Sound

How to talk about sound:

DON’T GET DRAWED IN look at the but don’t let it pull you into the story line

Compare what we see on screen to what we hear, this could give you hints about diegetic or non-diegetic sounds

Look at the connotations on some music types, eg slow piano would be sad or reflective and fast music could be seen as.

If there is a voiceover, listen what tense it is spoken in, look how it is presented to the audience, is it talking to the audience ( direct address).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeDTh8IWthY

Sound is a very important thing to look at when analysing a piece of media, the audience can be subconsciously lured to feel a emotion, like in this clip we see music that is used to build tension and music to make the audience reflect on what they have just seen, this is slow music usually with classical instruments like a piano. This clip uses ambient sound that is out of the field of sight, this would be the fire alarm. Most of the sound in the clip is diegetic meaning that is it comes from something that is actually in the scene eg the fire alarm ( we don’t see it but it is an object that is in the scene)  the kids and the teachers.  The fire alarm could be seen as a form of a sound bridge as it continues between most of the scenes just varying in its volume. The only non-diegetic sound we hear is in the form of some music, this is fast paced and only really used once we see that people are trapped, a really weird thing is that the audience only really notices the music when we are taken back the action.  When we are shown this scene with fire or smoke we are presented with these sound motifs, these are sounds that are stereotypically linked with people or scene; we hear the stereotypical roaring of the fire and the occasional coughing of characters. 

Sound

Diegetic sound – sound that comes from a person or object in the diegesis (the world of the story) and seen within the field of vision.

Ambient sound – background sound belonging to the diegesis but not always in the field of vision. Ambient sound within the field of vision may include the hubbub of a crowd or the quiet sound car radio or engine over which the dialogue takes place. Ambient sound outside the field of vison might be a juke box downstairs, traffic outside or birdsong.

Non-diegetic sound – sound that comes from nothing within the field of vision and has been added afterwards in the editing process. The clearest examples of this are soundtrack music or a voiceover (see below). Sound can be added non-diegetically but still belong to something within the diegesis – eg the blaring car radio in Criminal Justice may have been added afterwards in the editing stage.

Synchronous sound – where the sound is synchronised with the object emitting that sound –as in lip-sync where the actor’s mouth moves exactly in time with the words we hear.

Asynchronous sound – this is where the sound track is deliberately out of sync (out of time) with what we see. It is a rare effect in TV Drama. A good example, again at the end of The Graduate is where we have a montage of faces and voices in the church, all shouting at Ben but the voices do not synchronise with the faces we see.

Sound effects – sounds added to the visuals in editing. They may be naturalistic – the sound of traffic outside the window added to a shot filmed in a studio – or unnaturalistic, perhaps for comic purpose (eg a ‘boing’ sound) or to remind us we are watching a construct (eg the ‘whooshing sound that accompanies crash zooms in the Bleak House extract).

Sound motif – a sound associated with a character or a place. This could be the humming of machinery associated with a factory or the threatening buzzing of a power station or clicks, whirrs and beeps in a computer lab. A character might have a particular musical figure that plays when they appear or when they sort out a problem. James Bond films have four related motifs in the theme tune, each indicating a narrative turning point eg, the start or the resolution of a chase sequence.

Sound bridge – this is where the sound (either diegetic or non-diegetic) continues across one or more cuts/transitions. Examples include the music running under the montage of a day’s work in The Street or the phone ring tone we hear when Joe Miller dials his phone in Criminal Justice and continues when we cut to shots of his empty house when the phone he has called is ringing.

Dialogue­ – the sound made by characters talking to each other. Sometimes this is re-recorded in a studio with the actors attempting to lip-sync to the footage: this is called Foley recording.

Voiceover­ – where a voice from outside the diegesis gives the audience information. Often this voice tells us the story and may be a character within the story – a detective, for example. This device was popular in American Film Noir in the 1940s/50s: in the film Sunset Boulevard (1950) the voiceover is given by a character who is already dead at the start of the film!

Mode of address – this covers the manner in which the narrative comes across to the audience. This includes the style of language used by the characters or the narrator. If characters of an educated class are represented, the mode of address will involve higher register language than characters of a lower class. The mode of address might cover the accent or dialect used by characters of a particular regional identity. Mode of address would also cover the way in which a commentator or narrator speaks directly to the audience.

Direct address – when a narrator or a character speaks directly to the audience, not to characters within the diegesis. This technique breaks verisimilitude because it acknowledges the presence of the audience.

Sound mixing – mixes sound from various sources using a multi-track mixing desk. Much of the dialogue can be remixed afterwards because the spoken words are recorded using one or more boom microphones and can have their volume changed relative to other sounds during post-production.

Sound perspective – sound recording that helps us place a sound as either near or distant or coming from a particular place within the diegesis.

