Identify How Sound And Music Techniques Are Used In The 'Hollyoaks' Clip

This excerpt is set in a woodland scene. The scene begins with Max seeing his son, Tom’s, jacket in the middle of the lake. Max rushes down to the lake and at this point we hear diagetic sounds of birds and rustling leaves. As a close-up is used on Max’s face, to emphasise the panicking look on his face, non-diagetic sounds are added. These sounds are trumpets which are used to explain the emotion which Max is feeling as well as adding to the eerie atmosphere. Dialogue is also used as Max yells out “Tom!”

All sounds then cut out as Max jumps into the water after Tom’s jacket. The sounds we can then hear are sound perspective. We hear Max as he jumps into the water, the splash, and then we also only hear bubbles as he moves around in the water. As Max surfaces and Claire appears, Claire’s music motif then begins to play. Her motif is very evil and scary sounding, this displays her characteristics. The motif continues to play as Max wriggles in the water; from this we also hear the water motions. This is done using sound mixing and sound perspective, as we hear the water from Max’s position.

The motif then stops and all you can here is the ambience sounds of the birds is all you can hear other than dialogue. The camera then cuts to Tom in the car behind Claire and sound perspective is used for Claire, as Tom bangs on the window and screams. This is muffled as it would not be perfectly clear to the characters on the outside of the car. All the sounds and music stop as a few lines of dialogue is exchanged.

Slow synchronous music is then used to show the pace and emotion of the scene. Max then begins to fall under the water further as another character appears; OB. The entire ambience is gone as the synchronous music continues. OB then screams for Max and Claire tries to cover up her story. OB then pushes Claire out the way and continues running towards the lake to save Max. This music then continues to the end of the clip as OB tries to save Max.