Thursday 5 June 2014
Analysis Questions - for TV AND film
The first cards focus on representation and characterisation, the last few cards focus on the KEY AREAS of textual analysis of film/tv
Tuesday 3 June 2014
Monday 17 March 2014
Sound for ATMOSPHERE example
Here's a great example of how music can be used subtly for great effect
Thursday 6 February 2014
Sunday 2 February 2014
Reaper - Contrapuntal Sound - comic effect
Sam has to kill the 'demons' and return them to hell. To do this, he must touch them with the cattleprod thingy. His friends lower him on the rope into the den of 'demons' and the music starts.
It's 'The Nutcracker Suite' and is a light hearted piece of music. the comparison between this and Sam's predicament being dangled over a den of 'demons' produces comic effect.
Watch how the director changes the tone of the etxract by moving to parallel sound.
It's 'The Nutcracker Suite' and is a light hearted piece of music. the comparison between this and Sam's predicament being dangled over a den of 'demons' produces comic effect.
Watch how the director changes the tone of the etxract by moving to parallel sound.
Jaws - example of Diegetic/Non-Diegetic sound - parallel, ambient, soundbridges, motifs
Here in this famous sequence, the sound is ambient and diegetic - the sound used to indicate the shark is a motif (a repeated pattern of a sequence of notes/phrase of music - like James Bond's theme) and the movement of the music and the camera mimic the movement of the shark. The use of no non-diegetic music around and after the attack (when all you hear is the ambient sound of the sea, the bell tolling - and silence) is still stunningly effective, even now.
1976 - Spielberg JAWS
HERE (on 'Openings' blogpage)
1976 - Spielberg JAWS
HERE (on 'Openings' blogpage)
SOUND - basic theory and terminology
The introduction of SOUND in Film
The extra dimension that sound adds to film has been acknowledged since the early days of cinema when live music was played in the cinema to accompany the silent film being shown. This usually was a piano or organ but could also be a full orchestra.
The first feature film released with a soundtrack was called ‘The Jazz Singer’ starring Al Jolson and was a Warner Bros. Film. One of the main reasons for the delay in the implementation of sound technology is that the film companies were unwilling to invest large sums of money into sound equipment when they were making huge profits with silent movies. However, the next commercial sound film ‘Lights of New York’ (1928) was so impressive that it stimulated a rapid and total conversion to sound within the entire film industry.
Sound on film today is of course much more sophisticated with a digital synchronised soundtrack combining the elements of dialogue, music and sound effects.
DIEGETIC AND NON-DIEGETIC SOUND
(with on and off screen diegetic sound)
The world of the film as we see it is known as the DIEGETIC (pronounced “dye-(a)-jet-ick”). Things in this world belong to the film’s DIEGESIS. (Note the word sounds like an ‘a’ is in it – like diagram, but it is an ‘e’ – a very common spelling mistake! Try to get it right from the start!)
As audience members we accept that there are things taking place in the diegetic world around the edges of what we actually see on the screen – for example when a character is having a conversation with their friend who has gone into the kitchen to get a glass of water – we hear them in the kitchen, clinking around and running the tap and we can hear their half of the conversation. This use of ON SCREEN and OFF SCREEN diegetic sound helps to create the sense of our viewing a three dimensional world rather than a flat screen.
Sometimes off-screen sound is used to give us clues – we hear a scream and know someone is in trouble, we hear a police siren and know that the location we’re in is right by a main road and help is on its way. Perhaps we deduce we’re in an urban location.
Diegetic sound can sometime be AMBIENT sound. This is when the soundtrack is diegetic ( - part of the film world) but background sound - such as traffic in the city or sirens, birds singing, the wind blowing etc.
Non-diegetic sound is NOT part of the film world and is added on. The best way to think of it is this: If you were in the film space, could you hear the sound? So, you’d not hear the voice-over or rousing orchestral music but, as in ‘Top Gun’, we hear the Walker Brothers “The sun ain’t gonna shine anymore” but we later see the off screen source – the juke box in the bar (and then, as often happens, the off-screen sound becomes on-screen).
SOUND BRIDGES
Often the sound from one scene will continue into or over the next scene – the images we see change but the sound is still from the previous scenes. More often, we hear the sound from the next sequence BEFORE we see the relevant images.
This is called a SOUND BRIDGE. A film would be very disjointed if there were no sound bridges – the effect they create is not only a ‘wider’ diegetic world but a coherent one – it gives the film a sense of linking – of joining together. Thus sound bridges are part of a film’s continuity.
PARALLEL AND CONTRAPUNTAL SOUND
Contrapuntal sound is often called ‘asynchronous’ sound
When watching a film, the sound we hear usually complements what we see – happy sounds for happy images, exciting music for exciting scenes – sad music at sad moments etc. This is PARALLEL SOUND as, as the name suggests, the music tone and mood matches (hence ‘parallel’) the action on screen.
