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Blink - The Importance of Accompanying Music

"The Angels are coming and they are fast! Faster than you could ever believe! Don't turn away, don't turn your back and don't blink!"


Doctor Who is perhaps one of the best TV shows of all time - 50 years in the running is by no means an easy feat. But one of the best episodes as rated by the fans is 'Blink' - known to most as the Weeping Angels episode.

 The Weeping Angels have been considered one of the most scariest enemies of all the Doctor Who villains and monsters,(http://onepopz.com/doctor-whos-top-20-scariest-monsters-get-behind-sofa/4/) never moving when you look at them, but as soon as you blink or turn away they are at liberty to move. And they are fast.

As part of an editing experiment, I was given an idea by Lifeline which was to make a short video edit of the Weeping Angels to the music of 'The Blue Danube' in an attempt to see if the creatures were still just as scary when accompanied by ridiculously contrasting music. Once complete, the video was analysed to see if the viewer still thought the Weeping Angels as scary as they had been when accompanied by the tune of the Blue Danube. The main prognosis was no.
(WARNING: SPOILERS FOR ALL WEEPING ANGELS EPISODES!)

DESCRIPTION OF THE EDIT

The music fades in along with a black screen showing Sally Sparrow - the main character in the 'Blink' episode - walking though a graveyard past a Weeping Angel. The music then slowly builds up in speed, and the video shows several Weeping Angels following and watching Sally. An over-voice is then inserted of the Doctor saying 'The Angels are coming for you' - thus introducing what the creatures are. 
The video then shows several angels covering their faces with their hands, followed by: 'Creatures from another world'. 

Sally walks away from the house and clips are taken from the episodes 'The Time of the Angels' and 'Flesh and Stone'. At this point the music is gradually getting faster and the volume is building into a crescendo. Amy Pond is then introduced. Don't Bink. Don't Even Blink'. Amy thinks she is being turned into a Weeping Angel, and with a little help from the Doctor and River Song, she has to walk through a forest of Angels with her eyes closed. Despite the fact that this scene is quite terrifying in the episode, when put to the tune of The Blue Danube is it rather understated and sedated. 'Blink and you're Dead'.

The voice of the Eleventh Doctor is then heard saying: 'The Angels will come and I think they're coming for you'. A transition is then made to 'The Angels take Manhattan' episode where Rory and Amy struggle to get away from the Angels. 'They are fast, faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back! Don't look away and don't Blink!' 

As the music continues to crescendo, the video turns into a quick-cutting edit of fast moving images which is intended to cause slight disorientation and confusion before pausing an image on a long note accompanied by a smiling weeping angel. The video then comes to an end as River and the Doctor find themselves trapped by the Weeping Angels. River asks the Doctor: 'Any Ideas? and he replies: 'Run!' Images are then shown of Amy and Rory disappearing after being touched by a Weeping Angel and the Doctor firing a gun. An image of a Weeping Angels' shadow is then shown which fades out as if on a TV screen.

STYLE AND CONCLUSION

In the episode 'Blink' Sally Sparrow first communicates with the Doctor through a TV screen, and in the episode 'Flesh and Stone' Amy Pond sees an Angel through CCTV footage. The main idea of the edit was to create a similar old-fashioned CCTV/TV type experience. It was not intended to be clean cut or viewed in high definition, but rather to portray an off-beat, distorted and unpredictable series of images.

In conclusion, if a scene is supposed to be scary then the music should be suspenseful or disturbing; if a happy scene then light and uplifting. The accompanying music for a film or series is extremely important in creating a definite mood or atmosphere, and when an image is combined with a contrasting piece of music then the mood or feeling will inevitably be changed.

You can watch the finished video here:

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