Mcguire Butz
The calm before the storm. Twenty seconds into Jurassic Park, you are immediately at unease. After the drums in the title sequences, there is a surprisingly calm opening, with the workers working on the dinosaurs like nothing is wrong. But the audience knows right away, it won’t stay that way for long. Something about the sound gave us that thought. The sound choice in Jurassic Park helps to establish the tone and pacing of every scene.
To start, the kitchen scene. Up until this point, the story (for our main characters at least) haven’t experienced the horror the island has in store for them. However, the non-diegetic sound gave this scene an outright eery tone. You know something is about to happen, you just don’t know when it’s going to happen. The raptors aren’t the only thing giving the audience a fear in this scene. Thanks to the eerie sound, and the accompanying raptors, this scene firmly sets a tone for not just this scene but perhaps the whole movie.
The infamous “T-rex attack scene” is paced SOLEY by the sound effects. At first, quiet, Grant and Ellie appears to be safe in the car, but it the suspense is quickly built up as she breathes heavily. She asks where the goat is, and immediately a part of the poor animal’s body loudly flings onto the windshield of their car. We look out, and see a dinosaur, it’s sound’s almost vibrating. We know danger is a foot, and imminent. It steps around, and screams. The scope and scale of everything continually beats up by a louder, more dangerous event, so by the time the dinosaur is attacking the characters, it feels earned.
The sound also often changes with the story. When the characters first see the island, the (theme) music is so positive and massive in scale, only the latter provided. This is in stark contrast to how dangerous and traumatic the actual trip went for all the characters. Often when a problem in the story is resolved, the music goes from suspenseful and dramatic to a more positive tune. During some of the action scenes, the music is at it’s most intense.
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