Analyzing sound – Fiction Programme: Being Human 4.8

Being Human – Series 4 – Episode 8

BBC Three – 25 March 2012

The nature of the sound design is rather simplistic meaning many scenes are sound designed the same. Because of this it would be hard to discuss the sound design on each a particular scene without being repetitive so I’ve picked out the few sequences I thought stood out as different and then written a little about the tone and style of the rest of the programme.

Opening Sequence

The music is foreboding, signalling that something is coming. On cue a car pulls up. A key sound is the smart clicking footsteps, again signalling something on its way. The music stops at the reveal of Mr. Snow’s face; telling the audience it was him that everything was building up too.

There’s silence again, then suddenly a dramatic clap of thunder in the distance as Snow asks the question; “What colour are her eyes?”                       There’s a dramatic music sting on the shot of the man, telling the audience he doesn’t have an answer.

The sound effect as the man’s guts are pulled does all the work, they don’t show the actual “pull” effect and somehow this makes it even more gruesome. The sound punctures the scene from nowhere and makes you imagine the impact.                       The music amps up all the way to full-blown horror until it fades out as the man dies.  This somewhat puts the audience in the point of view of the dying man; the horror and pain of dying before it falls away as he dies.                        The music then turns to a child-ish and creepy piano piece, which is very evocative of horror films.

The music turns very dramatic, a female vocal, strings, etc. The scale of events is shown through this very dramatic music taking over.              The music carries over to the show’s title card. The programme doesn’t have an opening theme tune; just the music from the teaser playing over and transitioning from teaser to title card to first scene. This is really subtle and stops the programme being “Show-y”. The title card is more like a transition, a short break to let the teaser set in.

Most scenes are mostly silent, driven by the dialogue. The background sounds are turned right down, just enough to place us in the location, and theirs little music over conversations. Music is saved for dramatic, intense moments; sadness or horror or transitions; when characters exit a scene or enter.

An example of this is the scene between Mr. Snow and Hal. With the menacing and dangerous tone of the scene the sound designers could have easily added in loads of creepy music and dramatic stings. However they leave the scene with just the spoken words.

The sound design often makes the show sound a bit like a play, heavy on the dialogue with music just stings or light an uncomplicated over dialog so as not to distract. This approach also grounds the programme, making it sound more real and genuine and intense. It’s unnerving because the audience feels like there listening in on a real conversation.

The music it’s self has many horror connotations: there are a lot of slow creeping strings, chimes, and percussion. The tone of the music stays as either foreboding and creepy or epic for a majority of the episode; build up and pay off. Although there are a few more light-hearted and comedy segments and a calm, sad piece right at the end to contrast the dramatic tone of the episode: the calm after the storm. The music is very simplistic, it never takes on any complicated tunes or melody’s and sometimes is so basic that it’s sounds more like a collection of ethereal sounds, as in the “Man in grey scene” near the end with him asking for the girls phone. This does two things; it makes sure the music doesn’t distract from the dialogue, and it also turns the music into an unsettling atmosphere.

A sound effect I heard repeated most was door sound effects. Whenever there was an entrance or exit the door sounds was always very clear to me. This 

Analyzing sound – Factual Programme: Africa ep2

Africa – Episode 2

BBC One – 12 January 2013

Opening Sequence

The programme begins with a shot of the earth from space, specifically Africa. This is accompanied by the programs theme music. The music is made to evoke Africa, with drums and percussions but can also become more orchestral in places with strings and choirs. These orchestral moments are to emphasis the grand scale and epic moments whilst the more African influenced parts are to place us geographically and fit the images. These two styles of music are often used together.

In the programme most sound effects are diegetic, paw steps, growls, yawns, etc. The only to none-diegetic sound layers are the music and the narration by David Attenborough

During the opening montage sequence everything thing and every setting has a sound effect, even if it’s only on screen for a few seconds. For example a shot of a monkey yawning in the montage has the background atmosphere of the jungle and the sound of the monkey yawning despite only last a moment.

