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)
Sunday, 2 February 2014
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
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
Children of Men - Opening Sequence
Here is the 'Children of Men' opening for you to analyse. Info about the film can be found here:
IMDB
Wikipedia
Rotten Tomatoes
The numbers - there are figures for DVD sales too (do a search, top left)
To watch this file bigger, go to the P-drive in school, choose the following path:
CGSSTORE3/Media Studies - NEW/Resources Library/Videos/Film and TV Openings
IMDB
Wikipedia
Rotten Tomatoes
The numbers - there are figures for DVD sales too (do a search, top left)
To watch this file bigger, go to the P-drive in school, choose the following path:
CGSSTORE3/Media Studies - NEW/Resources Library/Videos/Film and TV Openings
Sunday, 31 March 2013
Rolling Camera Work and Canted Angles (Dutch Tilt)
Rolling camera work is usually about creating one a of a few feelings...
sickness of characters
drug or alcohol fuelled disorientation (being drunk or drugged up basically)
Other disorientation experienced by characters
The movement of a ship (space/sea) or otherwise
To just disorientate the viewer - for example with Alice falling down the hole into Wonderland etc
'Adrenochrome' from 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'
- caution content shows mild drug use and some disorienting effects
This extract uses colour and light as well as camera movement to create
its effects - look at how the increasing disorientation experienced by
Johnny Depp's character is increased and heightened using these
techniques!
Other disorientation
This is from 'Warehouse 13', an American TV Show. The characters have just entered a special 'vault' that moves in time and space, based on Escher - a bit 'naff' but it illustrates the point well enough
Tilting and Canting
Tilting and canting are more or less the same (depending on who you talk to!) but you need to think about this in two separate and entirely different ways in terms of affect:
Canting left or right so the scene lists to the side is really about the same as the above list for rolling camera work - to show characters are sick, disoriented or that their environment is moving.
Here the camera is tilted to create interest and to put the audience off-guard.
Payback (starring Mel Gibson)
In this example, the tilt is used to signify the importance of the text received by the character and is designed to imitate how their world is literally upset/affected by the contents. The text is the code between the characters to collect together immediately to deal with a threat to one of the group.
Switch (TV Show, 2012)
The sequence repeats the motif to establish how the group communicates and literally uses camera movement as a direct reflection of character experience/predicament. It would be very easy to suggest that these movements are not rolling but tilting/canting...
Tilting forward or back creates HIGH ANGLE and LOW ANGLE shots - where the camera either looks UP to the subject (giving the subject being looked at more power and reducing the perspective/feeling of power of the audience - potentially making them feel small or vulnerable (and often inviting them to feel this alongside the character) or looking DOWN on the subject which reverses everything - here the audience perspective is one of power - looking down on the subject/person and the audience are, again, often being invited to feel this power along with the character.
Kindergarten Cop - Schwarzenegger is a cop assigned undercover as a Kindergarten teacher. Here he meets his class for the first time and they meet him!
There are always exceptions so look at what you're seeing and decide for yourself what effect is being created.
Remember also with the use of CGI that many camera movements are no longer actually made by a physical camera and are created in post (editing) by computers and so can perform what appears to be impossible. This is especially true of the examples on this blog from 'the fast and the furious'.
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Textual Analysis - How to (Creeber Article)
This is a great section about how to read a text in Media Studies. It's quite dense as a text but it does cover everything...really for years 12 and 13 and not for the first term of yr12!
READ the whole article HERE
READ the whole article HERE
Friday, 3 December 2010
MONTAGE
MONTAGE is a style of filming where a series of images or small scenes of film are shown one after the other without using continuity techniques or having to direct the viewer to make sense by using dialogue or matches on action... You will make sense of the film yourself as you watch it by trying to make a storyline for it yourself (this is what KULESHOV said - that viewers connect images they see consecutively into a narrative- they try to link the images). Montage primarily compresses time or allows character development.
Here's what Wikipedia says:
Here's what Wikipedia says:
"Montage is a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a
sequence to condense space, time, and information. It is usually used to suggest the
passage of time, rather than to create symbolic meaning as it does in Soviet montage theory.
