Sound Analysis - Saw 1

Immediately when Saw 1 starts you can hear the faint underwater background sounds. This, combined with what you see on screen would make the audience immediately recognize that they're underwater, and the sound does good to also prove that there's a character in the water too. Even the fact that there's no other sounds makes this opening scene mysterious, making the audience not know what to expect next. This sound is completely digetic and immersive, as without it the scene wouldn't be able to get to the audience as effectively, and would be lost as it isn't understandable.

When the character suddenly wakes up a loud sound is immediately played over it, accompanied by the synchronized sound of the character moving underwater. As his moving gets more frantic, you can hear that the water in the bathtub is moving and splashing about, making the scene much more understandable due to it being dark and hard to see. This water sound is possibly even Foley, as you don't see the water, making it easier to do. The beginning does take much note of trying to make the audience visualise things through mainly sound, as the brightness is lowered down and it's intentionally darker. This scene also has a intense, non-diegetic background music playing over it, symbolizing that things are moving on quickly and fast, whilst giving it an intense and dramatic feeling as well. This is also some of the only score made for the movie, which makes it perfect for this certain atmosphere. Also, when the character accidently releases the plug of the bathtub you can hear the loud sound of the water getting sucked out, the overall sound obviously being focused on that particular sound as it's important to the whole movie.

You can also hear the sounds of the character thudding onto the floor and moving about, with the sound of all the commotion sound bridging onto the next scene. And at the same time his cries of agony and pain as well as his fear. The sounds play an important part in guiding the audience on what's happening, and helps establish what the character's doing. And when the character screams out for someone to help him you can hear the fear in his voice, as he feels helpless and alone. And when a sound plays out in the distance you can understand it's digetic as the character reacts to it, asking if 'someone's there'. You can ever hear the other character's voice in the distance reacting to what the guy's shouting, hearing it's croaky and lost of emotion. The tone of the other character's voice is widely important as it's creepy on one hand, and also mysterious on the other, making who the person speaking is ambiguous and unknown.

The dialogue of the character shouting out and asking where he is shows how scared he is, and immediately signals that he's in danger. His shaky voice and tone works, and with that, it gives the audience an easy insight into what the character's thinking.

You can even hear the ambient loud sounds of the lights suddenly flickering on, with the intention to suddenly scare the audience with the loud sound and to also to accompany the lights turning on in the scene. When the character reacts by being blinded, you can also hear disorientated and mysterious music playing too, helping establish the lights blinded the character. Without this music playing, the scene would lack emotion through sound, and would instead be seen as bland and without any taste or implications. The lights blinding the character is made complete solely by the music also accompanying it. The reason this ominous music work is because it's parallel to the scene. It fits the whole reveal feeling, and also gives the audience the feeling of anticipation on what is going to happen next, as the music is eerie and has a certain pitch to it that works as it continues to play this pitch throughout the scene.

When the body in the middle of the room's revealed, dramatic music plays with the intention of revealing to the audience that the body in the middle of the room's actually a very important key factor in the film and a big reveal. When the objects around the body are revealed the music also does sudden drops simultaneously. This music is parallel to the scene playing out, as it's tense and dramatic and simultaneous to the unveiling of the body, and also, as it matches the scene, creates the emotion perfectly that the body is a major key of the story, and that revealing it has a implication that it shocks the other two characters.