The Use of Sound in Short Films

Let's get this off to a rolling star with a great example of how powerful sound can be, whether it's there or not. "Virus", a short film by Simon Hynd, uses no dialogue and ambient sounds to create a sense of uneasiness. This film utilises the lack of sound to its advantage. The absent presence of the sound give an unsettling vibe. The sound is meant to be there, but is not, which is unnatural.  The sounds that we can hear sound sinister. The coffee machine, typing and camera all sound evil, like technology is against the protagonist.

The short film on the right, "Pills", uses sound in a different way, ignoring the dialogue, the music played gives a very frantic mood, which adds to the comedy and drama of the piece. The little sound loop that plays is repetitive and annoying, a bit like the character who is mumbling and messing up the house. Relating music towards a characters personality can be like a motif, though in this case I doubt that was the intention. Nevertheless, the music adds a fun feel to the piece, making it more interesting. Without music, this would probably be sinister an bizarre. Although it's already very bizarre.

So, wrapping this up in a neat little bow, the presence or absent presence of sound can affect the way a film feels intensely. Music can practically force a certain feeling onto the audience. Music can amplify the emotion of a scene to. An already sad seen can turn tear-jerking if the correct music is utilised.
Sounds in the scene, diagetic or non-diagetic, can be emphasised to attract focus to the object making the sound, making it more relevant, especially if it's a plot device. Non-diagetic sound FX can be used to make a scene more authentic.

- BW

Development update #1

The camera cut out before chloe could talk about parodies of horror films, but there's still lots of groovy things that we discuss in this otherwise pretty radical video.

this link takes you to the video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7pKTFpvqh8

-BW&CM

developing ideas

As part of my research i came across another A2 short film that gave me many ideas. It was called 'the waters echo' and this is where i decided i really wanted to do somethign working around the idea of time and time travel. I loved the ways they edited their film and used many techinques and angles, it was also very well staged and the story was told in a maner where you wanted to finish to see what finally happens.

This is the video itself from youtube :

- RM

Progressing our idea

In my group we decided we want to base our short film around time and the idea of time travel, this image shows my mind map and rough plan and ideas that we cane up with including name ideas

-RM 

camera angles in short films

Camera angles are extremely important when it comes to film. They make any movie more interesting and visually pleasing, rather than using one wide-shot throughout. They can be used to promote the idea of power or weakness, help a conversation flow and even reveal an object of importance. Overall, angles really make a movie run smoothly if done correctly and vice versa.

The first angle I want to mention is the Bird's Eye View shot, one of Alfred Hitchcock's favourites. This shot is quite unnatural, as the audience wouldn't usually look down upon people from this position... Unless they were especially tall or frequently use a particularly high pair of stilts. The point is, this shot puts the audience in a position of power, making the characters in-shot look insignificant and ant-like.
It's also an opportunity to show the entire scene from a good vantage point. Having a bird's eye view allows us to see everything that's going on, well, unless the characters are hiding under something, like a table or an umbrella.


The use of a high-angled shot is similar to the bird's eye, just not as extreme. It can be used to put a character in a position of weakness. As we look down upon them, they appear small, therefore making the audience feel bigger.
Similarly, a low-angled shot can put a person in the position of power. this is because we are looking up at them, making them appear bigger and more threatening.
To the left is an example of both high and low angled shots being used in "Scrubs", a very popular American sitcom. Although here it's being used in a comedic fashion, almost making a mockery of the shots, it can still be used more subtly and effectively.
At the start of the clip, there's a quick example of using a shot which is eye-level. This more neutral shot type brings us down to the same level as the characters. It's almost like we're observing the scene as another person in the room. This shot is very good when you want to show how all the character in shot are at the same level of importance. It brings the audience to the character's level.

Speaking of taking the audience down to the character's level, POV (point of view) shots are pretty swanky. Because this shot makes us see exactly what the character sees we can perhaps sympathise with them. We see as the character sees, so we feel as the character feels, hopefully.
To the right is a music video called The Stampede by Biting Elbows. This video only uses POV shots from one character, putting the audience in the character's situation. It takes us on this crazy journey, but I'm not explaining it, the video's right there so I don't have to. Anyway, this video is a grand example of the effectiveness of a POV shot. The use of a wide-angle lens is radical too.

The Dutch, Oblique or Canted angle, whatever you want to call it, is when the camera is slightly off-sett, rotated and not horizontal to the floor, making everything slightly disorientating. It's because of this disorientating sensation that makes this shot not feel right, bad almost. This angle can be used to imply corruption, instability and even foreshadowing something bad to come. If a character is evil or to be untrusted, this angle will help imply this.

