Soundtrack Creation Evaluation

This assignment required me to create a soundtrack to add mood or meaning to a film scene of my choice. I chose a scene from 'Paranormal Activity 2' where a woman is in a kitchen reading a magazine when all of the cupboards burst open suddenly and scare her. The original scene had no soundtrack in it and only relied on sound effects. I used garageband with musical typing to create the soundtrack and combine it with the clip from the film. I then exported it to a .mov file. I chose to make a more atmospheric soundtrack rather than a more melodic song because I felt that it fit the horror genre of the film and this specific scene better. I used a celtic harp on a very low octave to create a sort of beating drum sound which plays quietly throughout the scene. I felt that this heightened the suspense of the scene as in the original it is just a woman silently reading which I don't feel has the same impact on the audience without the soundtrack.The soundtrack lets you know that something is wrong and that something is going to happen. The harp increases gradually in volume until the cupboard burst opens where it stays at it's loudest until the end of the scene. I also used violins in a very high octave at the point of the scene when the cupboards burst open because I felt that they added extra shock value to the event and heighten the scare factor for the audience.

This assignment required me to create a soundtrack to add mood or meaning to a film scene of my choice. I chose a scene from Pulp Fiction where the antagonist 'Marsellus Wallace' and 'Butch Coolidge',who is a boxer, are escaping from their captors and getting some revenge. The original scene had no musical backing to it and only used sound effects and dialogue. I used garageband with musical typing to create the soundtrack and combine it with the clip from the film. I then exported it to a .mov file. This time I chose to make a more melodic soundtrack rather than atmospheric. I still feel that it adds atmosphere, however. I used a gregorian choir on a lower octave to create a deep serious soundtrack. I feel that this adds to the mood of the scene as it is quite a serious scene where they are torturing and taunting a man who kidnapped them. The music fades out at the end of the scen so id doesn't end as abruptly. The soundtrack reinforces the idea that this is a very serious scene where there is danger present. I also made the music a low volume so as not to take away from the dialogue in the scene.