Creating atmospheric suspense music for short film

[crumbs 14,303]

Can anyone please give some advice on creating atmospheric music for a supernatural suspense/thriller short film? There are a few shock moments which will require sudden and loud music, as well as general tense underscore. I only have basic instruments to access... I know a few of you here have worked on short films and music. Right now I'm thinking along the lines of distant atonal piano playing, to hint at the former homelife of the lead character. I'm trying to analyse scores with a lot of underscore, ie Sixth Sense, AI, and Aliens for inspiration, but they are lushly orchestrated. Cheers for any advice guys!

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

Can anyone please give some advice on creating atmospheric music for a supernatural suspense/thriller short film? There are a few shock moments which will require sudden and loud music, as well as general tense underscore. I only have basic instruments to access... I know a few of you here have worked on short films and music. Right now I'm thinking along the lines of distant atonal piano playing, to hint at the former homelife of the lead character. I'm trying to analyse scores with a lot of underscore, ie Sixth Sense, AI, and Aliens for inspiration, but they are lushly orchestrated. Cheers for any advice guys!

Remember that silence is your friend. Remember when using atmospheric music...to use instrumentation that melds with the environment of your film. It should be a sound that you can believe can be produced in that environment. A lone piano or any instrument that isn't capable of sustaining a not for any long length of time would be very good in presenting any thematic ideas and the ryhthm, and to play as contrast to the underlying atmospherics.

And don't go overboard with dissonance.

[pi 0]

please use the program, spectrasonics atmosphere for this, that is all you will need.

[JMan 0]

Listen to Probing the Basement!

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

Listen to Probing the Basement!

Or just disconnect your TV from any means of getting a signal, turn the volume down but intermittenly up the low-frequency sound, and listen to the snow. 8O

For the full effect, have someone drive their nails on a blackboard, slowly and quietly, to simulate swells and slithering strings sections.

Rinse and repeat.

[Eric_JWFAN 11]

please use the program, spectrasonics atmosphere for this, that is all you will need.

Ha, I was just about to suggest this!

[BigMacGyver 0]

Can anyone please give some advice on creating atmospheric music for a supernatural suspense/thriller short film? There are a few shock moments which will require sudden and loud music, as well as general tense underscore. I only have basic instruments to access... I know a few of you here have worked on short films and music. Right now I'm thinking along the lines of distant atonal piano playing, to hint at the former homelife of the lead character. I'm trying to analyse scores with a lot of underscore, ie Sixth Sense, AI, and Aliens for inspiration, but they are lushly orchestrated. Cheers for any advice guys!

Well, your tools seem to be pretty limited and that could be a problem because making good suspense/thriller music actually requires a lot of care and detail for orchestration. I don't know how familiar you are with the basics of scoring a film but your idea with the piano sounds quite good already. On the other hand, it can be tricky to create suspense with the piano. The instrument usually isn't associated with tension but if you want a good example for a score that actually uses a piano to create tension, watch fincher's The Game and listen to shore's score.

Rhythmic figures can also create tension. If you have nervous wood blocks ticking and other such instruments it can create an unsettling feel, especially when you add reverb and echoes. Of course it depends on the scene if that kind of tension is appropriate because it feels and works very different from tension music coming from string layers. Its also possible to combine both.

What others said before, I can only agree with. Less is more in this genre so don't go overboard because otherwise the music will cancel itself out and becomes useless.

Hope that helps you a little. For more advice we would need a bit more info about story, characters, etc.

[Henry B 50]

I would try something either really unpredictable or really repetitive.

[JMan 0]

Listen to Probing the Basement!

Or just disconnect your TV from any means of getting a signal, turn the volume down but intermittenly up the low-frequency sound, and listen to the snow.

For the full effect, have someone drive their nails on a blackboard, slowly and quietly, to simulate swells and slithering strings sections.

Rinse and repeat.

I love it LOL!

[AI 0]

Use what you have got, and use your initiative. You don't need a lot of instruments to make a startling sound.

[crumbs 14,303]

please use the program, spectrasonics atmosphere for this, that is all you will need.

Do I need another program through which to use this? Can you recommend one?

Listen to Probing the Basement!

It was the first port of call! A lot of War of the Worlds is atonal, minimally orchestrated suspense music. I was looking for ways to create unsettling low bass chords and the like, seems the Atmosphere program does that very well. Alien3's underscore/noise is another example of what I'm trying to accomplish... or the video game scores to AVP2 and Manhunt (if anyone is familiar).

The instrument usually isn't associated with tension but if you want a good example for a score that actually uses a piano to create tension, watch fincher's The Game and listen to shore's score.

Piano not so much for tension, but in the earlier, warmer parts of the film. Williams' does use piano to up the suspense in Bearing the Burden though, no?

For more advice we would need a bit more info about story, characters, etc.

Basically, a man moves into a new house and is stalked by the resident ghost that was murdered there months earlier. As the film continues, the attacks grow more violent..the electricity is cut, his dog is murdered, and a good ol' climactic chase ensues. I wanted some sort of signature motif (not necessarily a melody, but maybe an iconic sound of some type) to represent the violent history of the house, and a gentle motif for the lead character to symbolise his sad history. There are key moments in the script I've identified for each to appear. Both meld in a cue for the finale.

Pretty simple stuff... I know the basics of thematic development in movie music just by listening to all of Williams' scores

[skyy38 21]

The only thing my worthless self can come up with is to listen to the music for the scene in The Empire Strikes back where the probe droid is rising out of the snow crater.Classic Williams and just one more reason why he's the best ever!

I mean the man seems to have this talent for organically binding his music to the sound FX.

[BigMacGyver 0]

Basically, a man moves into a new house and is stalked by the resident ghost that was murdered there months earlier. As the film continues, the attacks grow more violent..the electricity is cut, his dog is murdered, and a good ol' climactic chase ensues. I wanted some sort of signature motif (not necessarily a melody, but maybe an iconic sound of some type) to represent the violent history of the house, and a gentle motif for the lead character to symbolise his sad history. There are key moments in the script I've identified for each to appear. Both meld in a cue for the finale.

Pretty simple stuff... I know the basics of thematic development in movie music just by listening to all of Williams' scores

Well, that sounds like you know your stuff. Really, I don't have a lot more to add here. The lead character's piano theme sounds like a good idea and the motif for the violence is good too. Maybe, since the violence from the ghost seems to grow over the course of the story, you could provide snippets of a motif in the early parts of the film when the attacks are not that bad and later you could develop it into a full-fledged theme when the entire story about the house is reveiled to the main character (usually in this type of film, there is some sort of revelation scene). Maybe letting the motif grow with each attack.