Assignments

38.1: Soundtrack Production for the Moving Image 

Analysis 1:

In this assignment, i am going to be looking at three different scenes from three different films and, talking about all the sound effects and use of music in the films and how it creates effect for the audience. The first film i am going to talk about, is the Avengers Endgame Final Battle scene, The second film will be The Spiderman Into The Spider Verse ending scene and finally, the final scene i'm going to talk about is, The Shining "Come play with us" scene.

Film/scene 1: Avengers Endgame Final Battle

At the start of the scene, we can hear diegetic sounds of yelling from all the characters who are entering into the battle through the portals as well as non-diegetic sound of the intense background music. When, it gets to the scene of Captain America shouting “AVENGERS!” you can hear and see ambient/diegetic sounds of Thor landing on the ground with a “Thud” noise and then Captain America then, receiving Mjölir (AKA the hammer) where we can hear a swooshing sound. After he catches the hammer for about 0.2 seconds all music and all you can hear is the sound of flames from fires burning until Captain America silently says “assemble”. As soon as he says that, you can hear all the other main and background characters yelling at which point the music starts to get louder and plays the well-known motif, of the Marvel/Avengers franchise. 

There are more and more ambient and diegetic sounds afterwards of different ships flying fast, Stomping of Giant-Man running, Spider-man’s webs slinging. We the, see and hear all of the bad guys charging into battle yelling and this is diegetic sound. In the background we can still hear the non diegetic motif playing to create an atmosphere. As soon as Captain America throws the hammer at one of the bad guys, we get a diegetic sound of some lightning, then we hear the sound effect of The Wasp growing and then kicking a villain as well as the sound of weapons clashing. You can hear a diegetic sound of the Hulk throwing someone to the ground and then shouting in pain. As well as after that we see Giant-Man punching a ship where we can hear the sound of the impact as the ship is taken to the ground. There's a clip where IronMan and Pepper Potts in the rescue armour flying and there's multiple diegetic sounds that come from this such as from the jets in their suits that are allowing them to fly, and the sounds of their suits charging up to fire blasters where we get some blaster sound effects happening and the sound of enemy ships being blown up.

The motif and background noise quiets down wen we see a shot of Captain America and Thor standing together before the dialogue when Thor says "no no give me that, you have the little one" when swapping the hammer for an axe. we can also hear and see the lightning coming off of Thor when he leaps off the ground to fly. The next clip, is of Bucky and Rocket Racoon. both firing guns so we hear and see the sounds of bullets being fired from the guns. After that when it. shows a clip, of IronMan and SpiderMan meeting up again the motif starts to change and is more of a gentle light heartened music as it is meant to be like a reunion when the meat again after five years of IronMan thinking SpiderMan was dead. This gives off a lot of emotions with the sound because we see that both the characters speak to each other and SpiderMan who is meant to be 15 at the time is really excited and happy to see IronMan once again as, he sees him as a farther figure. This dialogue is known as a conversational dialogue. The light heartened music helps to allow the audience to understand the bond between the two characters as IronMan is in relief to see the kid again. In the scene, there's a clip where part of the ground has been destroyed and, a whole load of water is about to flood the place but, Doctor Strange has to stop the flood, at this point there is diegetic sounds of the explosion, water flooding and, Doctor Strange using his magic to try and hold back the flood. When he uses his magic we can hear, a slight mystically sound.

Further on in the scene, the music stops and everything goes silent but then starts again after 3 seconds and starts to get deeper but speed as up when Captain Marvel arrives. When she comes flying in we hear diegetic sound of her crashing into the ship causing an explosion then, we hear sound effects of the guns on the ship stopping. After the explosion, the music starts to get louder and has a rescue feel to it, like she has returned to save everyone and is the saviour. As soon as, the ship crashes into the water we get a diegetic sound of an explosion and water rising. This is creating a more intense mood to the scene which, is making the audience wonder if there's going to be something good that happens.

The directors choice of music in this scene is really good as it create intense emotion and a battle feel to it so that the audience will be sitting on the end of their seats whilst watching the battle making them wanting to know what is going to happen next. A lot of the sounds used in the film would be foley sounds created in a studio however sounds like the air crafts and the sounds for the magic effects. 

