Wednesday, 7 February 2018

Assignment 38.2


Assignment 38.2| Evaluation of the sound production workshops.

Over the course of the last four months my Media class has been doing different workshops on a weekly basis in order to learn the techniques that are a crucial part of this section of the Media Industry. Learning these techniques will also allows us to have the ability to do phenomenally well in the follow up assignment, requiring us to use each of the skills that we have learnt. 

The final projects for each workshop can be found in a shared file, which is located on the Art/Media drive. 

Workshop |1| : Adding basic voiceover to scenes 

In this workshop on the 29th and the 30th of November the class was instructed to work on creating a voiceover for a scene that did not currently have a voiceover. There were various types of effects that voice overs were used for and at the beginning of the lesson we discussed this as a class. Voice overs can be used to show the characters thoughts or opinions, track back to a memory where something similar might have happened, and as a use of exposition in a form similar to that of a narrator. 

I edited two scenes and implemented a voiceover into both of them. Throughout this process I used GarageBand to edit and my headphone microphone to record the sound. For a professional video I would need to use better quality equipment and software, however for an experiment it was appropriate. The first scene is from the film absolutely anything and the voiceover I have created, envisions the opinions of the character played by Simon Pegg as he begins to learn how to use his special ability. When creating this I noticed that there was a minor technical issue which is in the final version below. The main issue was the background noise, as this was a class activity most students were trying to record at the same time and so the room was quite loud. I managed to counter this for the most part however, as I used the inbuilt tools in GarageBand to remove some parts of the sound wave which clearly was not my speech. I could also counter this by recording in a quieter room.      

My second Voice over was splint into two segments. Both are in the same scene from Pirates of the Caribbean. The first is an opinion from a specific character about her own choices. The second is a added voice of the Kraken, which I thought would be a little fun to end off. Both sections went well in my opinion. The only opinion that was present was the background noise again.   


Workshop |2| : Dubbing dialogue

In the workshop between the 6th and 7th of December the class was instructed to take a scene from a pre-made selection, mute the dialogue of the scene, recreate the audio through recording the exact conversation and then finally lip sync the video and the audio together, through editing. 

Together with my partner Kieran, we chose a scene from the original Matrix film. The scene included a lengthy conversation between Morpheus and Neo, where the character Morpheus begins to introduce Neo to the Matrix.

We began this process with gathering all the necessary components for the recording. This included having the initial scene video, the transcript for the scene and the recording software open on a laptop. Having these components open on a laptop allowed us to move to a quieter location in order to record the best audio as possible. We recording our audio while watching the scene from the film and reading from the transcript that we had prepared earlier. The recording was done using a microphone connected to a pair of headphones. To increase the quality of the audio we could have substituted in a better and higher quality microphone. The recording software that we used was GarageBand. 
As shown by the screen shot to the right, we began by recording each of the characters as separate audio tracks in order to make the lip-syncing easier. However in the editing process we decided to use one of our tracks that had both of our speech in it, and simple cut it to match the video.            





The editing process was completed in Camtasia Studios 8. This is an editing software that I am very experienced and familiar with and had used for several occasions in the past couple of years. This software was available at my house and so I exported the audio into a mp3 format and sent it hope to begin editing with. The reason I chose to do this, rather than using GarageBand was because I already knew how to do what I needed to do with Camtasia Studios and I was not familiar at all with GarageBand. This meant that rather than spending time getting to grips with the new software I chose to spend the time editing the project. My partner however completed his editing in GarageBand and both edits were very similar.  We also both had edited the audio and the video together by the end of the day that we had started. 

When editing in Camtasia Studios, I tried best to sync the new audio with the audio from the video as this gave an idea of when the character began speaking. I would also watch how the character speaks to predict where the next speech would come from. The screen shot below shows this. For example Morpheus speaks in highly educated sentences that are almost like riddles and so has several breaks between lines to make the scene more intense. 
       

In the final version of the project, there were a few issues with the lip-syncing, which would have been fixed with more time being available for the editing. As I only had one evening to make use of the software, the overall project was not as efficient as it could have been but in my opinion it was a good attempt. 
Another issue we had was that we spoke to quickly for the characters. As mentioned Earlier Morpheus speaks slowly and so the quick speech from Kieran meant that the editing was tedious as his speech needed to be cut, separated and replaced later in the video to properly sync the audio.  

