Sound in Trailers

Sound plays an incredibly important role in trailers, it is used to capture attention and make the whole 'experience' a lot more thrilling. A lot of modern trailers like to use Inception sound (the horn sound) to make the trailers feel a lot more 'serious' and action packed.  However, sound can also act as a 'tool' to make the trailers more original and successful. Trailer music is different compared to normal music, the composing has a different style.

The “Distortion Booms” and “Stutter Downers” in the Elysium Trailer for example, has one of the most recognizable sounds of the recent years.

Even though this trailer uses a lot of horn sounds, it still manages to be original due to an extra added soundtrack. The soundtrack that was added was mostly present at the end of the trailer, this is because trailers typically use shorter scenes and more action at the end of the trailer to show the Disruption and make it seem a lot more 'intense'. During the start of the trailer, it mainly features inception sounds and bass because it focuses more on the dialogue rather than action itself. Additionally, at the start of the trailer the music is usually quiet, calm or absent as it's not as important in the beginning as it is at the end.  

The "BRAAAAM" in the Inception Trailer is another example of a commonly used sound effect in many action trailers. It's just another term for heavy and thunderous bass notes used to impact audience and set an apocalyptic mood for the trailer.  The sound track and the "BRAAAM" sound effect already starts at 0:07 but quietly, as the dialogue is more important. However, once the screen with text 'pops' out at 0:11, the sound effect starts to get noticeably loud. On the other hand, this type of "BRAAAM" sound effect sounds different because it has a tempo (like drums) instead of a simple sound such as a horn. 

What is a Foley and a Foley Artist?

Foley sound is a sound effect that is recorded and added to the film during post production when the shooting of the movie is finished. These sound effects are useful to make certain sounds in the trailer clear such as, foot steps, doors slamming, paper rustling or any other sound that isn't a dialogue. These types of sound effects are usually avoided during production and on set in order to get a better quality product as it's clearly important to record the dialogue and nothing else. These effects are important because they provide more freedom with the control; such as the timing, quality and the volume of the dialogue compared to any other sound. In other words, its like working in layers but with sound. Foley is a great effect for enhancing the sound especially in genres such as Comedy, to add a comedic value such as loud punching and hitting sounds combined with silly acting.

A Foley artist is a person that records the sounds in a specialized studio or any post production sound studio with good equipment and props. Foley artists usually record the sound effects while seeing a screen that displays the footage of the trailer/film clearly, they add the sound while watching the screen for timing. The artists can perform anything from walking to breaking inanimate objects. However, not every sound effect needs to be done by a Foley Artist, a lot of sound effects such as a camera shutter sound can be stored digitally and downloaded for free in good quality. The sound effects can be done by the post production sound engineer on a keyboard whilst watching the footage. Unfortunately, doing this kind of approach with sound effects can get very repetitive lowering the quality of the film/trailer. It is also harder to find exactly the sound I'd want to hear in my trailer making the experience a lot less flexible.

There are few main examples of Foley sound effects in this Cindarella trailer. Firstly, the first foley sound effect that can be heard in the trailer is at 0:26 which is a cat 'meowing' combined with some rustling/metallic sounds to make the audience pay attention to the cat and its collar. Another loud sound effect that caught my attention was the dishes shattering because the protagonist dropped it on the floor at 0:42, I believe it was used to empathize the distress of the protagonist. I've also noticed clear horse running sounds at 0:47 with the sound track on top, it would be difficult to use the soundtrack if those sounds were coming from the video file. Finally, a last example I thought was eye-catching is the sound effect at 1:49. This sprinkling effect is interesting because it adds sound to a fictional/magical source within the film making the experience feel a lot more realistic.

Diegetic and Non Diegetic Sound

Diegetic sound is sound usually made by objects within the trailer. Another example of diegetic sound is a dialogue from characters and sound coming from a clear source such as instruments. However, it's not  necessary for diegetic sound to be within the scene, it could also be off set depending on the source. On the other hand, non-diegetic sound is a sound that is not visible on the screen and neither has been implied be present in the action. Distinguishing non-diegetic and diegetic sound depends on understanding of conventions in film, it is clear that some sound within the trailer is either coming from a source within the 'world' internally, or externally.

I've decided to use this Musical Film "Hairspray" as an example because it features a lot of sound tracks and sound effects. For example at 0:19 it shows a musical sound of clarinet and then later at 0:21 shows a short scene of people playing on instruments. This is a Diegetic Sound because the source of the sound can be seen clearly. There is another example of Diegetic sound at 1:07. It's diegetic because it is clearly shown that there is a band playing and a singer singing. However at 1:18, the source of sound is unknown even though it's clearly a musical instrument, that sound track is there to make a certain positive mood while the characters interact with each other at 1:20, this is an example of non diegetic sound. Additionally, this type of film does not use any inception sounds (the horns) because this type of film does not need to have suspense or action, it is quite light-hearted and does not fit with the generic action genre that uses this type of a sound effect.

I will likely keep the "BRAAAM" sound effects to a minimum or not include them at all in my trailer because it's not an action genre but it does need some kind of suspense sound effects. However, this research gave me an inspiring idea to use a diegetic and non diegetic sound. My idea is to use a calm sound track of a piano so it does well with the dialogue and show the protagonist actually using it in the scene (diegetic). Then, towards the end of the trailer I would like to use something more thrilling and scary as I will be able to show more action (non diegetic sound). I am also planning to use a sound effect for internal 'voices' and other simple foley effects.