Alfie Curnow
Sound track production assignment 38.1.
Analysis of case study one; Children of Men
The scene I have chosen to analyse is the opening scene of this film. This scene is very significant as it sets the pace of the film and instantly grips in the audience with the Sci/fi drama genre.
The first section of analysis is known as spoken word and refers to any dialogue spoken throughout the film. As the film begins there is no visuals and so the audio has to engage the audience members as much as possible. This is done through he use of a loud non-diegetic news piece as a voice over, talking about a recent death of the youngest person in the world and as the visuals appear the voice over quietens and switches over to diegetic as it seems like the T.V is producing the sound. As the scene processes, proof that the sound of the news report is diegetic arises. This is shown when the male character walks away from the first television and the sound of the news report lowers and then the sound of the television picks up when the character walks by the other television at the other end of the coffee shop. When leaving the shop their is no sound of the news report which is further evidence that the sound was coming from the television back inside the building. The reason of the news report is to give the audience an understanding of the situation of the world that the film in based in. This is a very easily understood form for the audience to learn from and can be referred to as an exposition.In this scene there is only one line of dialogue "excuse me please" which is naturalistic for the environment described in this opening scene. Other that singular speech there is no other dialogue in this scene as almost everyone else is immersed in the news report. This is shown when the male character goes to pick up his coffee he just bought and accidentally pushes a women who only moans for a second and then continues her focus on the televisions.
The next section of analysis is known as sound effects. As the male character leaves the coffee shop he is greeted by a range of naturalistic and synchronous sounds coming from a variety of motorised vehicles including a bus, a tuck tuck and several cars. These sounds are synchronous because as the camera pans across we are able to see the vehicles making the sound effects. Theses sounds are also naturalistic because theses are the noises you would expect to hear in a similar situation. Later in the scene we hear a huge explosion a a bomb goes off by the coffee shop, this part is interesting because at the time of the explosion the camera is focused on the main character about 15 metres away from the shop, where he had left moments ago, so the audience and this character both hear the explosion first before he turn around and the camera follows him to see what had happened. Following the explosion, a high pitch whine sound effect is used to signify how the male character and others around the explosion would have felt in the aftermath. This effect results in the audience members being fully immersed in the emotional realism of the scene. The use of this sound effect is also very naturalistic as an audience member might believe that is how anyone in that situation would feel after a blast from only a little distance away. Right at the end of the scene and blending on from from the constant whine ringing effect, was screaming. Anyone within the radius of the bomb would have been very badly injured or worse and so screaming would have been second nature. This makes screaming naturalistic as it is a safety measure human beings possess and it draws anyone nearby to the position of a person in pain, in order to seek them help. The final use of a sound effect within this scene is the use of a sound bridge. At the end of the scene the audience is hearing a white noise ringing whine from the explosion, this sound may be happening in side peoples head space however the sound is use to blend the scene into the next scene.
The third section of this analysis is the music used in the scene. The only use of music in the scene comes from the television when the name of the youngest person who died was mentioned. The use of music only lasts a few seconds and included a pluck of harp strings and notes played on a piano. These instruments help to great emotion in the scene and also foreshadow the seriousness that the film is going to be. The music used seems like it is being played from the television along with the report, however I believe it is just played at the same time for emotional reasons. I believe that the music used is non-diegetic and came from outside of the scene. The genre of the film is also reflected in the the music used as the harp is often used in the portrayal of Sci/Fi music. The use of this music foreshadows that there may be hope for the horrible, apocalyptic setting that the world is set in.
The analysed scene can be found on the YouTube link below:
Case study two: Kingsman; The Secret Service.
The scene from this film that I have decided to analyse is the first bar fight. This scene is an interesting scene as it shows clear exposition on the capability of the agent which foreshadows how the main character could change.
