Unit 38 - Sound track report - Two Movies

 Two Movies Sound Layers

Movie 1- The Dark Knight Rises

• Released: 20 July 2012
• Genre: Action, Crime, and Thriller
• Director: Christopher Nolan  

The Dark Knight Rises is the third film in a feature film trilogy.
It has been eight years since Batman taken the blame for the death of Harvey Dent. This is due to Batman taking the fall for Harvey Dent's murder. However, a new evil force named Bane has arrived in Gotham and aims to take over the city and expose the truth behind who Harvey Dent really was. As Bane starts taking over the city, it forces Batman to come out of retirement and fight.


Sound department: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1345836/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm  



The department has a large team including three-foley artist and ten mixers. Hans Zimmer did the music for The Dark Knight Rises. Hans is an innovative Hollywood composer that has won an Oscar for his music in The Lion King. He was also nominated for another for his score on Christopher Nolan’s Inception. He has been working with Nolan on films for the past eight years and he worked closely with Richard King, supervising sound editor and sound design on this film.

Scene:Link to the Scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE08pz1soog 

The scene kicks offs of with a score that fades out when the lights go out and different score starts to fade in. this score that is associated with Batman so it makes us aware that Batman is back.  This stays playing until about halfway when Batman in corned. When he escapes the police it start once again. The sound has been edited to stop the score playing when Batman is not in control and it starts when he is.  The score is quite dominant and is non-diegetic and it there to accompany the action. The scene also contains sound effects when we hear police cars and other vehicles; this establishes the size of the chase between the cops, the robbers and Batman. There is a non-diegetic sound effect of a bike driver being grappled up off his bike. This noise is heard to make it clear about what has happened. It also makes the audience feel existed that Batman is back at his best with new gadgets. Halfway in the scene Batman walks into shot we hear a non-diegetic ‘thunder’ sound effect; this makes Batman’s present stronger on camera and would have made a large impact at the cinema. This sound effect works in parrallel to the  entrance of Batman. The last 40 seconds of the scene is diegetic sound that can be heard by the characters. Sound types like sync sound like dogs barking and dialogue. There is a use of Foley at the end on the scene when “The Bat” vehicle takes off.  Sound designer Ken Johnson came up with the idea to use a weed wacker and change the blades.  Three minutes into the scene when Batman is getting back on the Bat-Pod we see Batman go for right to left and the sound does the same.  The channel of sound matches the position of the character.  In a cinema it would have been 5.1-surround sound that would have tracked the moment of the Bat-Pod.   

A conclusion to the sound design of this scene is that it is designed to trill and excite the audience about Batman’s return. The sound adds to the verisimilitude of this world. Hans Zimmer and the sound department have desisted to use Batman’s theme score throughout the scene to establish that he is back and strong. There is a good balance of the other types of sound, which enhance key sounds. When they pause the score they use dialog and sound effects like vehicle noises, walky-talky and weapons; this adds a sense of a realistic atmosphere with action and danger. When we hear dialog between the police we anticipate for the out come of the chase. The use of surround sound makes use feel closer to the action.   
 

Movie 2 – The Wolf of Wall Street

• Released: 17 January 2014  
• Genre: Biography, Comedy, Crime 
• Director: Martin Scorsese

Sound department: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0993846/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm:

The department consists of forty crewmembers which four Foley editors. Eugene Gearty (sound effects editor / supervising sound editor) and Philip Stockton (dialogue editor / supervising sound editor) have both worked and won an Oscar for their work together on Hugo (Directed by Martin Scorsese). They have both worked together on Life of Pi. Robbie Robertson was a executive music producer for Wolf of Wall Street and has worked with Scorsese for over thirty years. He wanted to bring a “blues” style to the film. 

Scene:Link to the Scene:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P9KmDXIdP8  

The scene starts with just sync sound dialogue that makes us unaware where the characters are. Next we hear atmos of a diegetic storm with strong waves and lighting. This matches what we are seeing on screen. The atmos of the storm continues throughout the scene whilst there is dialogue for the characters. This scene mainly consists of sound effect atmos of the storm and dialogue. Two minutes when we can hear the sound of the helicopter braking and falling into the sea. This also would have been a sound effect. Before the water brakes into the yacht there is a “warning bleeping”, this would have been a sound effect. The sound of the glass being smashed would have been Foley. After this music starts to play. There is then a voice over of Jordan Bedford whilst the music is playing and there is also a sound of people cheering.  There is also a sound effect for a plane exploding.   

