Sound analysis of 'Priest'

As I am looking at making most of the sound for our project I needed to look at the value of sound in film and different types of sound. I made notes on the film Priest as its sci-fi neo noir theme has an interesting mixture of techniques. 

Basic Plot of extract: A family living in a dry plot in America are having dinner and suddenly they hear a rumble of animals running. The mother and father of the family put their daughter in a secret basement to protect her. They try to fight the creatures of with heavy steam punk guns but get slaughtered. The hatch opens and the daughter screams, we only see a shadow of a person who we presume to be a cowboy because of their hat.

Types of sound: 

Dialogue (Words/Vocal) - This is anything vocal. Things said, sang ect.. In the extract of Priest that I watched the dialogue was very basic between the family. They say 'Bow your heads and say grace' before everything kicks off. This shows us how the use of speech can make us anticipate what is going to happen late in the clip. The tones of their voices are very low apart form the scene when the daughter screams as she is discovered by the anti-hero of the story. The high pitched tone is a huge contrast compared to the rest of the scene and makes us realise the severity of the situation. In our OTS I don't think we will use any dialogue but we may use vocals to create sound effects 

Sound Effects/Foleying - Sounds that have been aded onto the top of videos to enhance sounds that should occur. They are most noticeable in high action films with explosions and gun shots. In Priest the house set is quite heavy. All of the furniture is dense dry wood and even the cutlery placed on the table is made from a heavy metal. This would not be as apparent if it was not enhanced or added during editing. The cutlery may have a natural diagetic sound when placed on the table but this can be amplified to conform to the style of the film. 

Ambiance (Background sound, mood enhancing, wild tracks) - This can be almost anything it is general background noise. If a scene is set in a shop you would hear till noises and people gently speaking. If you were outside in a forest you may hear wildlife. I makes the audience more aware of the setting. In Priest there is constantly the sound of wind and dirt crumbling on the ground. This makes us aware that it is in the desert. This is non-diagetic as it did not occur when the footage was filmed. 

OTS Logo design

This sheet shows my thought process as I came up with a name for our OTS. Its also a mind map for a logo/font that I will need to make. 

Neo Noir

The genre of film noir extends to something called neo noir. To gather more of the genre I looked at different clips from Neo Noir films. We looked for things that typically are in film noir and spoke about how the film interpreted it.

For example the film 'The Red Riding Trilogy' uses dark tones to express something quite depressing. This is typical of a film noir and it ties in with the story nicely.  

I also looked at 'Blade Runner'. It feels like a modern version of a film noir as it has a blue filter most of the way through rather than being sepia which is a traditional colour used in film noir. This was the thing that stood out most to me as the classic look of smoke stood out off of a dark background.

The film 'Bound' reminds me of a classic film noir which has been transferred into modern day (1990's). It contains lots of art deco settings, a gangster boyfriend and a red black and white theme throughout. In this the Anti Hero is a woman rather than a man which is an unusual convention of film noir. Hence the title of neo noir. 

Analysis of student OTS

Peaky Blinders Trailer

Peaky Blinders - Trailer from eOne Films ANZ on Vimeo.

Peaky Blinders History

PEAKY BLINDERS from ITV Central on Vimeo.

This is a news report on the history of the Peaky Blinders who were a gang in Birmingham close to the 1920's. The show has a Noir aspect to it so I will analyse its opening.

Poster Analysis

Basic Plot Of A Film Noir

Continuity Task

What is continuity in a level media?

What was our brief?

We had to complete a task which included making a video that helped us to understand continuity within A level media. We had to stick to the following rules:

180 Degrees

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQyo_uKVOosmicpGeNfcXmsBisI9OFtnd1gPPAH27bTWxdiEz65CviMGd0HKTtQwbvSpWHGA48-tE98ESsGN-ZMwOzame3AZE5WR3n0imx8pPA4WzoMoMHhTudiihI8YcpiUQR369UDnY/s1600/Untitled.png

To help me understand this rule I did a Google image search to see if this would improve my understanding as visual diagrams are often the best way for me to grasp concepts.

 

 

The
most simple diagram which I found helped me to understand this most.

Whist filming you have to stay on one side of the action. It keeps the order of characters looking at each other when only one character is seen onscreen at a time. 

The most simple diagram which I found helped me to understand this most.