The first section of this analysis is spoken word. This section is where the majority of the comedic release comes from. The beginning of the scene includes functional dialogue which at first can be scene as an exception to this, however this is also done is a humorous way. Just before the thugs enter the pub, we have a medium shot on the two who are drinking and the agent comments onto the thugs saying that "another examples of young men who need silver suppositories?" which relates to the previous statement from the other man. This is a simple yet very effective manor to inform the audience that more characters are appearing on screen. The idea of the contrast from the very well spoken Kingsman agent dialect and the common thugs of the local area dialect is where a lot of the humour comes from. An example of this is when the agent asks the thugs a question to which he knew that they would not know the answer to. This adds humour to the scene as the audience then identifies that the agent would have done this deliberately to stun his foes. There is another example of this at the beginning of the scene when the agent tries to persuade the thugs to let him and his partner finish his drink in piece, the way the man goes about this is humorous and shows that he is leading the thugs into a false sense of security of him being a defenceless elderly man. Spoken word in this section of the film is naturalistic sounding. This is because the confrontation between a group of thugs and the others may have began and ended in a similar fashion in real life with one of the group trying to bargain with the attackers before engaging with them. Elsewhere in the scene other dialogue is also naturalistic. After the agent has defeated many of the foes and is only left with the leader of sorts, the leader shouts a string of nasty words when he has become desperate enough in the fight. Each word also corresponds with a shot fired from his pistol which buries itself deeply into the agents umbrella. The words shouted are as quoted "Dirty Fucking Fucking Dirty. "
The next section of analysis is the music. The music in is this scene is almost always one hundred percent present. The music in this scene is non-diegetic as there is no evidence of any music players being used in this pub at this time. The music at the start of the scene is a low rumble from the percussion and string family of instruments and gradually picks up before the fight. The low rumble adds tension to the confrontation that the agent and his partner has with the thugs, this could be foreshadowing that the argument may turn into a fight later on in the scene. When the group of thugs first come into the scene the music, creates a dark low rumble. This is a sound motif as this sound sequence often follows the thug leader around from scene to scene, however from this one scene the audience would be unsure if the this technique is a sound motif as it only occurs once and so could just be music setting the mood. As the scene progresses the music evolves to the situation. After the rumble the audience hears the score being played, which by now the audience recognises, this score is played as specific times to show that a character will be heroic. This foreshadows the agent fighting the thugs. The score is played just before the fight when the agent is asking his rhetorical question to the group of attackers while locking the door of the pub. This can also be seen as a sound motif as this piece of music is often used when Harry the agent stands up to someone, from this scene however the audience would just assume that the music was just used as an emphasis to the point that Harry makes, as the music piece is only used one time in the scene. The use of this lifting sequence of music, changes the mood to a heroic vibe that makes the audience hopeful that Harry can handle himself. This helps to engage the viewers and draw their attention to what he is doing while he is saying something to put off the thugs. Shortly after this the string instruments begin to pick up their pace and in coloration with this, the thugs begin to walk towards the agent. During the fight scene the music also quickens its pace and in coloration with that the punches, kicks and other attacks seem to time them selves perfectly with the new pace of the music. As the fight comes to a stop the instruments slow down with a dramatic flourish. The music immediately picks up, after the agent realises that the bar tender is about to call the police, with one more flourish before quieting down once more. The final extract of music uses is a few high notes played on the piano which works as a sound bridge, bringing the audience into a new scene.
The analysed scene can be found on the YouTube link below:
Case Study three: Fight Club
Fight Club (1999) is an intense drama that is incredibly realistic with it's use of sound.
The scene I have decided to analyse is the first rule of Fightclub scene which begins when the club is newly invented.
The first section of this analysis is spoken word which begins with a voice over from the main character in a naturalistic format. This first segment is naturalistic because the voice over contains information that you would expect to learn or hear in the situation that the character speaking is in. In the voiceover he describes what himself and Tyler had been up too in order to prepare for the opening night of this event. Following this we hear Tyler introduce the evening and begin to inform the men who turned up, of the rules of fight club. There is emphasis from Tyler on certain rules such as the first rule and second rule. This adds to the seriousness of the scene through his tone of speech and shows that Tyler is in charge and has clear authority. The fact that tyler has complete control is verified when the camera reveals that all of the members are watching and paying attention. After the introduction speech the spoken word aspect revisits the voice over from the other character. This adds more detail through useful and functional dialogue. Parts of his speech can also be seen as exposition for what is currently going on. Other parts of his speech can be seen as foreshadowing for the plot twists that are present later in the film.
