Sound research

In the action trailers we have looked and identified it was clear that sound plays a major part in creating a certain atmosphere creating certain emotions and suspense, and emphasising action within certain films. For example in the movie "Gamer" the sound is used to compliment the action throughout the trailer. As the titles appear on screen at the beginning, there is a vast amount of non diegetic sound that can be heard creating the atmosphere and implementing action, and emphasising the beginning of the trailer. After the titles end, there is a slight fade in the sound, then we hear the soundtrack take its rightful place, which plays almost throughout the entire trailer. In some significant parts of the trailer the volume of the music is toned down so that the audience can concentrate on whats happening on screen and as it goes along the music picks up again as the action comes back into play.
On the top of the music when it is necessary, a deep stereotypical narrator voice over can be heard and the music plays quietly in the background still creating an atmosphere, whilst the narrator speaks and explains certain aspects of the plot line.
Another film chosen was Inglorious Basterds, in which starts with a non diegetic soundtrack playing softly in the background, whilst we hear the other sound of diegetic speech. Sound effects are also heard through part of the trailer to compliment the writing on the screen as well. As the action starts to build up later in the trailer, the music also picks up as the drums and guitar get louder and more intense in direct correlation with the action shown. As is was apparent from watching these trailers and others along with them, sound was a key point to making a successful trailer, as previously stated; it creates atmosphere and helps emphasise any action or situation that may occur within the trailer.
Our music choice was quite limited as we knew that copy righted music was not an option for our trailer, so we had to look for copyright free music. This led us to a site by the name of www.royaltyfreemusic.com, there were a few songs we found interesting, including Final Goal. The problem with this song in particular was the sponsors kept announcing their name above the track every 5 seconds or so, making the track an obsolete choice. Soon after it was apparent to us that all songs on this website included this interrupting feature so the case was to find another website that was efficient and had what we needed. This led us to a site by the name of www.soundzabound.com. This website had an array of high-quality songs than previously seen on the other site, but after reading some of the terms and conditions of this website, we found out that you would have to pay for the music which we felt was unnecessary due to our lack of funding and the inconvenience and hassle of the website. Some of the songs we found that initially interested us on the website were titled Surge and Hard Slam.
The next website we tried was called www.freeplaymusic.com, this was by far the best and most trustworthy of websites we had tried and checked, as there was no announcing and no payments needed. The first song we came across was named "Bouncing", but after us as a group listened to it properly we decided it wouldn't be suitable for our film particularly. The next three we came across were exactly what we had imagined and needed in our film, there were entitled Eliminator, Mugshot and Apocalypse. But after searching through more songs and listening to samples from the website, we found one more of interest which was called "Human". We then listened to the songs over again, and discussed the songs and our opinions on them and listened to each others opinions, and decided which bits from each track would sound advantageous and successful in our trailer. We decided that the first 24 seconds of "Mugshot" were suitable and fast rock paced intro. Other sections of Mugshot from "Mugshot" that we particularly liked was a section in the middle from 37-50 seconds and and then from 1.26 to 1.50. The ending of the song from 2.27 till the very end we thought would sound excellent at the end of our trailer to create a certain atmosphere to end the action on. The next song "Eliminator" also has a beginning that we particularly liked, so we chose 0-8 seconds as an acceptable section of the song. Other parts of the song we liked were 8-26 seconds and then 1.31 till 1.55 seconds. We also took note of 2.15 as around that point there is a accomplished feel to the song. Our third song in which we took bits from was "Apocalypse". This song has a particularly satisfactory section from the start to 24 seconds, creating a effective atmosphere, we also enjoyed 24-36 and 36-1.00, and finally 1.10 to 2.00. As we believed this would help emphasise action in our trailer and create a specific atmosphere.
Mugshot, Eliminator and Apocalypse are all quite heavy rock songs, which created a sense of action which we needed, but we felt we needed another song to counterbalance all the heavy music to make it sound perfect, that is when we came across the song "Only Human". This is a slow song that is key to building up tension and suspense in our trailer for the audience. What we liked about this song is the beginning of it, and how it fits the genre of our film and the feel of our idea perfectly. Another song we discovered whilst looking at the slow songs section is "On The Trigger". We especially liked the opening 40 seconds of this song, as again it created the perfect build up for our plot line and action.
Once we have created and started to edit our trailer, it may be more clear to us which songs might not fit or if there are any changes that need to take place, but for the time being we feel these tracks chosen, fit our action film trailer and create the kind of atmosphere, and emphasise the kind of action that we need to follow our plot line, making it sound right and as perfect as possible.