Film/Scene 2: SpiderMan into the spider verse Ending scene

At the start of the final scene from SpiderMan into the Spider verse we here non diegetic sounds, of sparks of electricity and fire. when the shot changes to Spiderman hanging from a web we can hear diegetic sounds of him breathing deeply after the fight against King Pin. It then cuts to a shot of Spiderman, looking at his dad who is trapped under rubble in a building and this is where there's diegetic sound of his dad moving the rubble, sliding onto the floor and him coughing. Afterwards beget a shot of the main city where we can see and hear diegetic sounds of helicopters and police sirens, and people talking. In the background of the start of the scene we can soft music being played to give the effect of something has just happened and that everyone is in shock. The next shot shows miles morales's (Spiderman) dad reach into his pocket as his phone goes off. The sound of his phone going off, is a starts off as a non diegetic sound because we can't see the phone but then turns into a diegetic sound as he takes it out and clicks on it. When his dad starts talking the non diegetic background music, starts to get quieter this is so we can hear the dialogue between the two characters who are speaking in a quiet voice to create emotion. When miles's dad starts to talk we get the sense of worry and he wants to know if, miles is alright after everything that just happened to the city. As well as worry the dialogue is a heart to heart conversation between the two characters having a father, son talk.This, is also known as emotional realism. When the two start to be open hearted, the background noise of cars stop so the music can get louder and hear the dialogue. 

Further on in the scene we see the villain kingpin attached to a web and we get non diegetic sounds of police cars whilst the music changes to a deeper based more hip hop song which, is meant to represent a city vibe. we see and hear diegetic sounds of the press taking photos of king Pin in the next shot. After that we get multiple voice overs in the next clip, when Spiderman aka Miles is walking through the street of people saying "We love you Spidey!" and cheering. This is a diegetic and non diegetic voice over because we can't see all of the crowd talking or Miles talking under his mask but, we can see people talking. 

Most if not all the sounds we hear in this film, would have been made in a studio meaning there's a big use of foley sound in this film. The sounds may be created via people in a recording studio or they would be made digitally via computers and editing.


Film/Scene 3:The shining (1980) "Come play with us" Scene

In the Shining, there is a lot of different sounds used to create a scary, horror film effect. 
The "come play with us" corridor scene is a great example. 

At the start of the scene, we see the kid on his bike going around the hotel so we get a diegetic sound of the bike rolling on the floor. During this time the screechy sound of violins are playing and the sound is rising. this is to create a dramatic effect to make us scared. then the kid goes around the corner and sees the two twins standing there, we can hear a "Dong". This makes the audience more scared of everything that, is about to happen as these two twins have just appeared out of nowhere. The get a diegetic dialogue from the twins who are speaking at the same time which, makes everything sound a lot scarier as to what's happening and is making the audience not knowing what, is about to happen. When the twins, say "come play with us forever, forever and forever" whilst cutting to scenes of the twins dead on the floor with blood everywhere, the music has a pion being played in a high key to create effect of fear to make the audience and mess with their brains. 

The directors use of sound is very good in this film, because it gets into the audience's head and makes them sit on the edge of their seats or, hiding behind something. The sound gives a huge effect because after watching the film the music can get stuck in your head then, you may feel like you are I the film and trapped in the film when you walk down a hallway in the dark at home or in a hotel after. The use of the music is the same as in most horror films, which is to add the effect because if you watch the scene, without the music it wouldn't be as scary as there is nothing to build up the tension.








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Workshop 1: Adding a voiceover


In this assignment, I had to create a voice over dub for a scene from either a film or a TV show. For this assignment, the TV show scene me, Kate, Haille and Dylan did was The Simpsons.

In this scene it starts off with the normal dialogue of Lisa Simpson speaking then, you hear a crunching sound which we recorded as a bit of foley sound with a crisp wrapper to sound like the bully in biting the head of the doll off and spitting it out. We then hear the bully(me) start talking in a deep voice/accent saying "How's that for vegan?". As soon as that is said, the bully throws Lisa Simpson into a locker where once again we hear a bit of foley sound to make it sound like the door is being slammed which we bashed a radiator for the slamming sound. After that, we hear Lisa (Dylan) saying "All this because I'm vegan?" which then fades into the next part of the clip which, is where three characters are in the lockers and we see two eyes appear with a deep voice saying "Hi, I like burgers do you like burgers?" from there we see another pair of eyes through the lockers and the character says "Vegan burgers?" in a higher pitched voice. It then goes back to the first person who says "No" in a deep voice and says "No! regular burgers, Joey makes all the burgers". The clip then goes to the third character also known as Joey (Haille), who says "Hi! I'm Joey and I make the burgers..burgers! burgers! BURGERS!!!!" in a high pitched crackling voice. 

