Research into music for thrillers

Research – use of music in 'THRILLERS'

• MUSIC ESTABLISHES MOOD AND TONE FOR YOUR NARRATIVE

• MUSIC IS LINKED TO VISUALS AND IS CAREFULLY EDITED TO MATCH WHAT YOUR ARE WATCHING

CAPE FEAR MUSIC TO OPENING SCENE (1991)

What sort of music is it?

The music to the opening scene of 'Cape fear' is a classical orchestral piece of music. The music has two layers, one layer of the music is a fast paced and high pitched piece of music, whereas the other layer is more slower and low bass. The two layers of music combined creates sinister music for the opening scene of this film.

How is the music linked to the visuals? (does it change)

Without any dialogue the music sort of helps the visuals to progress and move on and also the music is quite sinister and sounds mysterious which could possibly reflect on the water in the scene as water can contain sinister things and it is also mysterious. The music keeps the audience in the unknown which again could reflect on the water. The music matches the start of the titles well and does not sound out of place, the music also perfectly matches the end of the sequence well.

How does the music make you feel?

The combination of the music and visuals makes me feel very uncomfortable, uneasy and anxious about what this is all leading to, the eerie music also makes me tense.

How would describe the pace of the music?

The music is slow paced, but also has some parts where the pace picks up, but overall I would say the music is fairly slow paced and gradually speeds up a bit, the slow paced music builds up tension.

MUSIC FOR OPENING OF MY THRILLER

I want to use this research to help me create my own piece of music for the thriller that me and my group will be making.

I have learnt from this research of thriller music that it is probably the best choice to keep the music fairly slow paced and low bass as these two elements combined make some sinister music and it also helps keep the audience enticed, anxious and scared. The use of slow, low bass music really helps to create emotions in the audience as the build up of the slow paced music keeps the audience on the edge of their seat as to what is going to happen.

This thriller music research has really benefited me as although my group and I have not come to a complete conclusion about how the music is going to sound we have decided to take into consideration a couple of things we have found to be good qualities for a piece of thriller music and we have decided to use some of these qualities in our own thriller music.

The sort of music that is traditionally used in thrillers tend to be slow, paced and low bass and it is usually classical, orchestral sort of music. To conclude although thriller music starts off slow and quiet they seem to gradually get louder and faster towards the end of the title sequence.

I have also learnt that music is very important in films as it helps create emotions in the audience and it helps in many other ways to, but I think music is especially important for horror and thriller films.