If Kieran and I were to do a project like this again, I would personally spent more time on the editing section in order to rule out any lip sync issues that were previously mentioned. As a whole however I believe that we did a reasonably good job for such a short amount of time. 



Workshop |3|: Interviews 

On the 13th and the 14th of December my class was instructed to conduct an interview. We first discussed what was included within an interview and this included that we should have use a variety of topics and locations in order to make the recording as realistic as possible.

Together with my partner Kieran, we started by drafting up topic ideas that we could use for the interview. We chose topics that easily came to mind and topics, which we could talk freely about. Our list of topics and our final questions for each other are indicated by the image on the left. 











We then played around with how the questions sounded in order to make them more suitable and professional. Following that we began recording. We recorded in several locations, which included the canteen, a balcony between floors and classroom. The final copies that are shown in the shared file were recorded from the first floor balcony at the sixth form college. We recorded using the inbuilt app in my partners phone whilst reading the script from my phone. When recording in the canteen there was more background noise than the other locations and as a result rendered the interview hard to understand. The second location we recorded at was the balcony; this was where the sound quality was the best. This was because the area was empty with students being in lesson and so the best interviews were produced. However this does not mean that the recordings were imperfect as the audio does still have some minor background noises. The third location we recorded at was the classroom and this had the most background noise, due to the students producing and discussing similar work. As a result of this interference, the audio was also rendered hard to understand.
The audio recorder as mentioned was an app on a phone and so in order to gain better audio we could have used a better quality microphone. All editing and exporting was done using GarageBand.
The audio displayed in GarageBand for the first interview. 
  The choice of recording in different locations, made the interviews more realistic. We chose to record each other but had we chosen to record passers by then the interviews would have been more realistic.
After recording my partner sent the clips over email which I then downloaded and begun editing any parts of the audio that needed editing.
The final interviews are shown in the shared file on the Arts/Media drive.




Workshop |4|: Adding music to a scene

On the 10th and the 11th of January 2018, the class began working on a new workshop. The lesson started with a discussion on what music does to scene lead my my teacher. The discussion used information that we had all learnt from the start of the year and the so the reason for this introduction was to remind everyone on the main reasons for using music and what main effects music can simulate within a scene. Shortly after the discussion we began searching for film clips without music and appropriate music that would be used with the scene.

The first scene I chose was a car and train chase from "The French Connection (1971)." This scene appealed to me right away as the scene by default had no music, which made the task of adding music easier, the scene was also interesting to me as it was action based in a no typical way. A car chasing a train is not nearly as common as a generic car chase and so would easily stood out and for me personally I knew it would be more fun to edit music into. The music does not start in the scene until 2 minutes and 55 seconds into the clip and continues until the end.   
The music that I implemented into the intense chase scene emphasized the scene by furthering the intensity. The music was taken from YouTube. The song was called "Epic detective instrumental" The songs length was perfect for the middle of the scene and added to the theme of a police officer chasing the train. This extract also provided detail for the .
All editing was done in GarageBand and through the process I played around with the duration of the scene and the music.



While editing I used for the a technique known as envelopes for the first time. This technique allowed me to fade out and fade in music. This allowed me to created a dramatic pause when the car is almost crashed, and then using a fade in the music continues a moment after when the driver has recovered. A screen shot of this is shown on the left.      








The scene I chose next was used for both the adding music to my second and third project.
The scene I used was from "The Dark Knight returns (2012)." The scene in question was off the initial fight scene between Batman and bane. The scene stood out to me because the protagonist of the film looses the fight, which sets him on a redemption path, which shapes the majority of the film. The first music I chose for this was an aery and depressing sound track, this worked well with the scene and the feeling in the scene. The music I added to the scene begins about 30 seconds into the clip, after the speech with Bane and Batman.  This song also has a musical element that could represent hope which is a theme heavily foreshadowed before and after this scene works. The audio was taken from the Men In Black Soundtrack. The editing began by aligning the sound with the chosen video section. I aligned and edited the clips using GarageBand. Unlike the first scene, In this example and the following example I did not use any other tools in GarageBand other than the basic movement and alignment tools. To further the detail in this scene and the following scene I could have used more of the available tools.

