Hannahs essay

Explain how sound and editing is used to establish the situation and the character/s in the opening two minutes of what lies beneath. Explain how the film intrigues its audience.

What lies beneath is a supernatural thriller. It is about a woman who thinks that a visitor from another dimension is trying to guide her into a mystery. The woman feels that a spirit is trying to contact her, when she tells her husband he does not believe her and thinks she is having a nervous breakdown. I am going to look at the opening two minutes and how sound and editing is used to establish the character/s and the situation.
A quite eerie sounding soundtrack is used at the start of the film. It then starts to get louder and slightly faster within the first twenty five or slow seconds. More instruments are introduced to help make it sound more distressing and eerie. Voices are then heard and the music suddenly stops and the sound of water and a woman coughing to catch a breath like she has been drowning has replaced it. The sound of the woman moving around in the bath can then be heard and her still trying to catch her breath. This puts across that the character is worried about something or something has happened to her because of the sound of her breathing. It’s harsh and fast which could indicate that she is scared or worried. The sound of a plug being pulled can then be heard and the sound of water being drained. The audience then will automatically assume the woman has pulled the plug in her bath and that the water is being drained from her bath. Next is the sound of a hairdryer being switched on. This indicates that the character is most likely about to dry her hair. The hairdryer noise then stops and the clicking of the switch and a sigh follows. This indicates that the character is annoyed because something that was working perfectly seconds before has now stopped working. the audience could take from this that the character may have bad luck or she is having a bad day. The sound of sparks is then heard and a slight jumpy scream and the sound of the hairdryer can be heard again, this again could indicate that the character is having some bad luck or that she is just overreacting about a faulty plug socket.
The use of sound in the opening two minutes of what lies beneath makes us to see the character as slightly on edge and worried about something. Not much sound is used but the use of eerie music and heavy breathing is used which makes the character seem on edge. the fact that the hair dryer stops working but starts working again after the sound of sparks suggests that maybe some thing bad has happened or is going to happen, it also suggests that the character doesn’t find things like hairdryers stopping working. The eerie music at the beginning suggests that the situation is going to be quite intense and scary. The heavy breathing and failing hair dryer sounds add to the intense effects especially as no speech is used in the opening two minutes apart from the sounds of voices which are quite scary and add to the intense situation, putting the audience on edge before the film has even started. the sounds like the water, hairdryer and sparks from the plug socket were probably added in after the piece was filmed to give them a more dramatic sound and also meant the sound levels of each individual thing could easily be changed.
Not much editing has been used in the opening two minutes of this film. At the start a slow montage is used with different images appearing below water until a face appears. A cut is then used as the camera appears higher above the woman’s face than it originally started. There is then a cut to an establishing shot. This is used so that the audience can easily see where the character is and her surroundings. In this case it is a bathroom. The fact that the character starts in a bathroom could mean anything to an audience but films with slight horror content usually begin in places like this. After the establishing shot the next piece of editing is a cut to a close up of the woman holding a hairdryer. This is a change of setting and could confuse the audience but also helps to keep the opening sequence interesting as it is not all set in exactly the same place.
The next sequence of shots there is a cut from the woman to the plug socket then back to the woman’s face again. Continuity editing is used here. match on action is used when she puts her hand towards the plug socket there is then a cut to her touching the socket and a cut back to her bringing her hand away, here the editing has to be perfect to make sure her hand going towards the socket and coming away are all the same and the movements are the same in each different shot which follow each other. The 180 degree rule is also used here. The camera stays on one side of the woman if it switched to the other side it could get confusing and the setting would change the audience then might think that she is in different place. Continuity editing is used here to help keep the situation the same for the character and not to confuse the audience. Continuity editing is also used to help the film look well made and to also look good.
The opening two minutes of this film intrigues its audience with both mystery and making people jump. The sound of voices and sudden appearing from the water along with the heavy breathing could easily scare the audience but also add an air of mystery. It could pose questions like why is she breathing so heavy, what she is scared of, is she hearing the voices or are they coming from some where else. The fact that her hairdryer stops working but then is fine after a couple of sparks could also intrigue the audience is she imagining that these things are not working. Because she of the voices and the heavy breathing it make you want to watch more and find out what it is that is going to happen or has happened.

hannah sell