In the spirit of Halloween, we asked our interns, Jon Black and Lizzie Marcou, to design their own horror soundscapes! The assignment started out as a simple, loop-able Halloween soundtrack, but ended up with two incredibly detailed, narrative-driven soundscapes that tell two distinctly different stories. We’re excited to share Jon and Lizzie’s imaginative works with you. After you listen, be sure to learn about their process in the following interview!
What's your favorite horror movie?
Jon Black: My favorite horror movie is John Carpenter’s “The Thing”. I love the concept of it along with the location of the film and the sound design. The scream of the monster is still something I can vividly remember whenever I am asked as well, and every character feels developed. However, the prequel that came out after the original is terrible.
Lizzie Marcou: To be honest, horror isn't typically my go-to movie genre, but the ones that come to mind are Obsession, Perfect Blue, and Jennifer's Body! I tend to enjoy horror video games a bit more, like Until Dawn, Mouthwashing, and Omori. These ones range from survival to psychological, but have made a huge impact on the way I approach sound and storytelling.
discuss your approach to crafting your Halloween soundtrack? Expand on any influences that may have inspired the narratives of your soundtrack.
Jon Black: I knew I wanted to create a scifi sounding space. I also wanted to tell a story, so I created one in my head about traveling through a spaceship with multiple scenarios that play out. From there, I added the sounds. I am strongly influenced by the “Alien Isolation” video game. It has an amazing combination of alien horror, robot horror, and even some slasher horror. It is how I built a foundation for some of my scenes.
Lizzie Marcou: Going into this project, I really wanted to approach it like a video game and tell a story from start to finish. I think horror games do a really great job at having a constant source of ambience and creepiness, so I took a lot of sonic inspiration from zombie apocalypse and other survival media like The Walking Dead, The Last of Us, and Until Dawn. I put a lot of thought into the backgrounds and ambiences I was choosing to really create an immersive "end-of-the-world" experience! In terms of how I approached the sound effects, I wanted it to play as if you were controlling a character in a game and interacting with objects/monsters at your own pace (or running from them, I suppose...). It did take a little bit of time to decide the pacing of each section and what elements would be there, but building out each scene was really fun and I'm really satisfied with the results.
Which designs are you most happy with or proud of? Include any fun anecdotes on your process!
Jon Black: I am very proud of my robot mech design. I took the sound of an industrial compression machine, sped it up, and then looped it to create the sound of a laser cannon firing. I combined it with a laser blaster sound effect to create the cannon you can hear in the soundscape. I also enjoyed the background I created through uses of reverb and pitch shift to make it sound like you’re on board a large, metal hull. It adds a strong level of eeriness to the soundscape.
Lizzie Marcou: The designs I'm most happy with are the radio bit and my foley footsteps! I wanted to use this opportunity to get some practice with the techniques and skills I've learned so far at Boom Box, so I designed three different footstep patches and walked the entire soundscape using a MIDI keyboard. Maybe it was a bit overkill (ha-ha-ha... overkill... get it?), but I think it really added to the immersive nature of my piece! I also practiced recording in the VO Booth to get some gnarly screams and news-reporter action.
let us know what your favorite halloween movies are in the comments!
If you enjoyed this blog, check out these:
Halloween Soundtrack: Slasher in the Woods
Death by [Sound Effect]: A Halloween Sound Design Challenge
Creating Spooky Vocal Sound Effects for Halloween