Sound is
something that surrounds us everyday. Whether it is a motorcycle revving its
engine or a cardinal singing near your window, we never are away from sound. We
use sound to communicate or to locate where we may be. In the introduction to his book, Schafer
tells us how important soundscapes are to us by explaining what soundscapes
are. So what exactly is a soundscape? According to Schafer, “a soundscape
consists of events heard not objects seen” (Schafer). A good example of a soundscape would be a forest or an ocean scene.
Schafer also points out the three
important elements to a soundscape; keynote sounds, signals and sound marks.
Keynote sounds are sounds that are found naturally/normally in an environment
but are usually regarded as background noise. Signals are almost the complete
opposite of keynote sounds. Signals demand attention and are in the foreground
of the element. An example of a signal would be a police siren. And lastly,
sound marks “refers to a community sound which is unique or possesses qualities
which make it specially regarded or noticed by the people in that community”
(Schafer).
For our project “Anonymous Project”
we tried to give our videos a more scary feeling.
An important part of the horror
music genre is using a mixture of silence (which would be the keynote sounds)
and signals in order to set the scary mood. While we chose music that fit our
video, we also tried to find music that contained sounds that caused your heart
to race. A mixture between quick sharp beats and long, but loud sounds mixed in
with silence really gives you the scary sound effect. Also the natural rustle
of the leaves and the twigs snapping while Liz runs gives the video more of a
realistic effect even though it is obviously fictitious.
