What is it and when is it used?
Sound is used in the opening sequence of films and tv programmes to foreshadow the theme and emotion that will later be felt and seen in the rest of the film. For example if it's a horror film, the opening sequence will have sounds or music that will make the audience feel scared or fearful of what's to come.
Examples from other horrors...
American Horror Story's opening title sequence uses a soundtrack that links with the entire sequence. For example, in this sequence, a shot of a photo of a baby is shown and the sound switches to a louder sound to maybe confuse the viewer. The sound also accompanies the titles. The music mostly picks up in sound when a name is shown on screen. From seeing and noticing this we have realises that we should make our chosen sounds and music intertwine with our shots and titles.
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Another opening title sequence we looked at was called 'Dead Silence'. The opening title sequence uses such a high pitch soundtrack which picks up in pace as the sequence carries on. This is important to the entire sequence as it creates suspense and intrigue for the audience. There is also a sudden sound effect and change of image on scene to make the audience feel on edge. A match is lit on screen and it's accompanied with a sudden sound effect. There's also dramatic, opera sounding voices at different points in the music. This could be argued parallel sound too because on screen the audience are seeing something mysterious being drawn- the tense music matches the tense feeling they have while waiting to see what's being drawn.
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We also looked at 'The Woman In Black'. The soundtrack in this is really good for creating a tense atmosphere for the audience. The sound is parallel to what is going on on screen. It starts by showing young girls -playing with dolls and the music is twinkly, lullaby- like music. This makes the audience even more aware that the children are the focus of the scene. After the young girls have been possessed and have jumper out of the window, there are screaming sound effects. This makes the audience feel intense because the screams foreshadow that there is going to be trauma and pain to come in the film. Next, we see a change in the music and what's on screen. The titles start and the music is a bit more slow and heavy and obviously scary. This again shows the audience that Something scary is about to happen, it makes the audience feel tense.
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What did we find out?
After watching handfuls of different opening title sequences and concentrating on the sounds, we have decided that there are several things that qe need to consider in regards to sound and our opening title sequences.