RESEARCH: Blog Post 15 - Importance of sound

Blog Post 15: Importance of Sound

• Sound is vibrations that travel through the air and are heard when they reach a persons ear. Sound is used all the time as we rely on sound to communicate. Also, unexpected noises warn us of danger. 
• A soundscape is a piece of music that is considered in terms of its component sound. It is a sound or a combination sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment. 
• The process of specifying or generating audio elements is called sound design. 
• 'Suspending disbelief': If a writer could infuse a "human interest and a semblance of truth" into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgement concerning the implausibility of the narrative. Suspension of disbelief often applies to fictional works of the action, comedy, fantasy, and horror genres. Cognitive estrangement in fiction involves using a person's ignorance or lack of knowledge to promote suspension of disbelief.

Sound Terms:

• Wild track: When sound recorded will be removed and new sounds are recorded for the footage.
• Ambient sound: Sounds heard from the outside (natural sounds.)
• Diegetic: sound that actors can hear.
• Non-diegetic: Sound that actors can't hear whilst filming. it is added afterwards.
• Score: Specifically composed piece (orchestral)
• Song: Music
• Voiceover: When you talk over an original footage (narrating)
• Dialogue: When more than one person speaks, mostly in foreign language films. (not a monologue) 
• Dubbing: When new voices or sounds are added.
• Foley: Sounds to add effect or emphasise/ make actions more dramatic in film. For example the sound of a punch, rusty clothes, a bouncy ball. 
• Synchronous: When the sound/music used matches the mood. E.g sunny = happy
• Asynchronous: When the sound/music does not match the mood of the scene. E.g. pictures of family with creepy sounds playing. The Stepfather is an example of an asynchronous film. 
• Sound Bridge: Links two scenes
• Sound Motif: When a sound pops up every time a character shows up. For example in the film Jaws we can hear a specific sound that just tells the audience when the shark is coming. 

Sound is very important in film. Lets say someone was watching a film, they were in a cinema theatre and they receive a text, they will obviously get distracted by the text whether the film is with or without sound. However it is easier for them to loose their concentration when the sound is not there. Also, if there wasn't sound in the film it would take longer for them to realise that the film is still on. This is because there would be nothing to grab their attention as they are using one of their main senses. We use both our senses when watching a film, so without sound only one of our senses are used and by only using one there is nothing else that can grab our attention except anything visual . This will make the film less appealing to the audience.

Sound is also important because it always gives off a sense of the genre by creating a certain atmosphere. For example in horror films, we can hear various sounds like silence, wind, child's cry or a girl's scream. The ones mentioned are all used to create ambiguity. Horror film makers rely on disturbing soundtracks because they heighten suspense and terror. Most of the time, sounds in the horror genre aren't expected in any other genre besides thrillers. E.g. disturbing noises or screams.

By not having sound, film makers are only able to maintain our concentration by making the film interestingly visual. Therefore it is hard to have a successful film without the use of sound. 

PLANNING: Blog Post 27 - Audience member profiles

Target Audience Member

PLANNING: Blog Post 26 - Target Audience

The three most popular genres with UK audiences were: Animation, Action and Comedy.
The three most popular horror films were: Crimson Peak, Goosebumps and Knock Knock.

The genre I'd like to work in is horror. I would like to work with horror movies because I think they have a lot to offer to an audience from their storylines and their atmosphere that they create can really move a person. The music, costumes, lighting, setting, plot can be really creative and effective for the audience. Also with horror movies, they are so well-known and the conventions of the genre are so familiar but yet so simple with a big impact.

The audience that prefer horror genres are:

• Gender: Male
• Age: 25 - 39
• Geographical Location: East Anglia, Midlands and Central Scotland
• Class: £500 - £999

RESEARCH: Blog Post 21 - Evaluation

When planning our remake activity we had to note down each shot in the sequence, for us to later remake. The task was quite simple and easy to note down as the opening sequence we picked, Collateral, had simple shots that were very clear and easy to follow.

When storyboarding each shot was not difficult, as we had already noted down the shots, however the amount of detail we added was not enough for us to have a really clear understanding of what shot come next. Therefore we had to keep referring to the actual Collateral opening sequence clip to understand the scene better.

