Horror(Buffy episode)
From the Buffy episode, the aesthetic of horror is defined in the middle of the clip. The reason I chose the scene is that it involves all the principles in the short scene. When a couple kiss each other and a man take off his glasses, the camera zooms in the place where the glasses sit. The legs of glasses underlined the word ‘gentlemen’. After that the camera started to focus on calm and quiet houses and clocks. During the night time, all people fell into a sleep and strange smog came out from people’ mouths. Nothing seems to be happened but all people lost their voices and big events hit towns and all people were worried about that.
In the scene, mise-en-scene is well represented. The framing of the sequence makes people to feel nervous and creates tension that some horror scenes will be happened. Even though the characters do not give any hints about what is going to happen, smog effects and camera angles to focus on clocks with non-diegetic sounds add a horror effect. A mood music sounds makes the scenes slowly so that some unusual events will be waiting. At the end of the mood music, the vampire gathered all the smog and put in the box. The scene is changed to morning and a girl washes and came back to her room. While doing so, she met a girl who is crying. This represents that something was happened during the night. When she came back her room and tried to talk with her roommates, she could not voice out. The non-diegetic sounds which beats fast, lead audiences to feel that the unusual phenomenon happened not only the two girls but also all people in downtown. Obviously, the non-diegetic sounds lead all the scenes as characters cannot speak out any words. Their forms of acting create horror moods. By the way, diegetic sound was also presented in the clips. When all people voiced out and tried to figure out what happens, they gathered in a living room and watches news. The news explained what horror moments the people are experiencing. Also, people who lost their voice made some sounds while they were trying to voice out. Those formations of sounds and characters’ acting indicate the peak of the horror moods and shows intensity of the story. In the clips, the actors and actresses behaviors and non-diegetic sounds take most of scenes to add horror moods. The camera angles and mood sounds are really important to deliver the moods to audiences. Moreover, diegetic sounds such as explanations or small sounds created by characters’ acting explains that the scenes do not depicts a normal lifestyle.
3 Responses to 'Horror(Buffy episode)'
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on July 31st, 2014 at 2:56 pm
“A mood music sounds makes the scenes slowly so that some unusual events will be waiting”, this is a great analysis of the Non-diegetic sounds, which is also wildly used in horror films. The background music is one of the example. In Buffy, the director use music many times, it usually combine with lights effects and the whole atmosphere would change, this also promoting the plot development and catch people’s mood. On the other hand, the diegetic sounds are more like to occur to suits the need of story. they are actor’s actings, the sounds that come from the screen space. These are the differences between these two sounds, one is for add effects, and another one is for create the story and lead audience to the plot of the film. after apply these sounds in a horror film, the atmosphere has already create and catcher people’s curiosity. At this point, camera just follow actors’ move and show the perfect horror scenes.
on August 2nd, 2014 at 10:20 pm
Hi, dongjoon:
You did a very good job on explain the 3 effect of non-diagetic sound, diagetic sound, and mise-en-scene, especially for the non-diagetic sound. However, in the diagetic sound, I have some ideas different with you. In the definition, Digetic Sound means “ Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film’s voices of characters, sounds made by objects in the story, etc.” and you said: “diegetic sounds such as explanations or small sounds created by characters’ acting explains that the scenes do not depicts a normal lifestyle.” I do not really understand this point. I think your explanation means narrator. We cannot see the people who speak the narrator appearing on the scene. So, narrator is a non-diagetic sound effect. Actor’s line, object’s sound and action sound is a kind of diagetic sound. I hope it can help and my explanation is right.
on August 3rd, 2014 at 8:37 pm
Thanks for your comment. Yes, you are right the narrating is a non-diagetic. However, in my explanation, I took an example of the scene that people lost their voice. Next morning, they tried to voice out but people who lost their voice tried to give a groan. They did not expect that they will lose their voice. The sounds of groan is included in diagetic sound which lead audiences to anticipate some fear that will be presenting. I think the groan sound is a kind of acting sound. Therefore I wrote the example. I hope you understand this.