AS Media Studies

Friday, October 30, 2015

Sound in film - Diegetic,Non-Diegetic and Genres

Diegetic and non-diegetic sound have been used in almost every movie to this day. Sound is used in film to heighten a particular mood, to provide the viewer with information about a scene's location, to help elucidate the plot, and to give the viewer further conceptions about characters in a scene. Additionally, directors also use silence in a film to create impact of an aftermath, to highlight a significant change within the storyline, to build up a scene's intensity or to foreshadow impending doom. These aspects of sound help to shape a film to a successful extent, thus also help the viewer to engage and connect with the film on an emotional scale.

Diegetic Sound

There are many various definitions of diegetic sound that make the term more challenging to be understood by others. Diegetic sound refers to audio elements that come from sources in a scene which haven't been edited in. This includes dialogue, footsteps, sound made by objects (i.e. glass shattering), and music coming from instruments within a scene. The volume of diegetic sound is usually altered after it has been recorded, especially in a silent scene, to address significance of the use of sound in contrast to a lack of non-diegetic sound. Diegetic sound also helps to tell the plot and give the film a sense of realism and accuracy.

Non - Diegetic sound

Non-diegetic sound is audio that has been added into a film through its editing process.
Non - diegetic sound includes voiceovers/narration, music, and sound effects e.g. screeches and explosions. These types of sounds are regularly used in films to add climax, impact and exhilaration to an uplifting scene, as well as demonstrating characters' emotions. For sound effects, Pitch, tempo, and volume may be altered to indicate how the filmmaker expects the audience to respond to a given noise. The directional quality of non-diegetic sound enhances a three-dimensional sense of space in the movie.

Diegetic and non - diegetic sound in film genres

Comedy

Comedic films usually include well-known music that has recently been published (e.g. chart music). This is because modern music usually represents an uplifting, energetic and happy beat, which links to the mood of comedic films. Dialogue is highly included in comedies, as a typical form of humour is expressed through a character's vocal language. The diegetic sound of damaged objects helps to create clumsiness which can be expressed as a degree of humour.

Romance

Romantic films usually include monologues and narratives as examples of non - diegetic sound. This helps the audience to understand how characters are feeling and how they may feel towards each other. Happy/uplifting music is usually included within Romance films to express a couple's happiness towards each other, or to signify a positive time in their relationship. There are many varieties of diegetic sound in Romantic films, such as dialogue, kissing/affectionate sounds, and voices of people in an urban environment. This is because Romance films are usually linked to everyday relationships.

Action

The sound of weapons e.g. gunshots are usually featured in action films, where violence between two sides usually takes place. Dialogue, like all genres, is included within action films. As well of this, Screams of witnesses to the battle scenes are featured to expresses their fear towards the violence they see. Examples of non-diegetic sound in action films include explosions, intense/dramatic music, monologues and narratives. The majority of sounds in Action films are usually edited to make it clearer and more exaggerated.

Drama

As films portrayed by the drama genre have a serious storyline, intense music and sound effects are usually expressed. This, as well as mixtures of diegetic and non diegetic sound, creates verisimilitude. The sounds of played instruments, screams, opening of doors helps to create suspense or links to an ominous action. Narratives, Monologues and dialogues are portrayed from characters from a range of classes and backgrounds, as dramas are particularly serious. Incidental music also helps to add emotion and rhythm to dramas.

Horror

Sound in horror film is highly significant as it contributes to the anxious sensation the audience experiences. They also help to create jump scares though loud, unexpected noises e.g. a large banging noise. Diegetic sound effects creates the atmosphere of a horror films content and adds to its creepiness, such as children laughing, screams, footsteps, and heavy breathing. Monologues are less included in Horror films as they usually focus on more than one character, and those who are villains tend to be displayed as being mysterious. Eerie/screechy music is edited into horror films to add suspension and tension. Sinister music can also be created through limitations on the range of instruments - for example, nursery music can imply a freakish sensation just through its basic sequence.