Our choice of location, which was the school canteen, did not have a big enough impact to create the mystery that the actual film would have portrayed. I think this because the location we choose didn't quite resemble 'Collateral's' opening scene and therefore didn't match the theme and genre of the film and therefore the impact in our final product wasn't as high as it should of been. The impact of the costume choices also wasn't as thrilling, however the sunglasses that were worn in our remake had resembled 'Collateral', as both men were wearing them, therefore it did portray a sense of mystery and action.

The difficulty in creating the title credits, in our case, was that we were not familiar with the editing software and therefore were unsure on how to do the special effects that we wanted to add. Also the time bound for us to create the title credits was not long enough, especially for it being my first time using such professional software, it was a challenge. However, we did finish adding our title credits to the remake and did place them in the right order.

When deciding on choosing our font, typeface and size of the titles, we just added the credits and then was going to come back and edit them to match the film genre. However we ran out of time and didn't get to choose a specific font or size that we look think matched the genre. But we did make the font narrow and tall to resemble the theme to and extent, also we made the font size quick big to resemble the genre of action.

The success of choosing the font was quite rushed, however the colour and the size did portray the action genre which was successful. I would of liked to add a more bold, straightedge font to signify the genre. Also to add special effects on the title credits to make it run smoother and look more professional.

The title credits were placed over the moving images as that is what the film 'Collateral' chose and it was best suited for the genre.

If I were to complete this task again I would make sure to plan efficiently and accordingly so that when it comes to filming the task we know exactly what to do. Also to put a time restriction on every part so that we would know how long to do a task for and will not run into other tasks time, leaving it to become to late and not having any time left.





 

RESEARCH: Blog Post 7 - Conclusions made on Titles in Film Openings

Typical order of film credits:
Insidious:

1. The Ident
2. Production company
3. Film Director
4. Film Title
5. Main characters (in order of importance)
6. Costume designers 
7. Music producers
8. Film editors
9. Production designer
10. Director of photography
11. Line producer
12. Co-Producer
13. Executive producer
14. Producers
15. Writer
16. Film director (2nd time)

The film opening including the title sequence is almost 4 minutes long. The title sequence on its own is about 2 minutes long. In my opinion, i think having it for longer than 2-3 minutes would make the audience less interested as less important film credits will appear in the sequence. 

The size of the font matters, the more important the person is in producing the film, the bigger the size of font used. The same applies to less important people (smaller font).
Also, the most important names are usually mentioned first in title sequences. 

Usually, a single glance at the film title is enough to understand whether it is comedy or horror, romance or action thriller. This is because different film genres use different font designs. For example;

• In horror genres, the font is normally either black, red or white. The style of the font is creepy, (e.g. long and curvy) 
• Modern, classy or groovy style fonts are normally in drama genres 
• Comedy genres usually have their titles looking fun, positive and funky. 
• Romance genres have their titles looking romantic and classic, font is normally curvy (representing love letters, etc) 

RESEARCH: Blog Post 16 - Analysing the use of Sound

Insidious Film Opening Analysis

PLANNING - Blog Post 30 - Half Term Planning Homework

My half term homework

PLANNING - Blog Post 28 - Analysing the use of sound

Previous title sequence analysis

PLANNING - Blog Post 27 - Target Audience profile

My Target Audience Profile

Before I make my target audience profile, I am going to find out the profiles of people that like horror films. I am going to use the website  https://yougov.co.uk/profileslite#/

I searched up the profiles of people who enjoyed Sinister 2 and The Conjuring.

SINISTER 2

Demographics

Lifestyle

Personality

Brands

Entertainment

Media

THE CONJURING

Demographics

Lifestyle

Personality

Brands

Entertainment

Media

The sample sizes were really small. Sinister 2 had a sample size of only 91 people. Therefore I don’t think that this source is reliable. Also, many films that I have searched on this website had 40-54 year old men. Only some were young females. I think that more men aged 40-54 know about this website than any other category, therefore, the sample sizes are not reliable and true.

If these sources are true, then older men and confident older women watch Horror films more than any other ages. 

Here is my target audience:

PLANNING - Blog Post 26 - Target Audience

Who is my target audience?

