Soundtrack Research- Silence Of The Lambs

The Silence Of The Lambs

When Thomas Harris's novel, The Silence of the Lambs, first came out director Jonathan Demme wasn't interested. "Young female FBI agent hunts down serial killer with help of demented psychiatrist...it wasn't the kind of thing that I find interesting.", he said. But after Demme read the book and met and spoke with screenwriter Ted Tally about the story, he immediately signed on.

Silence of the lambs(1990) is regarded as one of the best psychological thrillers ever made. It won Oscars for best actor, actress and film.

The Opening- We see a character running through a wood on an assault course. The music from the start is an eerie piece of classical music which is immediately unsettling. In fact we are waiting for something to happen. This music makes us predict something in the visuals.

The Interview- Soundtrack plays as she walks towards Hannibal Lecter.It is used to unsettle the audience without going to its full tempo.

The Escape Scene- The scene opened with diagetic classical music playing. This suggests a peaceful scene. Cut joins two different sounds together, classical moves into soundtrack. High tempo soundtrack creates immediate anxiety/tension. Then the soundtrack stops and the classical music comes back.

Bufallo Bill is killed- As Clarice staggers around in the darkness the soundtrack builds again to a Crescendo until she shoots him and then dies down. The audience is familiar with the soundtrack from its use at key moments in the film. Its very loud which can be draining.

My group will be following very similar techniques used in this very effective opening. For example the landscape shots are very effective and personally beautiful to watch. Although I dont think we will be able to create such shots as the neccessary equipment would be required.The character is in an isolated location and appears vulnerable. The music is very distinctive and sombre. we will try to replicate the overall atmosphere given through these shots. From this opening I have learnt that the use of soundtrack can build up tension and create a sense of mystery for the audience. When we want to choose a soundtrack, we can take many pointers from this opening as the soundtrack and good use of camera shots made it very effective and enhanced the sense of tension for the audience. The silence of the lambs is a good example of how effective music is used to heighten tension in Thriller films. I will do more research into soundtrack research and see what type of soundtrack I will consider using on our film. The character of Clarice (the woman running through the forest in the opening) is female, and so is the woman that gets kidnapped in our opening. I think using a female character immediately shouts to the audience, VULNERABILITY!

In most thrillers, there's usually the character of a psycopath man who attacks a vulnerable female. Although we used a stereotypical plot of "group of psycopaths attack young girl"we feel this is very effective in this type of thriller, as the audience are expecting this sort of plot. However, to make it interesting and thrilling for them we have to add unexpected shots to suprise them.