From the 1930s to the 1950s, montage sequences often combined numerous short shots
with special optical effects (fades, dissolves, split screens, double and triple exposures) and
music. They were usually assembled by someone other than the director or the editor of the
movie"
sequence to condense space, time, and information. It is usually used to suggest the
passage of time, rather than to create symbolic meaning as it does in Soviet montage theory.
From the 1930s to the 1950s, montage sequences often combined numerous short shots
with special optical effects (fades, dissolves, split screens, double and triple exposures) and
music. They were usually assembled by someone other than the director or the editor of the
movie"
Here are some examples:
This sequence shows the passing of time AND uses cross-dissolves. (From 'Ocean's Thirteen' Dir. Steven Soderbergh)
This sequence is a classic example of Hollywood montage. The couple are not yet together (Butle and Heigel) and are at odds. This is a classic ROMCOM plot. We see the girl discuss her meeting with her potential new boyfriend. The montage sequence follows, showing her subsequent first date and then a few weeks/months are shown as the relationship develops. This is done in under 2 minutes so shows compression of time - a central reason to use montage. As per convention, it also uses a music track over with no (or little) dialogue. The narrative is moved forward without using much screen time. To allow you to consider just how much time is compressed, consider how you coul film a whole movie about this girl meeting and dating this guy - here it is a side issue to the main narrative and needs only be told rather than explored. (From 'The Ugly Truth' Dir Robert Luketic)
Similarly, this extract from the TV show 'Bones' utilises the same technique although the time that is compressedd here is much shorter. The girl won't marry Booth (the male character) and we see him consider this and go to the bar (where all the main characters often collect at the end of each episode). Here the emphasis is on the emotional journey of the character and as such does develop the plot - character development is crucial; working alongside narrative trajectoty (the basic telling of the story) it allows the audience to empathise with the character and this draws them into the episode (or film). Audiences need to care about the characters in order to continue to watch an episode (or film).
This TV episode from 'Merlin' uses montage to show an event compressed (the funeral of a colleague) and shows the service and the funeral pyre intercut as if edited in continuity parallel. We see the two sub events happening together through parallel editing but the sequence is montage as the soundbridge of King Arthur's eulogy coupled with an emotive sound track are the conventions of montage. Again the audience are being allowed/invited to empathise with the characters and join in with their grief as it were.
This sequence is a classic example of Hollywood montage. The couple are not yet together (Butle and Heigel) and are at odds. This is a classic ROMCOM plot. We see the girl discuss her meeting with her potential new boyfriend. The montage sequence follows, showing her subsequent first date and then a few weeks/months are shown as the relationship develops. This is done in under 2 minutes so shows compression of time - a central reason to use montage. As per convention, it also uses a music track over with no (or little) dialogue. The narrative is moved forward without using much screen time. To allow you to consider just how much time is compressed, consider how you coul film a whole movie about this girl meeting and dating this guy - here it is a side issue to the main narrative and needs only be told rather than explored. (From 'The Ugly Truth' Dir Robert Luketic)
Similarly, this extract from the TV show 'Bones' utilises the same technique although the time that is compressedd here is much shorter. The girl won't marry Booth (the male character) and we see him consider this and go to the bar (where all the main characters often collect at the end of each episode). Here the emphasis is on the emotional journey of the character and as such does develop the plot - character development is crucial; working alongside narrative trajectoty (the basic telling of the story) it allows the audience to empathise with the character and this draws them into the episode (or film). Audiences need to care about the characters in order to continue to watch an episode (or film).
This TV episode from 'Merlin' uses montage to show an event compressed (the funeral of a colleague) and shows the service and the funeral pyre intercut as if edited in continuity parallel. We see the two sub events happening together through parallel editing but the sequence is montage as the soundbridge of King Arthur's eulogy coupled with an emotive sound track are the conventions of montage. Again the audience are being allowed/invited to empathise with the characters and join in with their grief as it were.
The next extract uses montage to show a journey and to compress time - it's been done in a very 'knowing' and humourous way of course (from 'Snatch' Dir. Guy Ritchie)
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