PLANNING - Blog Post 25 - Mood Board

Influential Films Openings:

• Step-Father = Asynchorous music
• The Shining = The tracking shots
• Pyscho = Falling into the bath tub
• Incisious2 = Sound motif

PLANNING - Blog Post 24 - Individual Idea

My Individual Idea 

My individual idea before my group and I spoke was to have a mentally ill woman escape a high security hospital because she was craving to kill. I thought that  it would be really interesting to film how she escaped. I would have showed her crazy psycho personality throughout the title sequence so that the audience know 100% that she is the villain. I was thinking to make the end of the title sequence a cliffhanger which grabs the audiences attention and they would want to carry on watching. However, my group reminded me that we were doing a horror and that this sounds more like a crime/thriller film. My group and I later thought of better and more realistic ideas so we scratched this idea off our list.

PLANNING - Blog Post 23 - Initial Creative Ideas

Initial creative ideas

We had a sound recording (raw sound footage of us discussing and almost arguing about our ideas.) Unfortunately, we had some troubles posting it as it was very long (longer than 3 minutes) so we had to quickly make a vlog instead. We are still going to try to post the sound recording.

RESEARCH - Blog Post 19 - Filming Evidence

Filming Evidence

Unfortunately, our group were too focused on actually filming the remake on time that we  completely forgot about taking photos of us filming. However, in my evaluation, I talked about  the filming process in detail and I have posted our final cut. So hopefully, that is enough  evidence of our filming.

RESEARCH - Blog Post 21 - Evaluation of practical activity

EVALUATION

Our group had two opening sequences that we couldn’t chose between. One was ‘Seven’ and the other was ‘Collateral.’ After long consideration, we finally decided to remake ‘Collateral’ as we thought it would be more fun and easier to make.

My group and I allocated a job for each person. So, for example, I had to draw the storyboards and Selina had to figure out the locations and props that we were going to use.  Even though we all had a separate jobs, we helped one another as we wanted to make sure everything was right.

Before we started filming, we decided to draw the storyboard. This wasn’t hard, however I mixed 2 shots up near the end of the clip because I was trying to rush. Because I was rushing, the drawings are messy and not as detailed as it would have been if I took my time doing them. When noting down each shot, we re watched the clips several times  and made sure all the shots and shot types were listed. Finding  the locations and props were easy as the only props used  in the original opening  sequence was a suitcase and a pair of glasses and the location could have been anywhere that looked like a busy place. We didn’t have costumes other than the glasses as they were not needed. Because of our locations and prop choices, the final clip didn’t look as realistic as it could have looked if we decided to film in a larger area, or if we had suits to wear.

My group and I came up with many creative ideas and had lots of fun editing and filming our remake. We took it in turns to edit and helped each other out when someone forgot how to cut a clip or add a title. In the filming process, we all had a chance to say and demonstrate what we thought would be a good idea to make our remake look more similar to the ‘Collateral’ opening sequence.

Making the title credits was harder than I thought it would be as we forgot the order that the credits are supposed to go. Also, we wanted the actors to be seen however wherever we placed the credits, the actors faces got covered. So we had to place the credits in odd positions. In the end, we all agreed that those positions go well with the tone of the film as it is edgy and not seamless. 

We decided on the fonts, font sizes and typeface last. We wanted all the titles and credits to look similar and not to be camouflaged with the video so we chose to make the font colour white and have the same sizes and fonts. Our font wasn’t crazy and all out there as we wanted to have a classy tone in the film. I think that we succeeded at that.

One of the problems we had was time. We had so many ideas however we didn’t have enough time to use those ideas in our remake. I think this was due to the fact that we had to re-film scenes as we didn’t think they were as good as they could be. Also, the actors positions weren’t in the camera frame the way we wanted it to be, so we had to re-film that too.

Another problem we had was that our camera that we were using wasn’t focusing on the actors faces. We had to re-film most scenes because of the unfocused images. In the end, our most focused scenes were still not perfectly focused so we just had to stick with them for our final cut.

My group and I learned that we have to try our best not to laugh while someone is acting as it makes the actor lose focus. This was a mojor problem we had and the only way we could fix it was to make the filmer turn around and not watch the actor acting.