The next part of my analysis is sound effects. Sound effects are used in this scene to give a very hyper-real experience of what the main character is witnessing. All effects used in the fights in this film are brutal and realistic to cause the audience to become very interested in the how the scene is going to be resolved, to put the audience on the edge of their seats and to engage with the audience even more. The sounds used while the men are fighting are almost all synchronous which means that all sounds played can be followed back to where the sound came from on camera, in this films case many of the sounds are done like this so that the fight scenes become even more naturalistic. As we know from life experiences we most commonly see what makes a sound as the sound is made. Exceptions to this rule is done to exaggerate the seriousness of the scene. An example of this is when a man gets beaten up off camera but despite the audience not seeing the event happen, the audience can clearly make out the contents of the scene through the brutal sound effects used to imply the man is being beaten up. The main sound effects that are noticeable and obvious to the audience includes: punches, kicks and other attacks including a man being thrown into a pile of tires. Other less noticeable sound effects include: the sound of bare feet prancing around a cold concrete floor, and the sound adjustment used to make the fight scenes feel like they were made in an echoing building, this effect also help the viewers to feel a part disorientated which helps to put the audience in a similar position to the main who is being beaten up as he would have lost part of his hearing.
Unlike other films Fight club did not use a sound library for the bulk of their sound effects but instead used several techniques to make them as realistic as possible. These techniques included, foley sound effects such as kicks and punches, and equalising the levels of brightness within the sounds that were recorded to perfectly suit the scene and the films theme of masculinity. Foley refers to sound effects made using food items to simulate real sounds, this would include hitting an animals caracas for a gruesome sound effect for instance. A punch where foley is used is 1 minuet 20 seconds into the Youtube clip below of the scene.
This scene from Fight Club does not use any music. This choice from the director was done to add to the surreal ambience of the scene in order to make the scene as detailed as possible. The use of music may also have broken the naturalistic essence this scene has.
The analysed scene can be found on the YouTube link below:
Case study four: Get out!
Get out (2017) is a mystery thriller set around white/black racism. The director himself came up with the film concept when meeting his white girlfriends family for the first time.
The scene I have chosen to analyse is the opening scene of the film.
The first section I will be analysing is spoken word. The scene consists of only two characters, one who the audience can familiarise them selves with after a while as this character is in the scene from the beginning and the other character who only appears at the end. As a result of this any and all spoken work is being said out loud by the first character to himself. The only acceptation to this is when the character is on the phone to his partner at the start of the scene. The conversation between the character and his partner over the phone is naturalistic as similar conversations could take place outside of the film. The conversation the character has with himself however is less naturalistic but is used to introduce the characters opinion on the situation which results in a more satisfying and fear indulging ending to the scene when the character is taken. The solo conversation progressively becomes more desperate and this is shown through the change of pace and tempo between each comment he says to himself and the volume at which he says it. All three of these factors quicken as the scene progresses. Parts of his speech can be seen as foreshadowing for the plot twist that happens later in the film. An example of this is "you known what they would like to do to brown fuckers like me."
The next section I will be analysing is the music within the scene. The music is first present at 1:09 where the audience can hear dietetic classical music that slowly fades into the sound mix. The song being played is "Run Rabbit" a song from the 1960's. The choice of this song attempts to completely take the audience by surprise with a song that many would know from their childhood especially seeing as the film is 15 rated, so the audience would have to be at least 15 to see it so the chance the audience would recognise the song is higher than using it in a child friendly song. The use of this song also helps to create an atmosphere of fear in to the audience. As the choice of song would not fit the environment of the scene unless something terrible happened. At 1:44 the music becomes noticeably louder, this is because when the character turns to check if the road is safe to cross he notices that the car door is open and so the sound being played from the car would seem louder to a person outside of the car. Right at the end of the sequence a small piece of non-dietetic music is played. This riff of music primarily uses sharp plucks of a violin to make the watcher shiver of dread of what will come next.