Attenborough introduces the episode with a rare bit of diegetic narration; Him sitting in the helicopter, talking to use over the radio along with all the static is more like dialogue than narration.This puts us in the scene as this is how he would sound if we were talking to him in the helicopter. It also gives the sense that Attenborough isn’t just an inactive narrator; he travels and goes to sites in Africa.

Lizard Sequence

The first time we see the lizard it’s leaping through the air in slow motion, jumping from one rock to another. As the creature appears the music cuts to silence with dramatic sting.We can hear each scratch of the lizard’s claws on the rock, in slow motion the impact sounds louder and has greater impact.

The buzzing sound of the flying insect gets louder the closer they get to the lizard, rather than how close they are to the camera. This puts the viewer into the lizard point of view rather than being the viewer.

Creeping music comes in, little tinkering quirky music, the style of this music is often used in film and TV when a character is sneaking or coming up with a plan; exactly what the lizards are doing. It goes well with the scuttling sound effect as they run.

Shots of the lion in slow motion, the beating sound of it swatting its face is in slow motion. However the multiple buzzing sounds of the flies around it are in normal speed. By not distorting the fly sound effect by slowing it down they’re making it clear and prominent. This helps show that the flies are the lizard’s goal and again, gives us the lizard’s perspective.As a drop of saliva runs of the lions tooth it’s accompanied by a dripping sound. This suggests the lions hungry and could take apart the lizard. In fact there is a general emphasis on the sounds of the lion’s mouth, low growling, yawning.

The music, still stereotypical creeping music starts to become more dangerous and threatening the bolder the lizard gets and the closer he gets to the lion. In addition to the musical change in tone the danger is highlighted by more low rumbles from the lion. However the light hearted and almost cartoony nature of the music, even when it’s dangerous, assures us that the sequence is supposed to be quirky and so won’t end badly with the lizard killed by the lion.

Fire Sequence

“Dry sound” over a shot of the sun. That very high buzz that sounds almost like an insect swarm at double speed is often used to show the scorching sun in a desert landscape. Cracking crust sounds as the land dry’s.

Creepy foreboding music plays. As the sun pans across the screen it has a whooshing sounds that makes it seem fast and violent.

As the sun flares up, filling the frame, it’s given a searing, roaring sound. It really makes the sun seem violent, as if it’s exploding.           This acts as a transition to a new atmosphere of sounds, burning and explosions and the crackling of fire in a stark baron land. There are many layers of burning effects, bombarding the viewer and putting them into the chaos of the land. The music also becomes more intense and dramatic, with a faster pace and female vocals belting out. There is sadness to the score but the intensity puts the view in the perspective of an animal in the fire rather than an observer. To and observer it would be sad, but to the creature experiencing it it’s scary. The score conveys both of these whilst the fire sound effects make it scary and intense.

Even during this sequence everything has a sound; the mouse running away, the birds chirping out. The editor could have left them out and focused on the fire and music to create a more intense and abstract sound, however they opted for realism. This is true of every scene; no matter what mood they’re trying to achieve and how they manipulate the sounds to achieve that mood, everything seen on screen makes a sound. This makes the scenes feel natural and alive and fits the documentary genre.

As the birds come in there sounds start becoming louder than the fire. The sound of crackling from every direct fades down so that the loudest element is the bird’s wings flapping and them soaring through the air. This helps clearly shift the focus from the fire to the birds for the audience. Even the soft sound of the bird crunching on a grasshopper is louder than the fires, which by now sound in the distance.

The music calms down at this point, eventually fading to silence; we can’t hear anything but the birds. And then the birds fade as we cut to a wide landscape shot. The gradual audio layers fading matches the shots, the further and higher we get from the fire setting the more layers fall away until we’re left with nothing on the furthest and highest shot.