In the editing process, I learned how to flip the image to the opposite side. I needed to do that because one of our scenes was breaking the 180 degree rule. 

There are some things that my group and I would do next time instead of what we actually did in our practical remake. If our group would have any problems with the technical work, we would go straight to the technicians and ask for help. Also, I prefer being behind the scenes instead of in front of the camera so I will have to hope someone will want to act when we have to film a opening title sequence. 

If I were to do this again, I would have chosen a more challenging opening sequence such as ‘Seven’ as it seems the most interesting title sequence to film and edit. Also, I love a challenge so this would have been the most enjoyable to make. 

RESEARCH: Blog Post 20 - Final Cut

Blog post 17- genre shortlist

Genre shortlist

Three genres I'm interested is choosing are:

Comedy:

 

Action:

Horror:

Blog post 15- sound

Why is sound so important in film?

Sound in film is used to create an atmosphere, without it there would be no intensity and excitement which would be boring for the audience. It also sets the tone and of the plot characters and film in general. Through sound, it can also help you identify the genre of the film. The sound is there to create emotions also knows as the visceral and without it there would be no dimension to the film. Actor and director George Lukas stated that he believes: 'sound is 50%' of importance when making a film. Below I have inserted a clip that shows an action scene, firstly without sound but with picture, then with sound and without picture, then finally with both. You will be surprised to hear how important sound actually is when you listen to it. I found when watching it without sound I could have became easily distracted as I was bored and despite it being an action scene it lacked excitement. When watching it with sound but without picture I found it slightly more interesting as I could hear the excitement but it was hard to link the sound with actions sometimes. However hearing it at the end with both shows you how important sound is as it was way more exciting and captivating.

Sound terms

what is sound?

-words, phrases and expressions

what is soundscape?

-a piece of music considered in terms of its component sounds

what is sound design?

-process of specifying, acquiring, manipulating or generating audio elements

what is suspending disbelief?

-a semi-conscious decision in which you put aside your disbelief and accept the premise as being real for the duration of the story

Wildtrack: removing original sound from a film.
Ambient sound: natural sound you get from filming.
Diegetic: actors can hear.
Non-diegetic: actors cant hear.
Score: orchestral and specifically composed.
Song: music.
Voiceover: narrate over the film.
Dialogue: voice.
Dubbing: adding new voices and sound.
Foley: extra sound added in.
Synchronous: music matches what we see.
Asynchronous: music that doesn't match what we see.
Sound bridge: links scenes.
Sound motif: sound that tells a character is about to appear.

Blog post 14- genre conventions

Genre Conventions

Conventions are things that usually happen so genre conventions in films are things that you would typically see happen in that type of genre. Our chosen genre is horror.

 

 

The conventions in this picture is the darkness of the forest it looks far away from anywhere safe and looks like not many people go here also the lack of leaves on the tree makes it look dull lifeless therefore it gives the impression that bad things happen here. This plot typically happens in horror films.

The conventions in this picture is the haunted house and how dark and abandoned it is, it looks extra spooky because the lightning and the dark night sky in the background, also the broken windows and cobweb gates make it look more scary. This is also a typical plot you would see in a horror film.

The conventions in this picture are the characters creepy disguise which is very common in horror films as we know they are the frightening character. Another convention is the bloody knife which is also typical to see in a horror film as we suspect a murder has happened. 

RESEARCH: Blog Post 14 -Conventions of film openings from chosen genre

Conventions of film openings from my chosen genre

RESEARCH - blog post 21 - remake activity evaluation

RESEARCH - extra blog post

Importance of sound in the horror genre

Sound in films is extremely important however I'm going to be focusing on why sound is important in horror. It's important as it creates a mood which helps the audience guess  what the theme is. The sound/music makes the audience frightened as it is usually loud  and tense. Creating an effect of emotions towards the audience is good as that is what will  make the audience want to carry on watching the film. Here is a title sequence demonstrating the effect that I was talking about. 