Whist filming you have to stay on one side of the action. It keeps the order of characters looking at each other when only one character is seen onscreen at a time.

Match on action shot

Whilst searching for what this exactly was I found a definition which summed it up perfectly for me to be able to understand.

‘Match on action (or cutting on action) is an editing technique for continuity    editing in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying theaction of the subject in the first shot.’

Shot reverse shot 

‘Shot reverse shot (or shot/countershot) is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.’

In addition to this we had to include a door opening and closing. 

Holli & Ruby Final Continuity Task from Ruby Millard on Vimeo.
This is our final continuity video. My input on the task was filming and editing and my partner Holli was in the video and also contributed to editing

Se7en Analysis Essay

Se7en Analysis

The film se7en is about two detectives on the hunt for a serial killer whose victims are attacked based on the seven deadly sins. ‘Pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth.’  He makes a book for each.

During the opening title sequence we are shown the killers murder diaries. As gloomy as it is they have allowed the creator of the scene to fill the clip with different texture. The books have ratty pages and the ink seeps. The director has also been quite clever to shine light through different pages so that we are able to see what is on the other side. As they are full of dark pictures of the victims and scribbled diagrams and mad thoughts. Defacing picture of a boy, starting with the eyes, might indicate personal issues from childhood or simply represent the violence of the character. While less graphic than say the images of instruments of torture shown in the sequence, there’s something more sinister about the act of crossing out the boy’s eyes. The act takes away something fundamental about our sight that connects us, so the metaphorical removal of the eyes is like locking the figure in, imprisoning. This may be the character showing is jealousy without meaning to. He may not mean to show that he cares but in fact taking the effort to target someone shows that he feels an emotion. Have it be anger or hatred. We never see his face. This could be because we are meant to feel like we are the character, or we are being shown by the character what great accomplishments he has been making.

As a whole it gives us a schizophrenic experience from the murders mind. There are electronic fragments of sound and extremely short close ups of the

Killers hands. Occasionally hand written text overlaps the filmed footage. Broken and it looks as if it was not meant to be seen. Like the murder could not help but blurt it out. It feels like it is on a different layer and if it’s from the characters mind makes me think that he sees in more than one dimension. Instead of hearing voices he may see them. Instead of seeing colors for example he may feel them. He may have Synaesthesia. Lots of people would like to experience this as it is the unknown to the majority, but this may eventually send someone insane and the confusion may lead them to do strange.

After all of this I think that the character is quite contradictive to himself. Two of the seven deadly sins are pride and anger. To create something so detailed filled with things in different media takes a long time. To not feel proud of what you have made at the end is impossible. He feels anger towards the victims as they are committing the sins. Which in fact means when he gets to anger he is committing it himself. I would also include envy. He may feel this way towards the little boy who’s eyes he crosses out. But I think at the end of the crimes he commits he feels to smug to feel envious. Before he may have but in an act of anger it is taken away and replaced with pride.  

Analysis of Se7en

These are the notes which I made whilst watching the opening title sequence to the film Se7en. I find this method works best for me as when I come to write about it I will easily be able to look for the information that I need. I fill the boxes with ideas and suggestions as well as what happens in the clip.

This is the clip of Se7en: 

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/se7en/

What are the key conventions of an opening sequence to a film?

• Film Title – The can instantly tell the audience what sort of film it may be. A children’s film about dogs may have a food bowl incorporated into the text. Where as a horror film may contain blood and axes.
• Credits – To identify the key actors of the film and can be faded into the opening scene of a film.
• Company logos – which has worked on the films? Who has produced the film? Has anyone with a distinctive style directed the film?
• Music/Sound – This can incise an audience. An action film may have a gin shot for each mane shown in a title sequence. It ties together the footage. 

What makes a good presentation?

For this task I looked at a number of presentations which showed the key things that opening sequences to films contain. I am the target audience so they should be clear and structured as it’s the easiest way to learn things. Each one seemed to hit this. Visually they were simple and the colors used weren't too bright or obscure to read off of. Most of them were dark which looks good as it relates to the classic picture of a roll of film. Each slide is titles and below states what it should. It is short and to the point which is really important because if a presentation was being given an audience would need to keep concentration thought. 

Looked at:

Conventions of an opening sequence from emiliefreddie

Codes and conventions of opening sequences from kcasmedia

Work from.....

