47. Heartbeat Music Research

I absolutely want to make the song have a 'heartbeat' to represent what V is feeling. It would be a consistent beat that's slightly prominent, but low enough that you have to really listen to hear it. 

In the scenes where it's just V panicking, coughing into her hand for the first time and the bathroom, the beats would follow actual, quick heartbeat paces. 

While in the calmer scene, the park, it may be extremely quiet or not there at all. I feel that if I add the 'heartbeat' in shots with both characters, the audience would get confused on who's heartbeat it is. 

The last shot where the audience sees V alive, her coughing into her hand at the park and right after LI leaves the frame, the heartbeat will start again quickly. This, I feel, is the most important moment for the heartbeat because after there won't be a beat anymore, signaling that she has died. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDCt1V8T3To - This is the opening scene to Drive. 

https://youtu.be/eFU3FQh3xgE?si=7kDnDYT9IaO9wh4p - An in-depth analysis of the intro sound for Drive. 

For Drive, I am focusing mostly on the 30 seconds where the 'heartbeat' sound is introduced. This example shows a quickened, but collected heartbeat. My film would have the heartbeat much more rapid, however the example gives an understanding on what a heartbeat should sound like, a light 'bum' sound. 

The heartbeat sound from Drive.

There is also 'Ticking of the Clock'. This represents a clock and not a heartbeat, but the way I have envisioned for my film is something like this, with the 'bum' heartbeat sound. It is a fixed rhythm that is extremely apparent to the viewers, due to how loud it is once it starts. The analyzer also states 'reminiscing of a metronome', which is what I want to accomplish with the 'bums' to be on the same beat/repeating sound pattern. 

Ticking of the Clock from Drive. The blue sound waves represent the song.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeartbeatSoundtrack#:~:text=%22Ode%20to%20Divorce%22%20by%20Regina,with%20a%20faint%20heartbeat%20sound. - A website that documented many different heartbeat sounds within different media types, animation, real life, etc.

One that stood out to me was Death Note. The scene where L dies his heartbeat cuts off his dialog and he dies. My film won't have something that extreme for a death scene, but for the transition from the park to back into the bedroom, there will be a moment where the audience should hear V's heartbeat stop. Again, not as striking as Death Note's was, but the sound had reverberated (which was to imply shock to L) and I could try to replicate something like that, to not have a complete stop of the heartbeat sounds and to give a nicer sound overall. It can also show how V was 'shocked' or 'surprised' at the fact that she has died, like she was expecting to live a little bit longer. 

L's death scene from Death Note, with the heartbeat.