Sometimes when we are watching a film, we hear sound that doesn’t seem to match what we are seeing. The most famous example of this has to be in “Jaws” when we are watching scenes of happy holiday makers on Amity Beach but we hear the ‘dur dur’ motif of the shark – a deep sinister and haunting sound that we have, by this stage in the film, be conditioned to hear as a signal for the imminent arrival of the man-eating shark. Thus, what we see and what we hear DO NOT match. This is called CONTRAPUNTAL SOUND. ‘Contrapuntal’ means ‘at a counterpoint to’. Some people call this ‘asynchronous sound’ – as in NOT synchronous – that is not in synch. It doesn’t matter which you use – use the one you’re happiest with but stick with it – be consistent.
The extra dimension that sound adds to film has been acknowledged since the early days of cinema when live music was played in the cinema to accompany the silent film being shown. This usually was a piano or organ but could also be a full orchestra.
The first feature film released with a soundtrack was called ‘The Jazz Singer’ starring Al Jolson and was a Warner Bros. Film. One of the main reasons for the delay in the implementation of sound technology is that the film companies were unwilling to invest large sums of money into sound equipment when they were making huge profits with silent movies. However, the next commercial sound film ‘Lights of New York’ (1928) was so impressive that it stimulated a rapid and total conversion to sound within the entire film industry.
Sound on film today is of course much more sophisticated with a digital synchronised soundtrack combining the elements of dialogue, music and sound effects.
DIEGETIC AND NON-DIEGETIC SOUND
(with on and off screen diegetic sound)
The world of the film as we see it is known as the DIEGETIC (pronounced “dye-(a)-jet-ick”). Things in this world belong to the film’s DIEGESIS. (Note the word sounds like an ‘a’ is in it – like diagram, but it is an ‘e’ – a very common spelling mistake! Try to get it right from the start!)
As audience members we accept that there are things taking place in the diegetic world around the edges of what we actually see on the screen – for example when a character is having a conversation with their friend who has gone into the kitchen to get a glass of water – we hear them in the kitchen, clinking around and running the tap and we can hear their half of the conversation. This use of ON SCREEN and OFF SCREEN diegetic sound helps to create the sense of our viewing a three dimensional world rather than a flat screen.
Sometimes off-screen sound is used to give us clues – we hear a scream and know someone is in trouble, we hear a police siren and know that the location we’re in is right by a main road and help is on its way. Perhaps we deduce we’re in an urban location.
Diegetic sound can sometime be AMBIENT sound. This is when the soundtrack is diegetic ( - part of the film world) but background sound - such as traffic in the city or sirens, birds singing, the wind blowing etc.
Non-diegetic sound is NOT part of the film world and is added on. The best way to think of it is this: If you were in the film space, could you hear the sound? So, you’d not hear the voice-over or rousing orchestral music but, as in ‘Top Gun’, we hear the Walker Brothers “The sun ain’t gonna shine anymore” but we later see the off screen source – the juke box in the bar (and then, as often happens, the off-screen sound becomes on-screen).
SOUND BRIDGES
Often the sound from one scene will continue into or over the next scene – the images we see change but the sound is still from the previous scenes. More often, we hear the sound from the next sequence BEFORE we see the relevant images.
This is called a SOUND BRIDGE. A film would be very disjointed if there were no sound bridges – the effect they create is not only a ‘wider’ diegetic world but a coherent one – it gives the film a sense of linking – of joining together. Thus sound bridges are part of a film’s continuity.
PARALLEL AND CONTRAPUNTAL SOUND
Contrapuntal sound is often called ‘asynchronous’ sound
When watching a film, the sound we hear usually complements what we see – happy sounds for happy images, exciting music for exciting scenes – sad music at sad moments etc. This is PARALLEL SOUND as, as the name suggests, the music tone and mood matches (hence ‘parallel’) the action on screen.
Sometimes when we are watching a film, we hear sound that doesn’t seem to match what we are seeing. The most famous example of this has to be in “Jaws” when we are watching scenes of happy holiday makers on Amity Beach but we hear the ‘dur dur’ motif of the shark – a deep sinister and haunting sound that we have, by this stage in the film, be conditioned to hear as a signal for the imminent arrival of the man-eating shark. Thus, what we see and what we hear DO NOT match. This is called CONTRAPUNTAL SOUND. ‘Contrapuntal’ means ‘at a counterpoint to’. Some people call this ‘asynchronous sound’ – as in NOT synchronous – that is not in synch. It doesn’t matter which you use – use the one you’re happiest with but stick with it – be consistent.
Factory Farmed short film (2008, Dir. Gareth Edwards) with NO SOUND
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