In some horror film openings, the atmosphere is made out to be chaotic due to the sound of all the voices screaming, talking, whispering at the same time. An example would be from  the film opening ‘Dawn of the Dead.’ Throughout the film opening, a song played, a few  reporters spoke and many people screamed all at the same time. This creates an effect of  chaos, panic and fear. Therefore, enticing the target audience. Here is the title sequence of 'Dawn of the Dead.' 

The used sounds in horror film openings are:

The quick change of different notes being played (long low note and then suddenly a  quick high note.) This sounds like a scream which makes the audience wonder what is  going on in the characters world. 

Instrumental (no words in a song) This gives the audience time to guess what the film is  going to include. 

Asynchronous music/sound (where the sound/music doesn’t match the mood of the images)- The film opening of ‘the Step-Father’ has a tense sound in the beginning however the images shown are happy and frames of people smiling. From an audiences perspective, I got the idea that the guy (the step-father) murdered all his family. 6 seconds later my hypothesis was correct however it was  still a shock. 

Lastly, long low notes add tension to the atmosphere and make it seem as if something is going to jump out at any moment.

The stereotypical sounds used in horror films are little kids giggling, church bells, bats, high screeching noises, echoed voices and many more. If the audience hear this before they  even see what is going on, they would probably guess what this film would include. This is because these sound effects/sounds have been used for so many films so now it’s a cliche.

RESEARCH: Blog Post 11: BFI Statistics

BFI Statistics: Chapters 4 and 15 in this years BFI Statistical Yearbook


Chapter 4

• The most successful 3 genres at the UK box office were animation, comedy and action.
• Romance, documentary and war were less successful at the UK box office.
• The film genre that was most common and had most films released in 2013 -14 was comedy as 153 films were made. 
• Only 33 animated and 47 action films were made in 2013-14.
• This tells us that those two genres are most interesting and profitable as they are mainly based on young peoples' opinions. 

Chapter 15

• People aged 15-24 have made up the largest proportion of cinema admissions in the UK. 
• The film Hangover part II was the most successful comedy film with this age group (15-24)
• With people over their 50s, they were most common with genres like drama, biopics and musicals.
• Action, thriller and comedy genres where most popular with men. 
• UK films appealed mostly to females. Women were most popular with the biopics genre. 
• Most UK films appealed to an audience aged 45-55.

• Animations mostly appeal to children aged 7 to 14. Their preferred films include animations, comedies and concert films of their favourite bands/artists. This is because their three favourite and most popular films were Wreck it Ralph, Despicable me and One Direction's 'This Is Us'.
• Frozen, The Croods and Jack and the Giant Slayer have been most popular with the 35-44 age group. This might be because it is a family animation, it is suitable for all ages and parents usually take their children to go and watch films of this genre. Parents know that there will be nothing to worry about (e.g. unsuitable scenes) this encourages them to go and watch the film because sometimes films like these are partly educational. 

• Django Unchained, Fast and Furious 6 and Rush have been the most popular films with people aged 25-34. From thus we can tell that their preferred genres are action and thrillers.
• Middle class audiences (C1 & C2) were most common with Science fictions and Dramas.
•  C2 audiences preferred films like Oz the Great and Powerful. 
• C1 audiences preferred oscar winning films like Gravity. 

RESEARCH - Blog Post 20 - Editing

Editing of 'Collateral' remake

Here are 2 images of us editing our remake of 'Collateral.'

Lama and Alexandra Editing



Selina and Lama Editing

RESEARCH - Blog 22: Blogging Health Check 1

Mark: 14                  Grade: B


Comments:
selina - very good start indeed, especially now you have begun to use images and some embedded video too.  I am impressed with the thoroughness of some of your posts in terms of detail and analysis - eg the watching task 5.  But in posts 7&8 Do need ALL credits listed - you tend so say 'production team eg: costume designer' We need ALL of them in the correct order!
Targets:
1) must use 4 different methods of technology before next marking deadline
2) list ALL credits
3) post your camtasia video
good start - well done. Mary

RESEARCH - Blog Post 22 - Blogging Health Check 1

Blogging health check 1

RESEARCH - Blog Post 14 - Genre Conventions of Horor

Genre Conventions Of Horror

(Here is my prezi presentation.)