This scene starts off with realistic diegetic sound to make us feel apart of the scene. It continues like this until the water breaks in and then we view as a spectator. This happens because we start to hear non-diegetic sound like the music and the voice over.  

Animation - Techniques and Pioneers

Animation Techniques & Pioneers

 
Cave Paintings

Cave paintings have been thought to be the earliest stop motion animations ever formed. These paintings dated back to 32,000 years ago in places like Cantabria, Spain. 
The reason people now believe that these may be the oldest animations in the world is because the paintings of animals would sometimes have two heads, an extra tail or eight legs. This made people believe that these images where superimposed and that these animals would be just one animal but would meant to have a moving head.

For example a cow but its head would be moving. This allusion could be seen if you move fire past the image, this is like the play button of today.

So that was how animations where viewed 32,000 years but how were they made? The development of the paintings would require a set of tools. 

annadoherty. (). history of animation : cave paintings. Available: http://annadoherty.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/history-of-animation-cave-paintings/. Last accessed 23th Jun 2014.

Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=x8exsw6yKXw

Light Painting 

Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAe30VG5CI4

Animation Diary - Wednesday, 27

Wednesday, 27 Nov

Pixilation

Today I am unable to continue with my animation because I need a box of chocolates so instead I have been watching other people’s stop motion that will be using chocolates. This should hopefully allow me to gain an understanding of the movement and behavior that chocolates can have. By doing this it could help me achieve my idea.

I searched of YouTube chocolate box stop motion and I watched one called “My Chocolates” this film is done by artist and animator named Paul Heard. Paul Heard has a website that I viewed and it has links to his blog and videos. The Video is about a chocolatier making chocolate. Once the chocolates are finished and made they start moving around the worktop and then end up going into a box. This is similar to what I want in my animation with the chocolate going around the worktop. I think I will try having the chocolates moving pasted objects and maybe climb over items as well. This could give me the chance to see how over things that could get in the way of the chocolates could be animated; an example of this could be some sort of kitchen appliance.

I looked at Paul’s blog for more information about “My Chocolates” but there was none.

Link to Paul’s - http://www.paulheard.com/#!blog/cb8i

Link to the video - http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=box+of+chocolates+stop+motion+&sm=3

Claymation

I also looked at another stop motion, Claymation. I love Claymation and grew up watching the great works for Nick Park because of this I thought I would look at Claymation that will involve chocolate. I found a short called Valentine’s Day by animator Charlie Butter.

Valentine’s Day is about a husband who buys his wife a box of chocolates. The wife sees the chocolates sees them and is extremely happy with her husband, but their daughter eats them. Unsure what happened to her chocolates the wife guesses that it was her husband and attacks him for supposes that he eaten them.

So the storyline does involve chocolates but “My Chocolates” is closer to my storyline then this Claymation. Also the Claymation in this video is not as professional as Nick Park’s works, I guess this could be due to time and budget.

Conclusion  

Out of these two types of animation I prefer Pixilation, I have made a Pixilation before and it went quite well. Also I want a realistic look on my animation and Pixilation because pixilation is using real 3D objects and getting them life. If I had more time and a bigger budget I would try Claymation but I would have my final masterpiece as Pixilation. If I was to try out Claymation I would want to made realistic sets like the ones seen in Wallace and Grommit. 

( uploaded this diary entry as it has been one of the most useful.)

Pixilation Animation Test

(I am going to update this as the quality is quite low.)

Review - Mary and Max

This is my review of the animated film Mary and Max which I watched at college.
 
Mary and Max is about two characters who are different in many ways, they live in different countries, different genders, different ages but one big thing that they have in common is that they are both lonely and would love to have a best friend. 

After Mary stumbles upon Max's name and address in a phone book from the library. The two become pen-pows and send letters to each other, helping each other with their problems. As their friendship grows and has its ups and downs Mary safes up money to go to New York meet Max. When in New York Mary makes a tragic discovery and finds out that she has lost her one turn best friend.  