Elephants in Drought Sequence

The sequence begins in silence, the only sound being the howling of the wind. Just before this the narrator created dread by saying that “sometimes change doesn’t happen when it’s most needed”. This creates a foreboding feeling; something bad is about to happen.

Still no music, the landscape sounds barren and empty. The wind sound gives the environment harshness, sometimes being so loud that the narration is slightly drowned out by it. With every new shot the wind changes volume; this emulates the distance the little tornados are from the camera and sells the environment.       The sound of the elephants fades in, under the wind. After a long period of nothing but wind and silence, this marks the elephants as a point of interest for the audience. The elephants gradually become more important than the wind and landscape as the howling sound fades out and general diegetic elephant sounds fade in. Sounds such as the flapping of their ears, the stomping of their feet, and their low groans and trumpets.

Sad piano music begins as the camera pulls back to a landscape shot to demonstrate what the narrator is saying; the usually elephant friendly land is dried up. Even the narrators tone is sad and remorseful, different then the distanced and unaffected narration we might expect. This somehow makes it real, as if it’s so sad that even the narrator is affected. The voice over, along with the sad music, also tells the audience what they should be feeling and shapes the tone of the sequence

The crunching dust is emphasised in a slow motion close up of an elephant’s foot kicking up dirt. A dry atmosphere is creating with sounds of twigs snapping, dust being scattered, and dirt crunching.

As the calf dies sad music plays and the mother elephant gives two low groans. These sad sounds from the mother give her emotions and help us feel her pain. It makes her seem more human and so we can sympathise.

The next sequence begins in silence to give the previous death scene more impact. The quite scene is a moment to reflect on the sadness of the calf’s death and so gives it even more impact.

End Sequence

The episode ends with Attenborough addressing us on screen with diegetic narration, much like the opening. These two exceptions to the usually non-diegetic invisible narrator book end the program.

He gets in a car and the engine sound effect starts up then fades away as the car drives away. Again this mirrors the opening sequence with the helicopter sound effect.

The end credits music is more towards the grand sweeping orchestral score then the simpler African drums at the opening. However there are clear African stylings in the music and drums.

Berberian Sound System – Response to Sound Design

The horror film is deliberately never shown, the focus being more on the behind the scenes. In fact what I noticed most, especially early in the film, was how prominent the diegetic sounds where; the click of tapes stopping and the whine of it rewinding, footsteps and dialogue are all loud and clear, the music from the film they’re working on. These sounds create the very real and very eerie atmosphere of a sound studio.

And as the film progresses it sounds like these sounds start to become distorted and remixed, the creepy ethereal sounds near the end sound very much like a sound designer tinkering about with female vocals and piano recordings- which is exactly what the main character is doing.

This makes the surreal and horror moments in the film a distortion of the characters reality which reflects his breakdown. The sound studio begins to warp and echo, like one of his sound effects.

The music is blends in seamlessly with the sound effects, feeling more like a diegetic sound rather then something composed for the movie. Music bleeds out from the horror film they’re working on and creepy screams and women’s distorted vocals echo through the music. It doesn’t really feel like music, more like a sound effect being created within the film.

Hunted – Reshoots

As we were unhappy with the comedic ending we shot we decided a short reshoot was necessary to change the ending.

So we returned to the trees behind college to reshoot the last couple of shots. Although the two characters managed to be wearing the same cloths for the reshoots we do have a few continuity issues. The first being  weather; for the reshoot day it had been snowing, meaning that when the shots are put into the film the ground will suddenly be covered in snow and it will be snowing.

To try and help transition to the shots where it’s snowing I suggested we should just film a shot of the tops of the trees as the snow falls around them. I don’t know if it will work but hopefully it will end up being seen as a shot that suggests it has just started snowing.

In the end it might not matter that much as the film has a surreal quality any way; we end up unsure how much of what we saw was real. So it could be that as we see the snow falling we’re returning to reality or the snow could sign that we’re in some kind of paranoid dream. Either way I think that shot of the snow falling will help transition to from not snowing to snowing.

