NON-VISUAL HORROR NARRATIVE
Investigating Emotional Responses to Horror Sound.
Welcome to my Audio-Only Horror experience. Just press play underneath to listen.
It is roughly 20 minutes long, listen in a dark room with 0 distractions for the full experience. It is CRITICAL you listen with headphones as that's one of the parameters I'm investigating. Please also listen at quite a high volume so you hear more of the subtle sounds.
After you've listened click one of the following links underneath to complete A survey. There are 3 different ones to choose from in order from longest to shortest depending on how much time you have available.
COMPLETE A SURVEY TO HELP WITH MY FINAL PROJECT
Links to surveys
As part of my investigation to emotional responses in audio only horror I am asking people to listen to my audio horror story. If you could then complete a survey about how it made you feel and how horror films make you feel in general it would be greatly appreciated.
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Survey 1 (Longest Approx. 45mins to complete)
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Survey 2 (Middle Approx. 30mins to complete)
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ABOUT THE PROJECT
THE STORY
The script was written with an audio focus, removing visual cues and adding narrative beats/scenes that would allow for an interesting sonic landscape and freedom to experiment with advanced sound design techniques. The narrative was designed to be entertaining yet straightforward so the listener wouldn't be too overwhelmed with trying to both decode sonic information and follow a complicated plot. A lot of dialogue was required to provide exposition that would usually be attributed to visuals.
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CREATING A CRASH
Making sure sounds were distinct enough was also important to the success so listeners could easily understand and extrapolate what was happening. The car crash scene was one of the more complicated sequences to create, consisting of multiple stages from collision to aftermath. The initial impact was created by hitting two large metal sheets together with a cloth covering one to create a dull metallic sound. The rolling/breaking of the car consisted of shaking and rolling a variety of objects in a cardboard box. Then slowly introducing the sounds in increasing volume as her consciousness slowly comes back, thinking about what sounds would occur, such as broken engine, horn, creaking doors and smashed glass.
IMMERSION AND SPACE
Panning and volume automation were key to creating a sense of immersion and space for both the binaural and surround mixes. Layering sound to create ambiences and treating them with EQ filtering all worked together to make the environments immersive. Surround sound was reported to be more effective than Binaural as there was the added sense of distance that is missing when listening through headphones.
ELICITING AND EMOTIONAL RESPONSE
Writing situations that allowed for a mixture of different moments of anticipated and sudden jump scares to make the listener feel tense and stressed. Placing them in scenarios where a sudden event would happen to surprise them or in a situation where they're trapped alongside the immersive nature to create a symbiosis between character and listener, all collectively worked to ultimately elicit these emotional responses.