 
I would say that the story is mostly focused on Mary's upbringing and on her goals she sets herself. The story of these two characters' loneliness and friendship is a true story and upsetting to watch as a viewer. It also was up setting as it is a true story.  I think it was a good idea to have the film as a clay animation because it allowed the story to involve comedy which makes the storyline nor as harsh.
It was a great idea to use clay animation as it is normally associated which more child friendly films such as Wallace and Gromit.

Layers of Sound

Layers of sound

• Sync sound - Sound you record whilst you film the image 

• Atoms - atmospheric or ambient sound 

• Foley - live sound effects created to match the action of a picture, this makes small sounds more detailed. Foley will be used so the viewer will be able to hear noise which would requiere them to be there in the scene, this allows them to feel close to the scene.

• Sound effects -  pre-recorded sounds added to the sound track, examples of this is explosions,machines or computer noises

• Music - used to add emotion and rhyhm to a film

• Automated dialogue replacement (ADR) - re-recording of dialogue, this is also know as 'dubbing' or 'looping' this is done so whispering is heard clearly.

Sound in film

The use of Sound in film 

Two of these key words were verisimilitude and diegesis. 

The diegesis is the creation of that world. The verisimilitude is the sounds that help the believability of that world. These are not sounds themselves but sound can supported by sound.

Diegetic sounds are the ones the ones that would exist within the film and would be heard by the character(s). An example of this is the character could have a radio which is playing music.

Non-diegetic is the opposite of diegetic and is when the characters cannot hear the sound; an example of this is when a film has a voiceover, sound effect or a score.

Film Genre, Narrative & Formats

Genre

Genre is a French word meaning the "sort" or "kind"; the category of a film having a particular content, form and technique.

All movies have one or more types genres, In a main genre, like horror there can be sub-genres, like zombie. This is done to help the audience understand what type of films they are watching and what they like. The film's genres are deiced by the enviorment/setting, theme/topic, mood and narrative elements. 

Horror

In our typical slasher horror film classic Halloween, directed by John Captenter in 1978 we could make a good guess that we would see poorly lit houses which make normal household noises like kettles boiling and doors opening would sound eerie and creepy. In sub-genres like chiller and Slasher which both don't really care for blood, they mainly focus on a physiological scare and "giving the chills" to their audience and they do this with there creepy scores and jumpy Foley. Halloween is famous for it Micheal Myers theme music which was written by John Captenter. There would be young girls hiding from the psychotic and hard to kill murderers. 

This genre will normally use a lots of low key lighting to carry a sense of mystery to the audience. The Location is set around one neighbourhood were the victims would normally feel safe. Horror movies like to make sure that the killer has a unique costume which makes them standout from the ordinarily dressed victims. Well know horror movie killers are famous for their iconic costume, mask and weapon. Examples of this are Freddy's glove & jumper, Jason's Mask & machete, Letherface's Chainwas and mask. In this picture of Micheal it has been shot at a low angle to make him intimidating.  There maybe dutch tilts to make the scene feel wrong and sinister.



http://www.ehow.com/info_8632720_typical-characteristics-horror-movie.html

An example of the sub-genres of horror:

●Chiller - The Woman in Black - James Watkins
●Zombie - Night of The Living Dead - George A. Romero
●Giallo - Deep Red - Dario Argento
●Splatter - Dawn of The Dead - George A. Romero
●Slasher - Halloween - John Captenter (remake - Rob Zombie)

Sub-genres like zombie also mix with other genres like comedy, seen in Shaun of The Dead. Splatter films focuses on graphic portrayals of gore rather than story, this is achieved with special effects. On the other hand slasher films are about the plot and the development of a killer e.g. Micheal Myers. 

When researching for splatter movies is looked at this which helped me understand the sub-genres of horror.http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art31012.asp

Action

Hollywood's favourite movie genre likes to stick to the same narrative but with a twist of locations and characters. Action films will normally have a protagonist that has a goal/journey and there will be an obstacle in their way, then there is a success. You can count on seeing different types of weapons, chase scenes, death, explosion, fighting and love. It is the sub-genres that change the action narrative around. In action heavy Quantum of Solace's opening scene the first minute contains a instrumental score with bits of Foley; after that the score is dropped and we wear only the sounds of gunfire, acceleration and cars crashing. This builds tension for the audience and explains the high-speed action and force of Bond's chase. These films are normally shot at many locations around the world. Having a world wide travelling ability it makes the audience think that there is no limit to what the protagonist can achieve. The protagonist will normally will have an outfit that they will be known for e.g. James Bond is known for he Suits, Indiana Jones and his famous hat.