-BW

editing short films

I'm going to kick off this exciting topic by using a few examples in one of my new favourite short films "The Tea Chronicles" written and directed by Charlie McDonnell and Khyan Mansley, two YouTubers whom I love dearly.

To start off, let's look at how this film used different angles to reveal something. Within the first 12 seconds we see Charlie drinking his tea, then a different angle (accompanied by a deep piano sound) to scarily reveal the other ominous character, Khyan. The way Khyan is introduced implies that he is a threat. The cut back to Charlie's shocked face assures this.
Because we don't see Khyan's face initially makes us not only question who he is, but even what he is. For all we know he's a monster.
The back and forth shots between the pairs faces, which gradually get closer, builds tension, especially when combined with the screechy sound. These quick cuts also push up the tempo, making the moment more nail-biting.

At around 0:44 in this film, we have an example of how a cut-away can be used to show an object that's relevant to the dialogue at the current time.
In this case, it's a cut-away to reveal Charlie's very small "unicycle collection".
Without this cut-away, the conversation would be boring and unfunny. Because we wouldn't see the "collection" without it, we wouldn't understand how what was being said would be funny. But because there is a cut-away, to what is clearly not a "collection", as Charlie states, we can laugh at it because it provides us with the information we need to make the situation comical.

In the film on the right, "Touch" (directed by Nimer Rashed), we see "the life of a couple told through the touching of hands". This is a good example of how past events, in this case memories, can be shown. In mostly chronological order, with the exception of some cut backs to the person remembering (probably to remind the audience these are flashbacks), the story of a couple is told.
Using different clips in that almost chronological order, the editor has created a story. This shows, with minimal dialogue, how a story can be told through editing. The fragments of scenes give us just enough to piece together a story, which in this case is relatively emotional. At least it kind of has a happy ending.

Tick Tock by Ien Chi, apart from being a fantastic short film which only uses one shot, really shows the power of reversed footage. Yes, it's cool, but it also makes it harder for the audience to understand what's happening, hereby making them think about it more. A powerful tool. I'm really considering using reversed footage in the film me, Chloe and Rachel are making. Even if it's just to take the audience back to a key moment, then play it again, from somebody else's point of view, revealing a different part of the story.

This film also utilizes colours to reflect the emotion at the time. I starts (or finishes) highly saturated, reflecting happiness and then finishes (or starts) desaturated. Crazy.  Also, did you know this film is still awesome, even when it's played normally? (Without being reversed)

I've mention reverse motion, let's talk about slow motion. Slow motion can be used to really, really strengthen key moments. By slowing down the action, it gives audiences the time they need to observe what's going on.

Take the film on the right for example. LOVE DIGITAL, directed by Jesse Ashe, uses lots of slow motion. There's lots of combat in this film. When fighting, especially the punches are slowed down. This makes for a cool-action-like feel. It allows us to appreciate the moment more.

Though it's more of a tacky special effect, this film does use one bit of sped-up footage, in which the protagonist rapidly charges at the final boss. I can't really think of another effective way to use sped-up footage. Maybe a tiny bit to make action scenes slightly faster, if the actor isn't quick enough. But otherwise I think it's a no-go for me.

LOVE DIGITAL also uses special FX, a more advanced part of editing. These don't actually add to the narrative or story, it's just visually pleasing and makes it more interesting. The little glitch-like parts make the film more game-like and the neon glasses and super punch make the ten-year-old in me happy. But as exciting as those were, if I'm honest, I think I could match and beat the level of FX used in this film, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Oh, and there's obviously techniques like cross-fades and lap-dissolves to indicate the passing of time between two clips. But they're kind of dull.

-BW

development oneDevelopment

Development Update #1

Team story board on short film idea

One of my members in my group (ben woodier) had an idea for our  short film to do with someone in confussion of what was a dream and whats real life. His post explains the detail behind the idea and bellow is the story board we came up with to get the idea onto paper to make it easier to imagen.

The main idea is that someone is on their way home and as they get in they get a glass of water or soething like that, then the cmaera follows the person walkiing with the camera on the hand hloding the drink, this person then is in bed and asleep when someone in a mask grabs hold of them, events like this continue and he wakes up, there is then shot with the focus just on the rdrink which is now blood red and the person in the mask turn up again this is when the conffusion begins weather he is actually asleep or awake. Ending with him fining the mask in a bag. All this sounds very vague and as mentioned the main ideas are on ben woodiers blog ( http://woodiermedia.blogspot.co.uk/).