The second version of this scene and the third total scene I added music too was an experiment to see if changing the type of music in the scene affects the general mood of the scene. The music I added to the scene begins about 45 seconds into the clip, after the speech with Bane and Batman and the fight begins.  Unlike the scene which is a struggle for Bruce Wayne and as a result the scene has the theme of depression and struggle, the music I have chosen to attempt to change this was Rise Of The Valkyries. This well known song was written by Richard Wagner and is the pinnacle of classical music. As a result of two almost opposites combining, the scene becomes a little confused. The song has a great motivational chime to it, which would be great for a scene that starts off not in the protagonists favour, but then the protagonist wins, however in this scene the protagonist attempts and loses. Therefore the song used does not work perfectly. As a workshop experiment this worked well as it was something to try and no I know that it does not work, I do not have to use it any further.

Workshop | 4.5 | Adding original music to a scene

On the 24th and the 25th of January 2018, my class began working on a new workshop where we were instructed to create our own scores of music in GarageBand for use in specific scenes of our choosing.

My first scene that I used in this workshop was the scene that I had previously used from The Dark Knight Returns (2012) where Batman was in a loosing battle between himself and Bane. I tried to create a score that showed the depressing and realistic atmosphere of not being able to overcome a struggle. This soundtrack begins after the fight is initiated and Batman begins to loose. Around 1 min into the project. 
In GarageBand there is almost an unlimited supply of details and interesting instruments. As I had never used this programme before for this purpose I first began by playing around with the software and the instruments available. After a while of listening to the huge range that the software had to offer I began to think what instruments suited the scene. I tried using electronic modern instruments but decided against that as the mood was gritty and realistic and the use of the Internet almost countered the mood and feeling which in this attempt was not what I was aiming for. The instruments I ended up using were as follows: the "Drum 'N Bass Remix"- drum kit, The "Orchestra Oboe", "Extra Tuba Staccato" and the " Basking glow." As the screen shot below indicates, I recorded a score and then decided to copy the score a number off our times in order to cover the entire of the scene I desired. The first three instruments give the gritty and realistic feeling I required for the scene. The fourth instrument only appears a few times but indicates or foreshadows that there is still a level of hope for the protagonist and maybe foreshadows how he may make a come back later in the film. The use of such gritty and realistic instruments gave me the opportunity to create a sound motif for the character of Batman the film took that turn. The idea could be that the gritty instruments are played when the character arrives on screen up until the point of his recovery and his journey to defeating Bane which happens later in the film. 


 


My second scene I created original music for was a scene taken from "Spiderman- Homecoming"(2017). The scene In question originally had music with it however the version I used did not, governing me the opportunity to create my own score to suit the montage of moments when Peter Parker was getting ready for his Homecoming dance. As the protagonist is quite a modern person I attempted to replicate a typical style of music that his age group might listen too. This added quite a comical vibe as the music that was in the scene originally was more formal and slow, we can tell this by the dance that Peter and his aunt do in the scene.
The instruments I used for this scene are as follows: The "laser shot"- electronic synthesizer 'popcorn', "Old school Remix old wave" - drum kit and the "RnB remix"- Drum Kit. The electronic style comes from the laser shot synth and is the typical sound for the music I was trying to create.
The screen shot below shows the way that I layered the different instruments into the sound bed to create something that would suit the scene. As a result of the music I created, the scene is left in a more laid back and funny version of itself. This helps to make the audience more relaxed when watching the scene and would also allow the audience to relate to the characters more, especially if the audience members were born in the same generation as when the style of electronic music took off.

Workshop | 5 | Adding sound effects to a film scene

On the 31st of January and the 1st of February my class worked on the next and the final workshop. In this workshop we were to find a scene from a film that does not have any sound effects and then manually add the sound effects to the scene. The sound effects would be mainly found through online libraries, with a few being made ourselves in the form of foley sound effects.

My chosen scene was from the 2015 film Everest and the scene is a section when the team are climbing across a precariously placed ladder between two peaks of the mountain. At this point there is an unfortunately timed avalanche, which lands a member of the group stranded on the ladder and unable to get up. Following this member of the group begins to rescue the first member by climbing onto the ladder. This scene had the original dialogues from the film and any sound effects had been removed allowing me to add my own feel to the scene.
I decided to emphasise the feeling and theme in this scene, which was the danger that the men were in in. To do this I recreated the sounds that you would expect to hear in this scene. This began with finding an ambient sound for the environment. I experimented with the idea of using the sound of the team shouting encouragement all the way through but decided against it as the footage would never show a member of the team doing so and as a result the cheering would only confuse the scene. I concluded this decision by using a furious wind as the ambient sound for the scene. This gives the expression to the viewer of how critical the situation that the group of climbers are in. This can be seen in the section of the image below shown as number one, the image below shows the whole project from a zoomed out perspective.