The second continuity issue is that Vince no longer has his bag in the reshoot shots and Aaron wasn’t wearing his glasses like he was for the first shoot. We’re hoping to cover this by filming another couple of shots on Tuesday, maybe a shot of the Vince character dropping his bag in shock and his glasses falling to the ground as he runs.

This could be as simple as a close up of the glasses falling on the ground, a close up of the bag strap slipping off his shoulder and a close up of the bag dropping on the ground.

Unit01 AO2 Narrative Structure

The Todorov Theory

The Todorov theory isn’t very effect when applied to the Dark Knight Rises. The film has multiple plot lines and characters, with many separate disruptions to the equilibrium and resolutions to each one.

If we used the structure of the film I’ve filled out in the sheet you miss many important elements and intricacies of the film. What i’ve written misses out John Blakes, Selina Kyles, and Gordons story lines.

Modern films are just to complicated with multiple plot strands and characters to adequately explain using the Todorov theory.

Analysis of Propps structure

The good thing about Propps theory is that it examines the characters rather then Todorovs which is about the events. The characters and their motivations are important as ideally they drive the events in the film. Propp can help us understand the events. Propp also works better when aplied to the Dark Knight Rises as there are more spaces and the range of characters is large enough so that almost every role has at least one character to fill it. This theory allows for more complexity then Todorov.

The main characters fit well, The Hero and the Villain are clearly difiend in the film as Batman and Bane, and the Donor and the Helper are filled nicely.

The negatives are that you can’t get a sense of the plot from it, it comes off just as a cast list. Even though Propp’s theory is a better fit for this film then Todorov’s it still doesn’t exactly match up. Often there are characters in the film that are a combination of Propp’s roles or characters that don’t fit just right into any.

An explanation for this because modern film makers are constantly trying to deify theory’s like this to create something new. Modern film is all about deifying the conventions and playing with the audiences expectations, putting in twists. The idea of a false Princess is in their to surprise the audience.

Gender roles have also changed since the theory’s conception, meaning the princess role doesn’t really fit with any character. Miranda Tate turns out to be evil whilst Selina Kyle ends up saving Batman rather than him saving her. The father figure is also lost because of this, women are no longer defined by their class or they’re parents. No woman is a reward that an important father wants returned, they are all independent.

Propp narrative function 

This can fit the Dark Knight Rises best out of all the theory’s. There are plenty of moments that can be filled with the films many plot strands and intricacies. The theory is so vague, these segments not being really plot points, that the film can more or less fit into them.

However there are some moments that don’t fit in the theory, again for the simple reason that filmmakers now are trying to create original plots that don’t follow the beaten path.

Trailer sound analysis – “Iron Man 3”

Slow orchestral music fades in. A character voice over begins, the hero, Iron man, talking. It’s a monologue with a serious, sombre, and slightly regretful tone. This matches the slow music and sets the mood of the character, where he is.

Sound effects cover movements to make them stand out, a metallic whiring sound is over top Iron man taking his mask off and a distant thud goes with a hand brushing against a scorched wall.

The first diegetic sound effect is the helicopters as they fly by (this helps establish them as a threat, engines cutting through music)

The music cuts out with a metalic sound effect, a comman element of horror films and trailers, signaling that something horrifiying is about to happen by building suspense with silence.

Then the Iron man armour begins exploding and the music becomes more dramatic and sweeping. The images of destruction and more dramatic music change the tone to dangerous. To fit with this the villain begins an in character voice over, seemingly adressing a large crowd with a speech.

during this fast paced portion of the trailer the music syncs up well with the action, each time there’s a dramatic hit in the music there’s an explosion or an impact on screen; like the Iron Man suits exploding or the Iron Patriot character landing on the ground. The music almost acts as a sound effect for these moments. 

