Soundscapes and how they change Thrillers -Tom OD-

What soundscapes do I want in my Thriller?

Thriller soundscapes are often incredibly effective in building to a climax which is usually matched by a piece of action. This was something we picked up on in our Preliminary and tried to imitate; for our Thriller, we wanted to make this build up more subtle, however we still wanted it to have the same dramatic impact. Being the most prominent auditory display of genre, the non diegetic soundtrack was our main focus: we wanted the sounds to be less obtrusive and more organic than in our preliminary. We looked for royalty free music, but much of it felt wrong for the more urban theme we wanted in our thriller, so I produced several rough drafts of scores using free programs Audacity and HammerHead Rhythm Station to try and create our desired musical soundtrack.

Before making the tracks, I did some research into other Thriller score producers. My main influence when producing the soundtrack was Cristobal Tapia De Veer, particularly his work on the Channel 4 Action-Thriller series Utopia. Veer is able to produce light, fast paced and eerie soundscapes using large amounts of reverb and metallic sounding percussion. I drew particular influence from the track linked below, especially the section at 3:05, where he uses reversed sounds to create an eerie tone, followed by the sweeping sound which builds up to an irregular and sporadic drumbeat. This beat becomes faster and more obtrusive as the track progresses, perfectly demonstrating the build in tension towards a climax that I have already spoken of.  

For my first draft, I tried to recreate the reverb effect that Veer uses in his tracks, but rather than using metallic drums, I used pounding bass drums that sounded more tribal and animalistic, as it better suited the themes of predators and prey within nature that is woven into other aspects of our Thriller. I wanted the track to sound as though our victim was being hunted, as this would both mirror the animal documentary he is watching and enforce the idea that his is the prey and is being hunted by institutional figures such as our antagonist. This helps to make the antagonist seem more evil.
The build in tension was created by a wispy wind like sound and an unusual bass wobble that I was not best pleased with; overall, the track felt too heavy and lumbering, it didn't move quickly enough which certainly did not fit the Thriller genre, as Thrillers are orientated around suspense which this track lacked due to it's pace. The track needed to be faster, harder and more unnerving. With this in mind, I set about making a second draft.

For the second draft, I used more metallic, unnatural sounds such as high pitched jingling bells and hard hitting bass kicks. The bells made the track seem more light footed, but the kicks made it heavier. I used heavy drums as I thought they suited the Thriller genre, which is often full of harsh sounds that are not easy on the ear (ie.screams, shattering glass.) I upped the bpm and made the track much quicker, giving the music the fast pace of a Thriller. I also added a chirp which got higher and higher in pitch until the climactic point was reached. This helped build a tense anticipation and gave the score more a direction, as if the audience was being lead somewhere. In addition, I used an awkward, nasty sounding high pitched synth stab repeatedly, getting louder throughout the track (I thought these sounded almost similar to animal calls, fitting nicely with the theme of nature in our clip.) The end result sounded like this: 
I was even less satisfied with this track; the whole track was too obtrusive. The kicks and drums were far too heavy and slide in pitch at the end was almost anticlimactic. My main problem with this track, however, was the synth stabs; although very unnerving, they didn't make the track seem any darker as I had intended. They felt too unnatural, too manufactured to work with the themes of nature that i wanted to put across. The next draft needed to be darker.

I set about making a less obtrusive beat by using more understated jazz percussion sounds, these were much more quiet and fast-paced. I started to think more about how Veer creates ambient tones to make his tracks seem spectral; I added some reversed melodies and stretched them, making the pitch lower and lower each time until I was left with an almost supernatural soundscape behind the beat- ghostly notes that drifted a sense of sadness onto the track. I wanted the idea of nature and organisms to be even more prominent in this track, so I sampled a royalty free lion's roar- fitting nicely with the footage of .lions hunting- which I stretched and pitched down, similarly to how Veer pitches down singing voices. This was how I created the bass drones I wanted in the earlier drafts. In the process of stretching audio files, a breathing sound was created, once again complimenting the action on screen by mirroring the sound our female protagonist (whom is a close relative of our victim character) panting. The final draft sounded like this:

I was very pleased with this track: the drumbeat matched that of a heartbeat perfectly, making the track seem more tense and once again relating to organic structures. The reversed drum beats acted as perfect rises before introducing a new section of the track, and it all built towards a climax, within which the sounds became even less appealing and more uncomfortable for the audience. The drones worked perfectly in creating that nasty groaning sound that I wanted, but felt a little too chunky in places, like the sections of bass had just been slapped together. Overall, I was most happy with this track, so I chose to flesh it out a little more by increasing the build even further. I felt the supernatural tone fitted the Psychological Thriller genre well, which was ideal for our group as we wanted to explore themes of insanity through our male victim character.
I was already happy with the track and so was the rest of my group, but I felt that if I was to really refine it, it could be even more suspenseful. So I began to tweak aspects of it.
The main area the group wanted to improve on was making the climactic point even more climactic. I set about adding low key rises and chirps to increase the build effect. The final outcome sounds like this:
The group feels this final draft is the strongest possible soundscape. It is quiet and does not intrude on the action, yet it helps to build even more tension. Coupled with progressively faster editing, it will make the opening much more tense. This suits the Thriller genre as it builds suspense and creates a dark, paranoid tone. The way the sounds build makes the soundtrack more obnoxious and harder to bear for the audience. This matches the sense of claustrophobia that many Thrillers use to put the audience on edge. The links to nature are not glaringly obvious; the subtle lion roar and other such low growling noises act almost as ambient noise, they make the track as a whole sound darker, complimenting the night time setting of the clip. These samples are discrete, for to use obvious links to nature would not compliment the urban setting of our opening very well. The urban setting is matched by the mechanical sequence of beats that make the backing track; all are perfectly on time and no organic errors occur. This superhuman perfection mirrors the idea of the clinically perfect institutions that wish to take our victim away, whereas the out of time reversed melodies and bass drones represent the victim's family, connected to him by blood and sentimental value (even if their relationship is not perfect.)
In conclusion, this eerie soundscape matches the Thriller genre well by creating tone and tension, but the main reason the group agrees it is the best for us to use is because it is non-obtrusive and allows insight into the back story of what is happening on screen, as well as complimenting the action that follows.