Week 9 tute task

For our blog this week we are to write about the 4 elements of the soundtrack in the b grade horror movie "The Woods" (insert extraneous doom music here)

The movie opens with a light hearted old 60's tune, which, at the begining is extraneous. there is light road ambience with the odd bird tweeting and tooting and the sound of the car driving along the road. As the car drives along, the bizare 60's extraneous music transforms into practicle and starts to blare on the cars radio.

The car pulls up to an old mansion/boarding school with great gravel SFX and totally in synch footsteps, door closures etc as the family get out of the car. Most of the SFX are frame accurate.

The first bit of dialogue is said and it is clear, concise and a bit creepy.

It is interesting to note that throughout the short segment of the film that we saw, there was a fantastic ambience that continued without fail.

The scene dragged on and there was a dream sequence. A girl was sitting demonically and let out this insane, high pitched wail that must have been created by a foley artist, or at least manipulated. It was frame accurate and in sync.

Thankfully, the movie finished just before I wet myself from fright.

Week 9

Week 9 was all about sound. Shotgun mics, Booms, plant mics, lav mics and the like, you get the picture. The 4 soundtrack elements were also covered in this non-stop learning fest, which coincidentally is also the topic for our blog task this week. The 4 elements are Music, Narration, Sound FX and Dialogue.

Narration is usually one of two techniques. The first, is Sync to picture where the narrator reads the script as he is watching the film, and the narration is recorded in one take. The other, more prefferesd style is to read the script as isolated takes, which allow the narrator to focus on the enunciation etc.

Music is heavily relied upon in all movies. It is essential for creating mood and tension, emotion and also tell the audience how to react ie, happiness, laughter, sorrow etc. There are two types of music in a movie: "Extraneous", where the music is heard and effects only the audience, an "Practicle", where both the audience and characters in the film can hear the music, and it often sets the mood for the characters.

Music can either be produced from canned sources, or produced by original score. Canned is where the music is accessed via an archive of music, usually catalogued in emotions and feelings etc. And, of course, original score is made from scratch by a composer specifically for the movie. Producers can pay for canned music by - Needle Drop : Buying music on a per-selection per-use basis. Blanket - which permits unlimited usage of an entire library. Sreen Minute - where the producer pays a certain rate based on track time appearance on screen.

Sound FX are sounds, other than dialogue and music, that people and objects make. For eg, natural clothes swooshing, footsteps, doors closing etc. SFX can either be frame acurate or Wild. Frame accurate is when the SFX is in synch with whats happening on screen (HARD), whereas wild is referred to as when frame to frame accuracy is not important, such as wind blowing and ambience (SOFT). Foley work is done by a foley artisist who creates sounds of things that don't exsist, such as 11 ft mosquitos.

Dialogue is in 1 or 2 forms. On screen and off screen. On screen = lip sync, off screen = wild. (ADR - recorded after filming)

Week 7 & 8

Well, I was sick for week 7 but I'm pretty sure that for both week 7 and 8 we didn't have any homework! WOOO, PARTY! We did however learn about video lighting and a bunch of "This will be on your exam hints", which I jotted down. Things such as : HMI - Hydragyrum medium-arc length Iodide. These lights are the same temperature as sun light. We also learnt about Incadescent lamps and their different types - Tungsten, Halogen, Quartz (500w - 2000w) We also learned an interesting technique to turn day to night. Simply use a blue filter and perhaps decrease the exposure. There are also two very important terms to remember : Fresnels (soft light) and Ellipsoidal Spots (Spot lights).And remember to always follow source! a light isnt coming from the left hand side of a room when there is a window on the right!

Week 6: Dogville... What the?

This week's lecture was about production design,including sets, props, locations, costumes, etc. and it also determines the feel of the movie. We watched Fat Albert, which used elaborate production design through costuming and set to help tell the story, and in contrast, Dogville, a "Dogme 95" film which used one set and minimal props.

Logging onto the Dogme 95 website (http://www.dogme95.dk) one is confronted with an eyeball implanted into a pigs arse.... Hmmmm, interseting. This is what the website had to say:

"The Dogme95 rules were conceived in the beginning of 1995. Lars von Trier had the rough idea of some sort of new manifest and called Thomas Vinterberg to ask him if he “wanted to start a new wave with him?” He accepted and according to Thomas it took 45 minutes to formulate the rules. They were presented at the Odéon - Théatre de L’Europe in Paris on the 20th of March 1995, where Lars was invited to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of film." Make sense? Didn't think so...

Here's the idiots guide:
Apparently, back in '95, to dudes (Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg) created a genre void of any "good taste and aesthetics". No extra lighting, minimal props, hand held cameras, no additional sound or music. Unvieled in Paris at the 100th anniversary of cinema, Dogme 95 was a hit.

I guess the genre allows for a completely objective view of a story, with no interference by special effects and the like. My take on it is that it is basically theatre on film.

Intriguing...