The music cuts out, silence. We hear the sound of the helicopters guns coming out and the missiles heading for the house. The music only starts again when they hit, syncing up with the explosion. The silence shows us the scale of the scene and gives build up to the explosion. As the house collapses we hear the sounds of it’s destrucition, metal bending and rock brakeing up.

The metallic, whirring stings, the flickering sound on the logo, and the techno effect on the music near the end evoke Iron man. They match the sounds of his suit and technology and fit the tone.

The final shot of Tony Stark walking through the snow is in silence to show the lonlieness and defeat he feels.

The sound in the trailer is designed to evoke a sad, searious, and somber tone, as well as destruction being a main theme. There is silence, slow music, and sad character voice overs in the first half, and then in the secound half many explosions and images of destruction with a sinister and evil voice over predicting the heroes fall. The low amount of diegetic sounds creates a reflective and suspensful atmospher over the dangerous protion of the trailer.

Hunted – Filming Continues

Today we completed filming on the film, recording the stalking scenes. The equipment and props used were the camera, tripod, and the stalker costume.

 My main involvement was playing the creepy stalker dressed in the costume I designed and assembled with the addition of a black morph suit mask. To get the morph suit mask we bought a full black suit and then cut off the bottom half to make it just the top and the head.

The scenes we shot turned out very different from what had been scripted and storyboarded. First, there was a major location change from crowded streets in town to the empty forest area behind college. We did this because we really wanted to get the film recorded today and it just wasn’t possible to make the journey into town at the end of the day with fading light. With the new location a lot of the storyboarded shots went out the window as we started improvising in the new location.

We may end up filming some extra scenes in town if we can, that will lead into the forest shot. Otherwise it will stay as is. We’ll wait until the next session when we will begin editing the footage to see if we need reshoots or added scenes.

Hunted – What’s left to do

In a group meeting we established what is left to do before the film is complete. 

– Film the remaining scenes which involve the main character being stalked.

– Editing the footage (This job is specific to Rob as the editor)

– Finishing the credit sequence (Specific to me as the production designer)

– Sound design and creating the sound track. It would be nice for Rob to do this as well but for times’ sake it might be good for someone else to handle it, or at least help out.

We plan to film the final scenes on Friday the 11th of January.

Hunted – Creating the credits

For the font I wanted something creepy that would evoke the Horror-genre but would not be really over the top. The story of the film involves subtle horror, with the menace lurking in the background and slowly building up. A really over the top font just wouldn’t suit this so I wanted a font somewhat plain and ordinary but with a creepy edge.

I chose and downloaded a few fonts from dafont and opened them all in Photoshop, doing various tests with different colours on different backgrounds to see which would work the best.

Hunted_font_choices_smallerere

Me and Aaron(Director) decided on the font “Insomnia”.

I used After effects to animate the opening credits with the title slowly zooming into the screen. Again, thinking about the ideas of the film I blurred the outer edges. This was an attempt to reflect how the menace is out of focus and unclear in the film.

To add something of interest in the title I put a still image of an eye in the background and made it blurred, dark and slightly transparent. This was to reflect the paranoia and obsession themes.

Picture_13

With the end credits I decided to have it so it looked like the camera was zooming through the credits.  This was inspired by the end credits to Scream 4 and the way it slowly moves backwards through a series of lines and credits.

Scream is my favourite horror film series and I always like the end credits to the fourth so I just borrowed from it a little. And again I kept the out of focused theme as the credits appear.

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In After Effects I used a particle system to create the effect of mist/fog moving towards and past the camera. I did this mainly to add something else visual to the credits, make it a bit more interesting than just the zooming words. It was the only thing I could think of that would be an interesting effect but also not be loud and flashy and draw attention away from the font. 

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I’m still working on some things for the end credits; seeing if I can add anything to make it more interesting, and trying to work out the exact order in which the credits should appear by looking at other movies end credits for examples.