Thursday, October 08, 2015

Camera Shots and Angles

Tuesday, October 06, 2015

Paper doll Costume designs

Sunday, October 04, 2015

Love Actually Reenactment

The task was to recreate the scene of 'Natalie fucks up' from the movie 'Love Actually', a romantic comedy that explores nine intertwined stories which examine the complexities of the emotion of love. We were all given copies of the original script and were told that:

1) No AS & A2 media students (including those in our group) were not allowed to feature in our recreation
2) We were given 2 weeks to complete the task
3) We were not allowed to film on school premises during school hours

These rules did not affect our planning and casting process, although we now aim to be more organised for future deadlines. In my group I had Hannah, Abbey and Tommy - the same group for our preliminary task. I personally think that our group's improvements of filming, editing and organising since our preliminary task had noticeable impact on our Love Actually recreation.
Each member of our group had a role - I helped cast actors and organise equipment, Hannah helped to film and organise potential locations by emailing suitable premises, Abbey did the storyboards and Tommy helped to film and edit the video whilst occasionally taking 'behind the scene' photographs. We quickly and easily arranged these roles by basing them on people's stronger abilities and what they were happy with doing. For example, Tommy edited our preliminary task rather well and so we wanted him to apply this skill in our Love Actually Task. Hannah is fantastic at formal, informative and persuasive writing, so she was happy with having the role of writing emails to appoint a location for filming. However, despite our original roles mainly staying the same throughout the task process, some group members coincidentally appointed various roles during the filming process. For instance, I was supposed to portray the role of directing but this did not exactly commence.

Our first causes of action were brainstorming our individual roles,brief ideas of locations, and who we thought would suit various acting parts. At this time, our ideas were only suggestions due to this being an early stage within the task process.

Storyboards and Script Annotation

Abbey had the task of drawing and writing the storyboard. She completed it by briefly reading through the script and brainstorming ideas which would work. The procedure was time consuming as it was difficult to make sure each line and movement would be accompanied by a camera shot. Abbey annotated each shot to make it obvious what she improvised, but it was challenging for me to read her handwriting. Because of this, we gave Abbey the responsibility of thinking & describing suitable potential shots for the scene. On the day of filming, Abbey accidentally forgot to bring the original sheet of the storyboard. Thankfully, we were still able to refer to Abbey's shot ideas through a photo of the storyboard itself from her iPod.

Abbey briefly did script annotation to simplify some key areas in order to help her produce ideas for the storyboard. Apart from this, the script had no other significant purpose to be annotated as the scene was shot and easy to comprehend.

Casting

Everyone from our group had suggested some of their friends to act in our recreation, which shows that we included people with different backgrounds in our task. However, we limited the wide aspect of our suggestions as we wanted people who would suit their role, meaning that we declined and debated over some options. For example, we thought our chosen individual (Bertie) would suit the role of being the Prime Minister better than others because he shows traits of clarity, politeness and sophistication. Ideally, we wanted people who were motivated to act as their character methodically as well as being aesthetically connected to them. Our group also wanted to cast background actors so our recreation would relate to the occupied surroundings within 10 Downing Street, where the 'Natalie fucks up' scene from Love Actually was set. It was challenging to find actors who were similar to the older-adged roles but we acknowledged the justification that our task did not have to be an extremely realistic remake of the scene. Overall, the majority of people we casted were serious & met our ideal standard once everyone was settled into the filming process. Everyone were remarkable actors which made us pleased with the final outcome.

We managed to bring together the following people:

Bertie Bull: Prime Minister

Maria Page: Natalie

Flo Wright: Annie

Maya Hodgson: Pat

Max White: Terence

Toby Miller & Jimmy Kerry: Extras

Organising a day to film which everyone would be available for appeared to be more challenging than expected. This reason lead to our group filming and editing our video just a few days before the task was due in.

Costume

As the characters in the original scene appeared to be portraying a formal dress code, we advised our actors to wear their sixth form clothing. Consequently, addressing costumes were simple and easy.

Location

Our group came up with a few suggestions for a suitable location, but we were depending on the cheapest prices and availability when concluding a decision. We wanted our film location to 1) Feature in Norwich so it would be accessible for the cast & film crew, and 2) To meet the appropriate criteria of 10 Downing Street.

One of our favourite chosen destinations was the Assembly House in Norwich, which consists of a ballroom, meeting places, a restaurant and a commercial gallery shop. We were appealed to this location due to its level of fanciness and its spacious areas, which makes the Assembly house deliver a similar atmosphere to 10 Downing Street. Filming in the Assembly House would greatly impact on the level of realism in our adaptation in comparison to the original scene.

