Page 206 - Student: dazed And Confused

There has been no budget placed on Stormed. The film could do whatever it likes whilst it is
still on paper from having a thousand CG Terminators to cars exploding one after the other.

I decided, however, to pay careful attention to the sound track and give my viewers

something to listen to. There are birds and small animals making noises 'too loudly for the
woodland hush' (Maddocks, 2009, p9). It is autumn and the trees are dying. There are dead

leaves, no animals and the silence of that is what I wanted. The absence of sound, or the

inclusion of sound only the subconscious mind picks up is germinal. It is like planting a

bacterium on a sideboard and letting the environment do the work of watching it grow into

something enormous and infectious. But less is not always more. Blair Witch hears screams
and even laughter. Stormed can currently afford more than vocals - medical machinery and

the accustomed dance track in the opening. Attention is drawn to the ticking of a clock, the

white noise of electrical items gone wrong and the madness of the storm.

Silver lightning cracks and forks across the sky. A car alarm

starts up. A branch breaks from a tree and is carried up to

smash the street light. It shatters and sparks. Crash stares

out and then glances at the door. Deeper in the house is
the sound of splintering wood. The house trembles and

grumbles. A high scream pierces the air.

(Maddocks, 2009, p16)

Sounds create images in a mind. I want my theoretical audience to be able to imagine what

is going on and to piece the story together through what they hear as well as what they see.

No true horror fan wants to sit through a movie about people having a good time and then
indiscriminately killed as a final pay-off. People want to be made to care about characters

as though they are real people for 90 minutes and be truly mortified when they hear their

harrowing shrieks and agonised death rattles.

Human nature makes us susceptible to the plights of others. People form emotional

attachments to other people and, whether cynically or smartly, the film industry has put this

common trait to work. The basest tool producers have at their disposal is the emotional

connection with characters.