The third part of the scene I will be analysing is the sound effects used. The scene opens with the potent sound of crickets. This gives the location of the scene an eerie feeling to the audience, further suggesting how empty the area is. This could be seen as a part of foreshadowing used to suggest that something out of the ordinary might happen later in the scene. The sound of footsteps is used to highlight that the character that we are following in this scene is walking evening in the parts of the scenes when the character is not in the frame. The next sound effects that are used consist of a selection of sounds made from the car as it initially drives by, turns around and parks. The sound effects used in scene are naturalistic, this is because none of the effects used would seem out of the ordinary if a person heard them in a real life scenario. The majority of the car noises and footsteps are synchronous because the audience can see the object as the noise is made. The exceptions of this is when the camera looks away from the character to show what the character is looking at. Right before the character is taken the audience hears a crack of a stick breaking, this sound gives the character enough time to realise what is going on and turn around in time to be knocked out. Before going unconscious the character screams several times for help before suddenly stopping. This aligns perfectly with the volume increasing on the song being played in the car. The only sound effects after that are the sound of the characters feet being dragged across leaves on the road and the sound of the body being put in the back of the car before the car drives off.
The analysed scene can be found on the YouTube link below:
Case study six: Stacey Dooley investigates kids selling drugs online.
Unlike the previous case studies, this example was aired on British television instead of being a segment from a film within the film industry. I have chosen to analyse the introduction to the episode which works to cover the main aspects of the documentary in an eye catching method which helps to keep viewers engaged and interested in the programme. I will still be analysing this section of the documentary in the three sound components as completed earlier in this report.
The first section I will be analysing is the spoken word. The episode begins with a voice over from Stacey Dooley who informs the attentive audience about the disturbing topic of the documentary. The voiceover mentions, how cheaply drugs can be purchased and how common drugs are in the 21st century with customers becoming dependent on the new market which is the social media platforms. This segment is the introduction to the documentary and uses clips from the programme within the beginning, as a result a small part of a dialogue scene is shown. In this clip Stacy is talking with a member of a drug gang about the consumption and delivery of the drugs. The introduction is cleverly put together as a question is asked within the voice over and the scene where the member of the gang answers the question is cut so that it follows right after which plays apart in making the audience member interested in what to come. This technique could be seen as a minor level of foreshadowing what is to come in the documentary. As this is a documentary, some of the spoken word is filmed on the move and outside and as a result, the sound quality suffers and the audience would be able to tell. This is done because equipment can be very expensive and the equipment used for inside shoots might not be able to be used for shots upside.
The second aspect that I will be analysing is the music within the introductory scene of the documentary. From the beginning of the introduction until the end, a constant element in the sound bed is used. This is a non diegetic musical riff which repeats several times in the duration of the clip. The visuals that play along side of the music often cut to the beat which makes the scene seem more interesting and helps to connect with the demographic of the documentary.
Had the introduction to this documentary not had any music and just used the voiceover and clips from the documentary instead, the feeling that might captivate viewers would be lost.
The third aspect of the analysis of the introduction to this documentary is the use of sound effects. As the analysis is based on the introduction, the sound effects used are largely used in the clips from the documentary its self. The first sound effect the audience hears is a tap against a glass bowl from a metal object that a member of the gang is using to stir a drug with. This sound effect, along with all the other sound effects used in the introduction of this episode are synchronous which, as mentioned earlier means the action that caused the sound is scene and links to the sound happening. Other sound effects used within this segment include: a wad of cash being put down violently and the rustle of camera equipment.
The analysed scene can be found on the YouTube link below:
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