Sound in Trailers

Sound in Trailers

"Sound is a important component in film trailers that should not be overlooked". This is because it gives meaning towards a scene, adds a certain flavour towards how the images are perceived.
"Sound is a powerful tool for storytelling, constructing genre and conveying emotion." This is because sound is a powerful indicator for drama, danger, sadness, anger. It is a great tool for building up moments, improving the quality of a scene, and getting the audience in the edge of their seats.
Without sound, a movie becomes completely boring, makes a scene more empty, and overall a frustration to watch.
How exactly does sound achieve this? Because sound effect is a huge tool for indicating twists and other events in a production - for example, a betrayal is about to be revealed and it is somebody in the room, as the characters slowly turn towards the rat who nearly cost them their lives, high-pitch music starts to play, giving a more exciting edge towards the build up towards the incoming drama. It 'dresses up' the moment and therefore draws in the audiences attention.


Sound, is made using methods that are quite clever. Sounds, using objects are brandished to resemble sounds in a fitted situation. For example:

Sound intended:                            Object behind the scene

Galloping horses                            Clapping empty coconut shells
kissing in a romantic scene            Kissing the back of your hand
punching somebody                        thumping a watermelon
the sound of a guillotine                 slicing a cabbage with a knife
footsteps in snow                            crunching grain held in a glove


what are the aims and objectives?

They construct meaning and effect. For example, the sound of trumpets when a man is giving a pre-battle speech. it builds a sense of glory and seriousness. Makes soldiers and captains appear bold, brave and professional.

"Blind screening"

Where sound is the only form of observation. Since sound is supposed to be a representation of the actual trailer/film, splitting it into different categories could be extremely hard. For example, if all one could hear during a blind screening would be heartbeats and footsteps, they would get the impression that the character is in some sort of serious danger. This shows just how powerful sound is.

Diegetic sounds:

-Sound heard in the fictional world (heartbeats, battle scene music, etc.)
This sound effect sounds very convinient for a sports film. In moments of emotion and high tension, it can be made evident and glowing by sound effects that are coherent with the moment.
-Sound in the world (plates smashing, explosions, cracking, sizzling, etc.)
In a sports film, sounds such as crowd screaming and cheering are very likely to occur, it gets the audience just as wild at heart as the audience in the production.

non-diegetic sounds:

sound, outside the fictional world
characters in the fictional world cannot hear
this includes soundtrack
voice-over narration

How does sound work to generate meaning?

Volume: Volume makes the level of intensity in a scene much more visible and evident. For example, the music at a party. Shows how excited each character is, or how eerie music turns slowly louder. Shows that a threat closes his way in on his next victim.

Narrative: Shows what tense the story of what it is in. Gives the audience hints, offers explanations into what might not make sense, builds up suspense, for example "He never knew what mistake he got himself into next..."

Character: It depends on what sound is associated with the character. If the character is on his own and the only sounds you can hear are raindrops, it can hint a bit about his character. Perhaps he is sad, depressed?