Sound Design for a Horror Movie

 

The term sound designer was used for the first time in the film industry in the 1979 “Apocalypse Now” by Francis Ford Coppola which granted this title to Walter Murch for his brilliant work in the production. Throughout decades, technological advancement allowed a sound designer to produce SFX with synthesizers, musical instruments, and synthesis. Then, with the advent of the 2000s’, a laptop, software, and microphones were the only equipment needed for the purpose, allowing even small budget-productions to produce admirable projects. In this thesis, I will explain the approach used to experiment with diverse techniques and build a soundbank for a Horror movie production entitled “Ancient Others”. From software-based produced effects to Foley-recorded SFX, the main objective was to read through the scripts and give the director useable sounds for this movie. As the film was designed to be an immersive experience for the viewer with decisional choices, I utilised immersive sound formats such as Binaural to deliver sound effects as well as Stereo files. The use of the above-mentioned techniques served to achieve the purpose and succeed, providing the director with a variety of appropriate sounds.