Task page

Red Riding Hood Photoshoot

Red riding hood Film Noired from rubymillardas

Highlighting Film Noir Information

This sheet helps to clarify what the typical things of film Noir are. I can look at it later in the project to help me understand what to do. 

Red Riding Hood Noir-ed

This is my version of the classic fairy tale 'Red Riding Hood'. Red is the femme fatal who takes drugs to her granny. The wolf is the drug dealer/gangster who comes looking for his money and the lumberjack is the protagonist.

Film Noir Foundation

http://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/home.html

This fan site allows me to grasp more of an idea on what the original Film Noir are like compared to new versions. Throughout this section of the project I can look back at it to help with references. 

Film Noir visual links and examples

History of Film Noir

Film Noir literally means ‘Film Black’ in French. The films themselves are often full of pessimism, fatalism, menace, and cynical characters. It was originally a term used by French film critics to describe dark American detective and thriller films that followed the war put out in cinemas. Nino Frank was first to use the term in 1946 about films such as ‘Double Indemnity’, which was realised in 1944.

Film noir that we all know today developed during and after the second world war as it was a time in which a lot of the things which were shown in the films may have actually been going on. Producers took advantage of this as they created an almost hype with audiences thought England, America and France. This is said to have been the ‘Golden era’ for Film Noir. 

Start Of Film Noir

Looking At Genre

‘Toy Story 2’ Production & Planning Proof

These pictures are to show our work developing, the first two are notes that we made during filming and the second are screenshots of all of the video footage that we have.

Sweded Film Planning

I am in a group of three with Holli Clark and Charlie Norman to make a Sweded film. We have all decided to make ‘Toy Story 2’ because it’s a classic Disney film that is recognized by millions of people. The characters are all quite distinctive so it should be quite fun to emphasize the their personalities. 

Research into Sweded films

Sweded Reasurch from rubymillard

About Me

Last year I took GCSE media and overall achieved a C. I am happy with my result but I think in order to improve this year (with AS) I need to work on my practical tasks. I enjoy the research and theory side of the subject but sometimes struggle when making things on a computer. I’d much rather draw things, cut them up and then stick them together. So this is an aspect that I need to work on. 

4. Quadrophenia

             

Quadrophenia:

Quadrophenia is a rock opera album written by ‘The Who’. It’s about a working-class mod called jimmy and his social, musical and psychological happenings. The album was made into a film titled ‘Quadrophenia’ in 1979 and is set in 1965 London. Just like the album it tells the story of Jimmy and his gang of mods, who travel to Brighton for a weekend of dancing and fighting there gang rivals the rockers. I think it’s quite a good representation of teenagers at the time and I like it because it gives me an insight into the life of people at the time.

During the film I can spot things in Jimmy’s friends that I see in mine and can relate to. For example they go to a party and the song changes to one they all know (The who - My Generation), they all sing together, the light goes off and bottles get thrown in the air. I’ve watched it with friends and every time the scene is comes up I stair at them to wait for there reaction to it. Apart from that my favorite scene is closer to the end and jimmy has pretty much lost his mind; he’s on a train with the blues (pills) that he brought with his last wages, wearing a maroon suit (which is my favorite in the film) and black eyeliner. He throws his parka out of the train window and sits in a carriage with two upper-class men. It’s a really short scene but I like it because it’s almost the end of his journey in the whole film.

A lot of the mods have original Vespas and Lambrettas; I think I’m quite fond of the whole style. The men wear some brilliant ‘peacock’ (patterns and statement pieces) items of clothing during the film; Ace who is played by ‘Sting’ (The Police) has a silver Vespa and wears a silver suit. He’s quite different from the other mods and you can tell that he has more money than the majority of them from the quality of the clothes that he wears.

The sound track includes a lot of Motown and classic 60’s tunes in additional to songs by The Who like ‘Be My Baby’ by 'The Ronetts’ and ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’ by ‘ The Crystals’. Which makes it seem even more as if you’re in the 60’s yourself. Quadrophenia is one of my favorite films becase it’s very authentic and of its time.

