How are sound and music techniques used in this extract of ‘Hollyoaks’?

How are sound and music techniques used in this extract of ‘Hollyoaks’?

In most, if not all, television dramas a scene that aims to set an atmosphere of any kind, happy or sad, needs to consist of music that contributes to this. In this extract of Hollyoaks, the desired mood is a tense and fast pace atmosphere, this is carried out by both when the sound and music is used and where it isn’t. A structured way of describing these techniques is categorising them, in this case the most beneficial would be, sound as one group and music as another.
Immediately in this extract we see Max trying to run, heavily across a leafy floor in the forest, looking for ‘tom’. If we only listened too this clip, we could establish all this information (except the characters name max) this is because of the sounds used. The first technique is the use of amplified sounds. At first this is breathing and heavy footsteps, which gives us the impression that the character is out of, breathe for some reason, (in this case we are led to believe it is because he is looking for a boy, Tom). The second amplified sound is the crunching of the leaves beneath his feet; this is simply used to establish the setting, in a forest. Along side this is the ambient
Noise, used throughout the extract to reinforce that the characters are in a forest, these ambiance sounds are those that would be heard in the woods, birds and trees. Linking the two chosen categories together (sound with music), it is possible to say the sound and music are synchronized to one another as in a number of cases the shouting and sudden trumpets are used in time. This increases, or at first, builds up the tense atmosphere that is felt throughout the scene. Staying with the first group for the time being, the shouting of the name ‘Tom’ is a discrete mode of address as, max shouting his name tells the audience he is looking for Tom without intentionally doing so. A third occurrence of amplified sound is when Max dives into a lake. To exaggerate that he is doing this the splash when he hits the water, and the bubbles when he is in the lake are all made louder, this creates a muffled sound, as the water effect is louder than another at that time.
The second group is music; in this scene the music to start is sudden trumpets, starting off at a slower pace but the increasing when the drama becomes more intense. A technique used in many television dramas is a sound motif. A sound motif is a piece of music or sound that is typically associated with a type of character, in this case when Clare is framed on screen the trumpets are significantly darker as she is our ‘villain’. The motif is introduced not when Clare is firs framed, but when she pulls a certain look with her face, this theme runs throughout the scene. The effects of sound and music are not only useful when they are present, but also when they are not. We see this twice in this extract, firstly when the music cuts out slightly before Max shouts, “Where is he?” (Without a fade), this is to let the characters commence with an exchange of dialogue.
The second occurrence of this is slightly different as it is when the sound effects are cut out and only the music is played, reverting back to the first category, sound, we can identify the build up to this significant change in the scene. First, there is a quick combination of both diegetic and non-diegetic, when we first, hear Tom banging and screaming (non diegetic, then we see the screaming and banging (diegetic) one second after, linked with an eye line match; this sound is again amplified. The second element of the build up towards this dramatic change in the scene is once again the amplified sounds of splashing, and in this case louder more desperate shouting by Max to show his struggle, used to heighten the tension to its fullest amount. When it reaches this peak, all sound effects completely cut out and a new piece of music is introduced, slower and more gentle, the song highlights the movement of Max in the water, this is slow a sense of ‘give up’, however this also creates an ironic atmosphere. The use of a piece of music in a major key initiates a sense of irony among the audiences’ minds.
To conclude, all sound and music techniques used in this extract are used in such a detailed way, any atmosphere that is aimed for can be created, however the sound and music must both be in synchronization with the action in the scene and also with each other, being mixed and cut/faded out when appropriate. All this and more will create a consistent and successful backing track.