Here is rough idea of what my Preliminary task will look like. I have put in all the different movements my character will be making and the number of seconds the character will be doing these for. I have so far managed to add in the 180 degree rule, match on action, shot/reverse shot and rule of thirds, which I am happy about. I will come back to this next week when I have discussed other ideas with my group and add an updated storyboard.
I will be discussing with my group: a storyline, what dialogue will be used, what other sounds we will use, different camera shots, transitions and shot sizes.
I have been given my first assessed practical task for media studies and it is called the preliminary task.
The Brief: Continuity task involving filmed and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character. With whom he/she then exchanges a couple lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot, the 180 degree rule and rule of thirds.
I have watched a few videos of other peoples preliminary tasks online to give me a idea of what the examiners are looking for. I also looked at the video Flashdance, which demonstrates good examples of all of these features they are asking for in my preliminary task. I will upload my story board up later this week with my ideas I have for the task.
I decided to further again my understanding of cuts, transitions and camera shots and analyze a clip from the film Moonrise Kingdom, a film directed by Wes Anderson. Wes is an american film director, whose films are known for his distinctive visual, narrative style and almost appearing as if they are on a theatre stage set.
The clip starts with one of the boy scouts and his leader, whom of which we follow across the camp with the camera in a tracking motion, moving right. This first scene presents the clip in the threatre like way, as it all happens in one take and features the camera in a very static way as it only moves from left to right across one background.
There is a bit in the clip where the they come across a boy making a tree house. At first Wes uses a medium long shot, meaning you can only see the begins of the tree and the characters. The camera then uses a jump cut to show the full tree, which in comparison to the characters is massive. This cut adds to the comical effect of the clip as it is unexpected for the viewer, again following the theatre theme as the camera stays static.
Later on, there is a scene where all the boys are sat at the table for breakfast, it begins with just the leader and two boys and later uses a zoom to show all the boys. It becomes clear here that there is an empty seat at the table. This zoom again adds to the comedy of the clip as it again acts as a suprise for the viewer.
Here is the final cut of our earthquake radio disaster which took around 3 hours to edit. I am happy with the final clip because I think the earthquake sounds quite realistic as it begins quiet and then gets louder as the clip progresses. I also think that the screams sound pretty realistic and that the scene does genuinely sound like it is coming from inside a restaurant.
If I were to do this task again I would use more of my own sound effects and perhaps spend more time thinking about other sounds that could occur in an earthquake situation.
I found this task very helpful because it showed me how important sound actually is to tell a viewer what is happening in a scene (especially when there are no visuals). As well, I found it useful making my own sound effects as it showed me that it can be done with everyday objects and friends and does not take a professional sound equipment to get good ones. I will defiantly create my own sound effects when I film my own opening sequence in a few months.
As a class we have been given the brief to create our own disaster audio clip using my own sounds plus sounds from http://soundbible.com/. I decided to work with my friends Elena and Abbey and we chose to create ours based on an earthquake. Our sound effects will feature inside a restaurant and then will go outside to a city atmosphere. We will use MoviePlus X6 to edit our final piece and have recorded our own sound effects using an iPhone, using other students in our year to feature as our voices.
Here are a few of our own effects that we have made:
In class we watched this airport fight clip from the film Casino Royal, which shows Bond and a man fighting. I tried to use my knowledge of what a soundtrack consists of to analyze the sound in the sequence.
Throughout the clip a James Bond style piece is played which has obviously been written for the scene as it fits with every action that occurs. For example, at 6:41 the music stops to make way for the sounds of water gushing from the truck therefore displaying it was made exactly to coincide with each action.
The clip as well seems to use sound to make the viewer associate props together like the phone and the bomb. Whenever the phone is shown it reminds of the danger of the bomb, even when the viewer has forgotten about the bomb the man brings the phone back out and suddenly the viewer recalls the bomb bringing them back to the idea of danger.
A movie soundtrack has to be chosen very carefully
to make sure it fits in with a particular scene and the all round idea of the
movie, for example a horror film would probably not contain a track from a
disney film because it would not fit the mood of the film. The music can as well set a certain environment like using bagpipes if the film is set in the Highlands or a xylophone perhaps for a jungle setting. As well, 70% of what you hear in a movie is added afterwards so things like sound effects are important as well to bring objects to life and make them as realistic as possible. A 'Foley Stage' is sometimes used to create human like sounds (such as footsteps), this will make sure that every movement is also as realistic as possible. Another thing that
could be added to a soundtrack is diegetic (things the character can hear) and
non-diegetic (things the character cannot hear) sound. Below is a video showing
examples of when diegetic and non dietetic sound is used in different films.
This video gives the viewer an insight into how all the different sounds and music are made for the Lord of the Rings series. I think it is very well made and show how much effort goes into making each single sound effect and music piece, this is important seen as sound makes up 60% of an audiences understanding of what is happening in a scene. For example, the movie goes to the extent of making a different noise for each of the goblins. The video as well teaches you that you must be patient but still know what you want. I will use this video when it comes to making my own film as it will give me an insight into how to make my own sound effects and possibly music.