-RM

film posters transcriptions

Looking into film posters and advertising for films has become intresting as each and every film has a differnt twist and way to grab peoples attention. Most genres use the same bassic ideas like in their film posters they will include blood or a scary image etc using colours like reds and blacks and so on. Where as a romantic comedy would use the traditional colours of reds and pinks. Some posters work well others do not, as displayed bellow there is an uneffective poster.

 
This film poster was designed fpr the film 'meet the folkers', although this has all the basic needs of a film poster such as the main cvharacters in it and an image of the main character it lacks imagenation and oprignality. The plain bacvkground isnt very appealing and the simple image doesnt tell you much about the characters and doesnt draw you in to making you want to watch the film. It simply looks like a buinch of normal people who live a normal life. Also the font style was a very bassic text which again doesnt draw anyone in. I would change the main image on this p[oster along with the font style and use brighter colours and relate it more to the story line. An example of an effective film poster is displayed bellow. These images work well together along with the style of righting and colours used. You can tell this film is to do with the main characters on the front of the posters as they are clearly displayed. The images have been phoptoshoped well and made to look perfect brightning the colour of the peoples eyes which makes it eye catching. The way the text is layed out also workd effectivly as it look almost like and equasionw hich again links to the film and its genre. The positioning works well too as the title splits the two poeple apart helping the genre once again and making the font and images stand out and work well together.  

-RM

New short film idea

After looking into some film traillers that are based on famous peoples lives such as 'my week with marylin' and the new film coming out 'diana'. These films are based on true stories and the lives of two famopus people and how they live their every day lives with the ups and downs. It give insights to what their lives are really like behind closed doors when the public are gone. For example marylin monroe had a hard life she was sexually asulted when she was young by her step father and suffered a lot of abuse from producers etc from the films she was in.

My idea was to use this kind of 'what happens behind the scenes' view and applying it to people like 'the school bully' or 'the popular girl' and creating this documentry type style on what life was really like with a twist to what you would expect.

-RM

don lafontaine

Don Lafontaine is a great example of someone who does narration in film and TV, His vouce has appeared on many different adverts and has such as distinctive voice across national television and film. Having a unique and powerful voice makes the narrative way more intresting and exciting meaning only a selective amount of people tend to be those used on voice overs etc. In this video above he talks in more depth about how having the right voice is effecitve and works well.

-RM

Use of Narration

The Use of narration can be looked at in different ways. When someone asked me what i imidatly thought it was a voice over type person used in a programe like big brother and comantating a football match. Narration can be used on many forms of media such as radio, tv and films. Narration can also be used to brake the '4th wall' meaning the wall between characters and the viewers/audience, a prime example of this is in theater and pantomimes when the character still stays in character but stears away from the main story to interact with the qudience for example 'buttons' in cinderella asking 'the boys and girls' what they think he should do. Also this is used in TV (mainly childerns programes) to engae the viewer. For this to be done on tv is much harder but used effectivly it works really well not used effecitly can ruin a programe or a performane. It helps to tell a story and draw and audience in to the character and their personalities. The begining of the film 'American Beauty' is a good example of narration being used at a begining of the film. It draws you into the character and what exactly it is they're thinking in a clever way, then depending on how well the acting is depends on how quickly the audience picks up on who the character is. It also helps set the scene well as shown in this film opening and gives you a small opverview of whats going to happen like in this film when he states 'im going to die one day' ut indercates this fuilm may lead up to the day he dies.

-RM

the importance of character

In todays lesson we watched a clip on the way the film 'Big Fish' was filmed and created. I learnt the importance of character and that in order for your film to be successful you need a strong character to lead the narative and get the audience attached. Even with a weak plot having a strong character could turn the film into something orignial and exsciting.

In big fish the same character has two different people play it, this can work really effectivly to tell a story as you can do flash forwards and backs to tell the story which can add twists and turns to the story line. Doing this means everything has to be very direct and exact as both actors/actresses need to have the same kind of characteristics. Something simple like the fishing scene in 'big fish' needs to be done very well for it to look right, both actors need to act in the same way to show they are the came character at different ages. done well this can be really effecitve but done without a lot of thought it could ruin a film.

I learnt you should come up with a strong character first before you think too much into the plot as having a lead character then tells the story through them. Therefore before my groups starts thihnkgs of plot we wilkl come up with some character profiles to find a really strong character that can also been seen as a narrator.