Editing

How to write about editing, you can talk about things like:
Short takes these are about how long a particular shot is, can be used to keep the audience on edge.
Long takes These are shots that play a long time with out a cut, can be used to build tension
Cutaways these show another scene usually to show a contrast
Action match This is where a action scene is shown at multiple angles eg a explosion show from the outside then a shot of it from the inside
Graphic match Where a shot is used to make a transition eg a washing machine spinning then cutting to a scene where water is spiralling down a plug.
Jump cut where the subject of a shot changes but the background stay the same giving it a jerky feel.
Visible editing this is where a director has deliberately asked for the editing to be obvious eg a fade to black can be used to show a transition of time.
Invisible editing where the editing has been hidden eg very sharp cuts that could not be noticed in the heat of the moment.

Editing is used as a mostly  works on the subconscience this is due to the audience being tied up in the plot, they are also used to build tension as a long take may be used to make a person what could be described as paranoid, just waiting for something to happen.

Babylon editing

This clip uses a lot of eye line match and reverse eye line match, these are where the camera shots are manipulated to show a character looking away into the distance then showing what that character is looking at. I like how this editing technique works especially well with women, in hotel bablyon you can see from the managers facial expressions that something is wrong, next I see something that is very clever, it is a mix of a action match and a graphic match, at first glimpse the person running down the corridor is the same person however its not it is Benjamin and Charlie the director has combined the movement of Benjamin with that of Charlie, this may not be substantial but all these little edits build up and shows the audience things that they consciously might not understand. When Jackie realises that one of the illegal immigrants is missing a cutaway is used to show the man, this combines with the music is used to build tension as it may only be a short shot the time the audience spends watching her build tension about what is going to happen with the immigrant. The director of this episode wants it to feel life like, this can be seen through the use of invisible cut, there is no real emphersis on change of shot eg no fade to black is used.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuu5tMdcg2M

04:10 onward

A very impressive action shot is used to put a spectacular amount of empersis of this explosion, only to be followed by a shot of the local residents rushing out of the pub in a western salon manor with both doors flying open. The editing of this clip seems to be very dependent on what I call sound markers, these can be things such as screams or bang or key words, this can be seen when kim starts screaming an insert shot is used showing a close up of kim and Christian holding Patrick back throughout this scene multiple shot/reverse shots are used the take the audience back to the fact the B&B is on fire the next marker for a shot is Zainab barging through this could be seen as a action shot as the cameraman struggles to keep her in shot another camera’s footage is used. When we first see Masood the camera is being pushed in when he is about halfway top his feet a action match is used to give the audience a perspective of his proximity to the fire, we then see a cutaway where the audience is show a dilemma, Afia. She is like a wild goose in a damsel’s dress, We as the audience know she is safe yet the characters don’t, this is almost ironic as we watch them risk there life for nothing. Once again we are show these violent explosion the shot may not be slow motion however these explosion seem to have a lot of flames and debris that we can se, this seems un nature keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. When reflecting on this clip you realise that 90% of the time we see the residents it is one continuous shot, only after seeing this multiple times you notice this, this long take is used with the dramatic explosions to give the audience a sense of uncertainty , we as humans get paranoid, this natural paranoia is used with this  long take to create maximum tension, each explosion being a small climax. We as the audience are then treated to another crosscut which involves someone inside the building bringing the tension to an all-time high. 

Green screen

Replica video

This is the video our group made, its a replica video of a scene off waterloo road, the drama shown on BBC one. The shots it uses are firstly suppost to be a dolly shot then a look away shot with a pan, after that we used a low angle shot then a over the shoulder high angle looking down from tom. A mid shot is used to show them leaving the cubical.Then a over shoulder shot is used to show toms point of view.

 This is the video it is mimicking:

Clip analysis

jk



This clip uses a variety of shoots the first is like a dolly shot, this is the establishing shot, setting the scene, the only real effect of this is to show the setting you could possibly say that it makes the students look small making it a oxymoron of the small innocent girls in this dirty graffiti-ed toilet with drugs a very dangerous thing .

This shot is a pan, however it puts stress on the drugs, this can bee seen how the camera dips to the drugs then back up to the other girls face, in a "v" shape, this shot gives the scene a more personal feel as it is eye level.

This shot is a low angle shot it is usally used to show importance or power, this shot could in the context show that girl as authority almost like saying she is the law above them.

This is a over shoulder shot it is used to make it feel like you are in that person shoes, when shouting is used this is very effective. 

The shot below is a high angle shot it is used to show someones innocents or in significance.

Clip analysis

This is a clip from waterloo road a popular drama broadcasted by the bbc. i will be analysing between

In this picture u can tell from the symbolic cloths an jewelry ( top button undone, jacket silver chain hanging out earing ) that he thinks hes quite hard and scary, hes very outgoing and demanding when he tells the teacher hes not going, however this changes and he becomes very skitish and scared when he is told he will be searched.

In this we see how he resorts to anger when he is told he will be searched, This combined with the way the costume designer has dressed him helps to reinforce the wrong but stereotypical media representation of youths in 2012.

This scene we see Bolton the teenager get a cell mate put in with him, however its not the person he wanted to see , this is portrayed through his eyes, the amount of exteme closeups in this scene is crazy they deliberately want the viewer to see his emotions, the eyes are a great sign that we as humans use, throug the eyes you can see anger, fear, sadness.

Shots