J.M. Black – Media Shenanigans!

Hello hello!

This week and on theme with the number 18 (for the film certificate) we’re gonna be putting sound to a hardcore gory scene I found in a horror movie!

Saw 7, the Legendary Reverse Beartrap! I recommend if you’re squeamish and/or under the age of 18 you skip this post. Major spoilers for Saw 1 through 7.

Let’s figure out what an exploding head sounds like!

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Approach:

I’d watched all of the Saw movies last year ahead of the 10th film releasing in late September, so the traps were all fresh in my head when I was scrolling to figure out which one to design this week. Ultimately, it had to be the Reverse Beartrap. It’s so simple, iconic, and terrifying. And it took 7 movies to see it go off, so the tension in the scene is so high!

Approach wise, I did have one quick listen to the scene – which I normally don’t do, but I got curious. In the movie, the score took over pretty prominently, and I knew that this redesign was going to be sound design focused.

So the question became how do we paint the same amount of tension onto our canvas with sounds. My mind went to thinking about POV, because this scene is interesting. Jill (the woman in the beartrap) is a complicated character and tried to kill Hoffman (the man in the clip) with the same trap in the previous movie. So there’s a sense of justice, but you can’t help but feel extremely sorry for her and imagine yourself in her shoes.

So our perspective, our sound POV, shifts from Hoffman at the start, to Jill as she struggles in the trap, then back to Hoffman as he sees the bloody remains of what was Jill’s face.

So the approach is put ourselves in Jill’s shoes, and reflect the editing – which is jumpy and emotional with the flashbacks to Jill’s husband, John Kramer (Jigsaw, who died in the third movie). We need to feel the dread, and be horrified by the trap going off!

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Reflection:

An interesting dynamic that I found when designing this scene was the balance between intimate sound design and loud flashy sound design. By this I mean, it was interesting having the sound of Jill’s heartbeat as she struggled but also loud drones and electrical flashes to match the white flashback transitions and sped up struggling footage.

As an audience member we’re both in danger (intimate, close), and voyeur of the danger (distant, observers).

I enjoyed designing for the trap. Pulled all my SFX from a library, so a challenge in the future is to record all gore myself, but for this week’s quick challenge it was good to make use of the library! The trap itself came from a trapdoor (for the spring), and a metal clang for the opening mechanism. But those sounds are overshadowed by the gore, which was a mix of chicken guts, melons, celery bone breaks, and bigger elements like a log being split in half and a designed leather punch impact for Jill’s jaw breaking!

For the moments afterwards, low resonant metal drones (contact mic recordings) worked to make you feel the dread. But I liked bringing in a higher pitch as we focus in on the mangled corpse. An early thought I tried was mic feedback, but this sound works for purpose too and works better with the other metal textures in the mix. Something to make us feel uncomfortable by associating the visuals with an unpleasant but subtle ringing sound.

I did struggle a bit getting the Foley right for Jill’s restraints. I tried using a leather belt but it felt too small and weak for the movements we were seeing (those are some strong straps!). Then I tried sprinkling in some metal handling from handcuffs to give it a little tinkle to make them seem stronger, but none of it sounded believable. I ended up taking this part of the redesign out entirely. It kinda works without, but I need to get better at this kind of movement Foley and it would have been better with this in the mix!

I enjoyed doing this one! I feel like with each redesign I’m gaining confidence and learning how I best work. The past two redesigns in Pro Tools, this and Domino’s Luck scene (Deadpool 2), have been interesting as I’ve started to use markers more efficiently. Like making a quick note of where things are while spotting, but also as temporary to do list markers that I can delete when completed (“add this sound here”, “embellish this”, “needs to be bigger!”).

By the end of a project, the main markers will stay – but 20 or so mini markers will be gone as the sounds will be designed to the point where I’m happy to move on.

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This week’s clip was sick, disgusting and tense. And I loved it! I may return to horror during these redesigns soon, and I definitely need to get hands on recording some gore sounds to use in the future!

Until the next time, reader, don’t use a beartrap as a hat!

-J

Joke of the Day!

First time I saw the Reverse Beartrap my mind was blown!

… I wasn’t the only one.