The first main sound effect that I used was the sound of the avalanche. This particular sound was taken from the online sound library [Freesound.com] The use of this sound brought the whole project to life in my opinion. Giving life to the environment. The sound I chose for this section was quite realistic as I thought it had to be and it was also quite chilling which is what the team would have through when the avalanche crashing down around them. The avalanche sound can be seen in the highlighted image below as the labelled section number four. The audio had to be repeated several times in order to cover the section from the clip.

The second main sound effect that I added to this scene was the sound of the ladder struggling with the new weight when the man falls straight onto it. This effect also co-insides with the sound effect that I added next. This being the pillars that were holding the ladder, struggling with the new weight as well. The sound when the man falls onto the ladder is a metallic  'bang'. This sound effect I created through the Foley technique. I recorded myself hitting a large fan, which is placed next to where I sit in the class. The microphone I used for this was from my headphone set and I set the broadcast up so that it recorded straight into GarageBand as some Studio recordings have been done before. The other sound effect which followed the Foley sound effect up closely was the sound used to explain that the pillars dug into the snow that were keeping the ladder stable until the man collapsed onto of them forcing them to struggle under the new weight. This sound effect was found on [Freesound.com]. These two sound effects can also be seen in the image below as the labelled sections, number two and three. 

The fourth sound effect that I included within this scene was the sound of footsteps as the second man walks across the ladder and the snow in order to help his fellow adventurer up from the position he was put in after the avalanche happened. This edit can be seen on the below image as sound effect number five. In this instance I used a metal 'bang' for the steps made on the ladder and a snow 'thud' for the steps made on the snowy area. The sound effects were found on the online library [Freesound.com] and each sound effect was repeated several times in order to get the right amount of steps that sync with the video and where viewers would expect to hear the sounds. To do this I imported the sound effects into GarageBand and slowly watched the video, making notes where the sound should go and then adding them in after.

 Similarly to the fourth sound effect, the fifth and final sound effect was the sound of the ladder straining under the weight of the two men as the first adventurer begins to stand up. This sound was a metal 'bang' and came from [Freesound.com] This sound effect appears at the end of the scene, giving the viewers relief that the stranded member of the group is now safe. Like the other sound effects I added this to GarageBand and watched the scene carefully to see where the effect best benefited the scene. This can be seen in the image below as the labelled number six.
    

This image represents the sound effect workshop project zoomed out with each sound effect labelled as a number mentioned in the text.






Wednesday, 15 November 2017

Assignment 38.1


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 final section of the analysis of this scene is the sound effects used. The sound effects really immerse the audience into the scene and help to make the scene realistic. The first major sound effect used is the locking of the bar doors. This sound effect, like many in this scene is a synchronous sound and allows the audience to see the lock happen as the sound is played. The use of this sound effect helps to suggest to the audience, that a fight may happen shortly. We also hear Harry's footsteps as he walks toward the door, this sound is also synchronous and also naturalistic due to the circumstance where the sound is created. The next two sound effects are both naturalistic and synchronous as they are from the same item. The glass being thrown results in a light 'wine' sound and the glass makes a smashing sound as it hits the first foe. These are sound effects you would expect to hear in similar situations in real life. The next sound we hear is the thud as the man falls to the ground. The next few minuets are full with different sound effects that happen very quickly. All are naturalistic for the situation and all are synchronous.The sounds include, punches, crashes, growns, knife stabs, gun fire, a electric bolt and bones crunching. After the main fighting is done the attention of the agent is drawn to the bar tender who is dialling on a phone a quick dart silences him and results in a thud to the table and shatters glass. The agent then humorously walks back to his table, sits down, picks up his beer and calmly drinks it.This reminds the audience that this film is a more lighthearted acceptation to the typically tragic and thrilling action spy films.

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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Assignment 38.2

Assignment 38.2| Evaluation of the sound production workshops. Over the course of the last four months my Media class has been do...