It is a supernatural horror film based on Stephen King's novel of the same title. The powerful associated trailer contributed greatly to the movie's overall success. To better understand the audio ingredients of an effective trailer, I have decided to unpack It's components (pardon the pun) and try to understand the secrets to the sound...
Immediately after watching the trailer I felt a sense of anxiety, of wanting to see more, and I recognised the impact of immersion throughout. The crafty use of numerous audio techniques contributed greatly to this experience; some of these techniques I have noticed on a wide-range of trailers, some seem to be tropes of horror, while others are the reason a critical investigation can make me a better audio engineer.
Not dissimilar from a film, the dynamic range of the trailer is considerable; testing the full range of listeners' monitoring capabilities. In part this duality of sound is indicative of horror. Quick bursts of sound, designed to frighten the viewer, keep them on the edge of their seat. Meanwhile moments of tension arise and dissipate again with ominous sound design drawing the listener into that familiar scary place.
Prompted to look up the loudness standards for a trailer, I soon discovered that all modern commercials and trailers are normalised to 85 Leq M (Thornton, 2017). Leq is a unit of measurement for sound that calculates the total sound energy measured over a period of time, and converts this to an equivalent continuous sound level in decibels (Gracey & Associates, 2019). The M-weighting (seen below) is an EQ curve closely related to Dolby, which was developed from the idea of measuring the annoyance of noise. Consequently, LeqM defines trailer volume as a decibel average over time, using a specific filter that emphasizes the mid and upper-range sound frequencies (Thornton, 2017).
What I did particularly notice throughout my first viewing was the foley and atmosphere that was not included. In part, placing me in an aurally consistent space alleviated the feeling of "jumping around" that I get from some trailers. Though it was also a good way of bringing my attention to the specific moments foley was included. By design, trailers have such a lot happening in such a short period of time, so drawing my focus to the pivotal moments assisted me to follow the narrative.
The majority of this narrative was delivered to the viewer by narration, and constructed by selective dialogue editing. Often the dialogue would run for several scene cuts, and would occasionally align with its associated actors mouth, but it was always sitting central in the mix. The reverb on the voices did not match each other, suggesting a conscious step back from the consistency of a voiceover, or perhaps they were unable to be changed and this is how they exist in the movie.
I particularly liked how a line from the dialogue, "you'll float too", was used musically, for an incredibly eerie effect. After being spoken, the line subsequently repeated in time with the score. The words featured a short delay panned left, and a slightly longer one panned right, both sent into reverb, such that they danced around the stereo field. It also sounds as though a duplicate track plays with the pitch and timbre of the boy's voice via processing automation to make it sound more sinister.
The trailer is being mostly driven by this 'music' track, and a complimentary LFE. Percussion features heavily, along with foreboding bass growls, some long, tense pads, and occasional strings, perpetually evolving towards a bigger crescendo. I would argue that due to the lack of foley and atmosphere for each scene, ambient sounds like the thunder have also been included as a part of this track, more for emotional effect than realism. As a package it is cleverly timed with the scene changes and sits very wide, allowing a lot of space central in the mix for the dialogue.
It is the creative use of all of these effects and ideas that culminate in a psychologically testing trailer with personality. A segment that summarises this for me can be seen from 1:08 until 1:19 around where the boy drops the lego:
During this section, disregarding the 'music' track and some subtle rubbing of clothes, there are really only two sounds. One startling piece of sound design for the clown scare gag, creatively combining an LFE with some shrill staccato string notes, percussive hits, a load of reverb, and a scream. The second is the over-exaggerated crash of the boy's lego hitting the floor and breaking. Notice the 'Hollywood' style, using a completely unrealistic associated sound for emphasis.
Meanwhile, what I have dubbed the music track gives these crashes context. It is this track falling into silence that gives the sound effects their power. The juxtaposition of heavy percussion to a silent room builds a lot of tension, goading the viewer in, only to quickly recoil to the back of their seat as the foley-meets-sound-effects break the silence.
Sound effects in the form of stereotypical movie trailer "swooshes" and lower frequency-focussed "booms" are also present throughout the trailer, often on scene changes. The engineer has regularly used the reverb from these as moments to bring in or take out other sounds, cleverly masking their appearance or disappearance.
Overall, the balance of the mix is wide, the dynamic range large, and the whole frequency spectrum is utilised with powerful clarity. There is a lot of space for the dialogue, and the trailer is continuously driving towards a point of crescendo. Jennings (2006) believes these are the key factors in a successful trailer, and is characteristic of the majority of the movie trailer industry. Though he also comments on the number of times the feedback has been "but can it be bigger?"
Trailers are designed to make a big impact in a short amount of time, and as such it seems that styles, sounds, and mixing techniques are often recycled. For me, this trailer is reminiscent of any other horror movie trailer. The use of "jump scares", LFE rumble to signify something is brewing, and shrill high-frequency notes to simulate unease, are all nothing new to the industry (Jennings, 2006).
Although the It trailer is well-produced, and includes some redeemable features (eg: "you'll float too" effect), for me the overall audio component is unrewarding. Though perhaps from a business perspective, the majority of viewers of this movie will be every-day people who find continuity a drawing card, and as such, breaking the boundaries of what a trailer can sound like might prove to be detrimental.
Stay Tuned
- TA
REFERENCES
Gracey & Associates. (2019). Leq. Retrieved from http://www.acoustic-glossary.co.uk/leq.htm
Jennings, S. (2006). Mixing / Sound Editing a Trailer. Retrieved from https://film-mixing.com/2015/07/11/mixing-sound-editing-a-trailer/
Jennings, S. (2006). Trailer Mixing & Music. Retrieved from https://www.mixonline.com/sfp/trailer-mixing-and-music-369141
TASA. (2020). What is Leqm?. Retrieved from https://www.tasatrailers.org/leqm.html
Thornton, M. (2017). Loudness And Dynamics In Cinema Sound. Retrieved from https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home-page/2017/6/21/loudness-and-dynamics-in-cinema-sound
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