud, which sounds like someone being hit. This crescendo of sound will gain the audiences attention, and encourage them to continue watching. While we wanted to the shot to cut to black, we didn't want to immediately cut the sound as this would have felt unnatural, and continuing the sound would hold a larger impact on the audience while they understand what they have seen. Because of this, we used the echo tool in Adobe Audition to lengthen the sound of the horns to stage a bigger impact and effectively transition from the collision scene to the grave yard scene. It provided us with and eerie ending to a dramatic scene, which follows the genre of psychological thriller.