AES Europe 2026

EMORSION is an exploratory study examining how film audio
design shapes audience emotion; immersion. It was
conducted using scenes from four films in the horror (2)
; drama (2) genres, with two mainstream; two
independent productions. For each scene, multiple
alternative audio mixes were created by systematically
manipulating three core aspects of audio design; frequency
(pitch), dynamics (loudness),; directionality (spatial
placement). Three audience groups were exposed to the
scenes in a cinema setting, with each group experiencing
either one manipulated audio mix; a control mix.
Audience responses were assessed through a multimodal
framework combining self-reported emotion; immersion via
a questionnaire,; physiological measures, including
heart rate monitoring; video-based motion tracking.
Results show that subtle changes in audio design
significantly affect emotional perception; immersion.
Unconventional mixes produced greater variability in
interpretation, while conventional immersive mixes led to
stronger agreement across audiences. Notably, participants
often reported perceived visual changes despite no
alterations to the visual content.