Sub-genres of Action:

• Adventure - Raider of The Lost Ark - Steven Spielberg 
• Western - 3:10 To Yuma - James Mangold
• Action-comedy - Rush Hour - Brett Ratner
• War - Platoon - Oliver Stone
• Martial Arts - IP Man - Wilson Yip
• Spy - Skyfall - Sam Mendes 
• Superhero - Man of Steel - Zack Snyder

Romance 

The romance film genre focuses the plot around the love between to characters. The plot will show different ways that the lovers have to overcome different obstacles to final be with each other. These obstacles vary from parents’ disapproval, forbidden love, war and social or racial class.

Genres and sub-genres are use to tell the audience about the narrative. Another way this can be established is by linking two or more genres. An example of this "rom coms" this is a mixture of romance and comedy. By having a mixture genre movie the audience gets to have a more precise understanding of the theme. This helps pinpoint the target audience.

Sub-genres of Romance:

• Rom-com - Love Actually
• Romantic Drama - The NoteBook
• Romantic Musical - Moulin Rouge - Baz Luhrmann
• Period Romance - The Great Gatsby - Baz Luhrmann

Narrative 

The narrative is the way the story of the film is shown, this is what the audience follows then they are watching the film. The ways the narrative is structured will help the audience understand and follow the film. Writer Tzvetan Todorov formed the theory of the 'Classic Hollywood narrative'. Todorov's theory suggested that they are five stages to narrative formula.


1. a state of equilibrium at the outset
2. a disruption of the equilibrium by an event
3. a recognition that there has been a disruption;
4. an attempt to repair the disruption;
5. a return or restoration of a new equilibrium

Films may seem different to us but deep down they share this common structure, we are very familiar to it and when it changes the film doesn't feel right. In The Hunger Games the equilibrium beings with Katniss Everdeen providing for her family until the 74th Hunger Game disruptes the districts (her she lives) and through random selection Katniss's sister is going into the games. As a recognition of her sister's health and safety Katniss offers to take her place in the games. Katniss attempts to repair the disruption by winning the Hunger Games. She and her fellow tribute return to the new equilibrium by fouce the Capitol to end the game. 

Todorov argues that narrative involves a transformation because of the return of a new equilibrium. The characters have been changed by what has happened and in The Hunger Game Katniss returns terrified by the death she has seen and to please the Capitol happy she has to pretend to love her fellow district 12 tribute. Also the people of Panem start planning a new rebellion to overthrough the Capitol.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

1. Elizabeth Swann, the Govenor's daugther is having a typical day living in Port Royal. Will Turner is delivering a sword to the Govenor and flirts with Elizabeth.
2. Captain Jack arrives at Port Royal and is shortly followed by the Black Pearl. The Pearl's Captain, Barbossa kidnaps Elizabeth.

3. Will wants to safe Elizabeth but needs the help of Captain Jack.

4. Jack makes makes a deal with Barbossa to trade Elizabeth for Will.

5. Will comes back and finds Elizabeth in Port Royal for the hanging on Captain Jack. Elizabeth tell her dad, the Govenor that she loves Will and the Govenor warns her that Will is now a wanted man for being a pirate. 

Formats
 

Single Drama - A story is told in a one off TV episode. Murder was BBC 2 single drama that got turned into a series. These dramas seem like TV short films and normally get aired once.

Procedural Drama - Is a series of episodes in a TV show were each episode has a problem in the story, which gets solved at the end of that episode. Each episode has the same similar narrative structure it allows the audience to understand the series without watching every episode. This is a common structure for crime-based dramas like CSI, Bones and Quantum Leap.


Serials – This type of drama has an on-going storyline that develops with each episode. The audience will have to watch each episode to keep track of the storyline. The series will also concluded with a final episode, which is aimed at getting the audience to watch the next series. An example is the last episode of Sherlock series 2 where the audience are left wondering how Sherlock faked his death and will watch the series to find out. The final episode will also be widely anticipated by being advertised.


Series of Film – A storyline that is separated into a series of films. The story continues from the previous film. An example of this is The Hobbit series, which is a story that is being told in three movies. This allows the story to be told in detail, if the story was told in just one film it may not explain and explore the story’s full potential.