3. Moonrise Kingdom

          

Moonrise Kingdom:

Moonrise Kingdom is directed by Wes Anderson and is set in the 60’s, on an island off the coast of New England. It is about a young Boy Scout called Sam who falls in love with a girl called Suzy, both aged around 12. Suzy and Sam meet at a church nativity play and start writing to each other. Suzy is unhappy with her family and Sam is an orphan, they decide to run away together. They both act like they are older than they actually are; they have certain maturity about them. I think this may be part of Wes Anderson’s style. Overall the film is about very young love and the town’s search for them. The film is very stylized a yellow, green and blue color theme runs thought. Everything is quite ordered and the costumes have lots of detail on them. It is set mostly out doors in woods and on a beach. It’s really arty and that’s the main reason why I like it.

My favorite character is Scout Master Ward because he understands that Sam and Suzy should be together, and helps Sam when social services try to take him into a care home. I don’t like the mother and father of Suzy because they attempt to separate her from Sam. 

2. Submarine

Submarine:

Submarine is a coming of age film set in 1980’s Wales. The main characters are Oliver Tate and Jordana Bevan (Oliver’s first love). Thought the film Oliver has to deal with falling in love, heartbreak and his mother having a brief affair. It was originally a book but made into a film by the comedian Richard Ayoade. The film is very stylized and parts of it were shot using a Super 8. The consumes (large duffel coats and wooly jumpers) and tones (blues and grays) that are in the film are all tied together by this. The sound track was written and produced by Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) which as been just as successful as the film. It’s very light and feels quite pure just like the sea. The lyrics are quite poetic and I think that this fits in really nicely with the style of which the film is shot and arranged.

My favorite character is Oliver’s father Lloyd Tate because he’s just a genuine person. In the film Oliver shows concern for his as he notices him becoming depressed. He’s a marine biologist and I think has quite a good sense of humor, my favorite thing he says in the film is ‘Listen, look, I know you think I'm very boring, you know... but once I ripped my vest off in front of a woman, and err... it was very effective actually. It produced a very atavistic response.’ Even though he has been depressed I think he’s a great roll model for Oliver because he’s kind and caring. 

1. This Is England

                   

This is England:

This is England tells the story of 11 year old Shaun who during his summer holidays befriends a group of local skinheads. The film shows the process of Shaun grieving his father who died fighting in the Falklands War. This is England is set in 1983 in the North of England; it shows lots of examples of racial issues being solved but simultaneously destroyed thought the skinhead community. The film also is a good representation of what gangs and friendship would have been like at the time but is still relatable to people in the present day.

Shane Meadows is the director and writer for this is England, he almost has a rule of locally sourcing the actors for his films to preserve authenticity. Quite a lot of the film is improvisation so the script feels quite genuine. He tends to set films in the midlands staying local to his roots. With This is England it literally looks like it could have been shot in 1983 and this is one of my favorite properties that it has.

I also love the soundtrack as it features ska and reggae tracks from bands such as ‘The Specials’ and ‘Toots & The Maytals’. The costumes (Levi Jeans, Fred Perry, Ben Sherman, Harrington’s, Over coats, Dr Martens and Monkey Boots) and haircuts of the cast are classic and also authentic, which adds to the fact of it being one of my favorite films. Shane Meadows also made sure that the cast had authentic tattoos, crosses and swallows. This is England has also been made into two follow up series and a third is being filmed.

My favorite character is ‘Woody’ because of his kind nature and loyalty to his friends. He’s the one that first takes Shaun into the group when he sees him walking alone looking upset. Woody and his girlfriend ‘Lol ‘ then help Shaun to become a skinhead. Even though woody is almost the leader of the group sometimes he can be can be a wimp and become emotional. I like how this contrasts with his hard exterior. I think that it shows that when someone is with a gang that they feel comfortable in there personality can alter.

My Favorite Films Are.....

Ten Favorite Films ( Not Including the other 100 I'm obsessed with)

1.   This Is England

2.   Submarine

3.   Moonrise Kingdom

4.   Quadrophenia

5.   Pulp Fiction

6.   The Blues Brothers

7.   Amélie

8.   Billy Elliot

9.   Snach

10. Trainspotting

Intro to 'Sweded Films'

Sweded Films

Sweded films are remakes of classic films on a low budget and an ordinary video camera. The term ‘Sweded’ comes from the Michal Gondry film ‘Be Kind Rewind’ which is about the character jerry wiping the tapes at a video store. Jerry and his friend then have to remake all of the films so that they don’t get into trouble. They become increasingly popular with customers, the customers are told that the films come from Sweden. Hence the term ‘Sweded Films’.

Be Kind Rewind created a sweded film craze and people all over the world have started to make their own.