Hannah emailed the manager to see wether we could film within their premises. After some long-awaited replies, we established that we could not set our film in the Assembly House. This was because they had no rooms available on the day we had to film. Due to planning a date when all of the cast were free, we were limited to the amount of of days we had left to film - which made it more difficult to find a location for a selected date. If this was not the case, we could of had the opportunity to film at the Assembly house the week before the deadline if we contacted them earlier - however, we had no power over our cast's days of unavailability.

Our group also looked at a hotel in Norwich called Saint Giles. We liked this location for similar reasons - it met our desired criteria for a location thats comparable to 10 downing street. We phoned the hotel who showed interest in us filming in their building - but their price instantly put us off the offer.

Without knowing other available and cheap properties, our last resort was Maya's house. We were able to ask her through her and Tommy's friendship, which meant she accepted our permission to film in her house. We suggested to film in Maya's house as it looks fancy inside and appropriate for our desired locational concept. Therefore, we used the entrance hallway where the stairs were and through a corridor.

Filming

We filmed our reenactment on the week our task was due in. Therefore, it was quite stressful to make sure that everyone could make the monday after school, so we had time to edit our recordings on tuesday. We began filming at Maya's house at 6:15PM as Bertie, the PM, was only available after 6PM that evening. If this was not the case, we could of began filming earlier - however, this did not affect the process nonetheless.

It took us 2 hours to film our scene - this duration did not affect anyone's plans or transport back home, but I believe we could have completed the filming process quicker if some actors were more focused and more willing to take their role seriously. For instance, people spoke when they were not participating in a certain shot and those who were occasionally giggled. Despite this, their attitudes were not a major problem and did not affect the time length greatly, as I understand how easy it is to smile/laugh whilst being filmed - especially if you don't act often. This resulted in the filming process being more enjoyable to do, as it was nice to have a laugh with everyone when reminiscing over particular shots.

Throughout the process of filming, I noticed my original role did change. When this task was set, I mentioned that the role of directing appealed to me. However, due to our lack of preparation in some areas, most of the actors forgot to practice their lines. This meant that my main focus on the evening of filming was to help actors remember their scripts by writing theirs down on separate pieces of paper. I had to hold up a piece of paper behind a window on a door during one shot of the clip so that Maria could confidently say her lines. The rest of the group directed the video instead. For future tasks, I think that our group should take the responsibility of reminding our cast to practice their lines in advance so we would save more time when filming.

We began the filming process by looking around Maya's house for suitable areas which we thought worked best & then debated potential shots. Abbey used photos of the storyboard on her iPod to help us decide & investigate which angles would suit precise moments. It was important for us to include the 180 degree rule because we forgot this necessity in our Preliminary task. After this, we brought Bertie into the first scene - it was quite a challenge to make the shots and the timing of Bertie's entrance just how we wanted it to be as we are only beginners. Once this part was completed, filming the rest of the task went rather well - although it was difficult to use our provided space wisely to fit everyone in the shots. Lighting was also an issue which we need to address further in future tasks, as the glares were irritating to weaken. However, I think that they did not affect the quality of our video significantly as we were happy with the end result of our task. I think we chose our shots well and our cast took good responsibility of their roles. Apart from forgetting the storyboards, which resulted in not being a large loss, I do not think anything went wrong with the filming process.

Editing

We left Tommy to edit the clip and to make sure it was flowing and free of continuity errors. We made sure that we filmed the shots on one (Tommy's) camera so it would be easier for him to select certain ones & put them in a suitable order. In order for our clip to receive good marks & to make it look professional, Tommy had to cut down each clip appropriately and make sure there were no continuity errors. I think that he did a good job of editing and the end result looks fantastic, despite a small bumpy dimension towards the end of the clip. However, this was difficult to erase as it was more to do with the original shots we took, therefore the transition could have been smoother but it did not greatly affect the quality of the video. The editing of our recreation has certainly improved since our preliminary task. For future tasks, I think that other members in the group should attempt editing a few shots to increase they knowledge & experience with editing.

Finished Product

Origional Clip:

Our reenactment:

I'm happy and pleased with the result of our love actually reenactment, especially how it shares strong similarities with the clip from the movie itself - such as the composition of where the people stand, and the use of a hallway/corridor when introducing each character. I was also happy with how accomplishing our version looks due to having minor experience with film making. For future video projects, I think that being more organised will make the final process less stressful for our group by casting people/selecting a date earlier. Thinking about lighting conceptions may also help to improve the standard & quality of our future clips. Overall, I think that this task helped me get a better picture of the process of film making and what arrangements have to take place.