RESEARCH - Blog Post 11 - BFI Statistic Yearkbook

RESEARCH - BLOG POST 18 - practical remake activity (planning)

Practical Remake Activity 

Planning of 'Collateral'

The pictures below are images imported from Lama's phone. We thought that it would be a efficient to  import all of the images instead of writing everything all over again.

Firstly, we have a short list of the shots and their descriptions. Lama watched the clip 'Collateral' and listed all the shots and described them.

The next two images are the story boards that we're going to replicate. Alexandra didn't have much time to draw the storyboard so it doesn't look as best as it could. However, it was clear and understandable what she was drawing.

 The last image is the script. When we re-watched the video, we noticed the script had a mistake. The actor didn't say 'sorry', also, the second actor said 'you alright.' In our video that we filmed, we didn't say exactly all the words that the script said as we didn't think it was correct.

Selina was in charge of deciding the locations for our practical remake. She decided that we we're going to film near or in the canteen as she thought it was the largest place in the college and would be easiest to film.

RESEARCH: Blog Post 13 -analyse 3 title sequences

The Conjuring
The conjuring's title sequence shows us the history of the family and the location using evidence as it is based on a true story.

Micro analysis:
Camera:
The title sequence is a close up on still images. However those still images are images that were taken from the same location of the film. At first we get a low angle shot of the house to set the location and we know that it is an isolated place. Another type of shot which i found interesting throughout the opening was the closeup to the newspaper articles, pictures and drawings. The audience can't really read much in detail about the story because the framing of the screen is making you focus on the pictures for example they put the pictures in the centre and try to blur out the text. 
The framing of this opening was a little tricky, in the beginning of the sequence we can see the pages flipping over randomly, however towards the end we can see the person's hand that is showing us the pictures and pieces of evidence he has. 

Additionally everytime the newspaper page flips over, title credits are swiped across the screen, it almost felt like an edit to the beat but using titles and sound (foley) of page flip over instead of music 

Because the film is based on a true story, the film had to show some type of evidence of it somewhere. Typically, in a horror movie that is based on a true story, evidence appears after the film ends. However i think its much better to have it before so it the audience really gets into the film because they know there is a chance for it to happen. 

Mise-en-scene:

• The lighting is very dull and dark
• Black and white contrast. 
• Newspapers normally have a clear white background and black text, in this title sequence it is the other way around 
• Text and newspaper articles fade away to introduce another member of the cast/crew.
• The character positioning gives off a sense of the genre. 
• 
  

Blog post 11: bfi statistics year book

BFI Statistics Yearbook.

Genre- chapter 4

-The top three successful genres at the UK box office were: Animation, Action and Comedy.

-However, the three least successful genres are the UK box office were: War, Documentary and Romance.
 

-The film genre that had the most films released was Drama, it released 141 films.
 

-There were 33 animated films made

-There were 47 actions films made

-This information tells you that its quality rather than quantity, what I mean by this is, the most popular films don't have the most releases, but the small amount of releases were all of great quality according to the UK.
 

Audiences- chapter 15

-The age group that made up the largest proportion of cinema admissions in the UK was 15 to 24 year olds.

-The most successful comedy film within this age group was Hangover 2.

-The film that was most popular with the over 50s was Quartet, and this is a comedy drama.

-The three films that were most popular with the age group 7 - 14 were:
One Direction
Wreck It Ralph
Despicable Me 2
This tells us that this age group typically like family films in particular animated and celebrity surrounded.

-The reasons why the three most popular films with the 35 - 44 age group were: Frozen, The Croods and Jack the Giant Slayer may be because a lot of people of this age group have children and these family friendly films are enjoyable for the hole family.

-The three most popular films with the age group 25 -34 were:
Django Unchained
Fast and Furious 6
Rush

-The most popular films within the middle class audience of C1 were: Rush and Captain Philips. The most popular films with the middle class audience of C2 were: Oz the great and powerful, and Fast and Furious 6.

-The difference between popular films in London and Scotland are that we base the films we like around our surroundings for example Londons most popular films were action films like Django Unchained as it represents London as a city, however Scotlands most popular films were musical comedys like Sunshine on Leith as they may prefer this genre more than action in Scotland as its more calm and represents them as a country.