The second part to the video, is from a different scene. This scene starts off by having Marge Simpson walk through the door and Ned Flanders, is there talking to her. For the first part of the clip we used the original line that Ned says but then mid way his voice goes a bit deeper and starts to say "They're crazy! You don't understand, I can't do this anymore! You spend ten minutes with them and you just...Ahh!" For this, I had to on premiere pro deepen the voice or the original sound to try and get it as close as the original voice that I could. After that, I decided to try and fade in the voice at the start of the talking as well as trying to get the voice in time with the clip. The scene then cuts to a frame where Marge Simpson, is spelling a word out saying "C...R...A..ZY" For Marge's voice I had to turn up the pitch of the original voice a bit to try and make the voice higher. We then see Ned Flanders holding a piece of paper, giving it to marge saying "Heres my number incase you need to call, but try. not to" At this point ends voice is deeper but more relaxed. 

The third part, we see the new clip fade in and it starts off with Marge Simpson walking through a door frame and starts talking to Ned Flanders children Rod and Todd saying "So..Would you guys like to go to the park? or watch a film?". After that Dylans character Rod says "We like to dance and play" my character Todd then says "Yeah, with each other!" for Todd's voice I had to make my voice high pitched but then also try and make the pitch higher and squeakier in premier pro, to make it sound more like a young kid.

For all of the voices we used a voice recorder to to record the voices then, we used a phone and garage band for the sound of the locker closing. I used my knowledge of premier pro to be able to change the pitch of the sounds etc but also, to match the timings of the voices with the clips.

Equipment Used:
Premire Pro
Voice Recorder
Phone
Garage Band

Link to video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsEvHeJ9cu4

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Workshop 2: Dubbing Dialogue:


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Workshop 3: Recording and Adding Sound Effects

Jurassic World Final T-Rex Fight Scene

In this workshop, I had to find a scene from a film and take out the volume and add my own foley sounds/sound effects to the scene.

At the start of the video when the door is opening me and my group created a clanking sound for the door rising by using a plastic door which when you open and close it make a crackling sound. Using Premier Pro, I decided to slow down the noise to 70% to make it slower and more in time with the action on the screen. Another sound you can hear, is a the sound of a flare. For the ignition and movement of the flare I didn't have any resources that could create a flare sound so I decided to download some free use stock sound of a flare and put it in time with the scene. In the back ground you can hear a crashing sound which is meant to represent the T-Rex knocking down trees. For that sound I had to find some free use stock sounds for the crashing. For the footsteps of the T-Rex in the background, we decided to slowly bash the plastic door to represent the thud noise of the dinosaur stomping. We can hear the soft gentle background music that I added in to create more tension. The song I used was a different song which is the final trailer theme from Star Wars The Rise Of The Skywalker as I found it worked well with the scene so I used it . Song original composer: Blake Robinson, link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39pbFow9gzg . When the camera zooms in on the characters face, you can hear slight deep breathing showing that the character is scared.

When the female character, starts to move and run we can hear squelching sounds to represent the sound of movement in puddles and mud. The squelching noise, was mad by using an old bottle of washing up liquid being squeezed as well as me finding some mud on a different day of recording and stepping in it, then I blended them together on premier pro.  As well as this, you can hear the T-Rex growling and to create this I got some free use stock sound online of a dinosaur growl. I also created tapping sound to represent the character running by using my tongue and making a clicking sound which I then changed the volume speed and pitch in premier pro. For the roaring sound I had to use a mic/recorded to then do my "best" attempt at a T-Rex impression but also did a Chewbacca Wookie roar from Star Wars, then made the dinosaur roar slower to make it deeper and last longer then, add the rookie roar I did and make that slower and put them in time with each other with the clip all on premier pro. The next shot shows the other dinosaur reaching into a building where there are bricks crumbling. For this sound, I had to download some free use stock sound to be able to get the sound of bricks from a building falling down. When the hand reaches inside the building, we see a shot of three of the characters and you can hear them breathing deeply. For the breathing of the people, we had people up against the mic breathing but when I was editing, I found the breathing was too slow so I decided to speed the noise up to make the breathing faster. The next noise you can hear, is the sound of one of the younger characters's shirt tearing a bit. For this what we decided to do, is get someone to scratch their hand down a fabricated chair. 

For the clip where the female character is running with the dinosaur, I decided to carry on using the origin al sound of the foot steps but slowed it down and tried to make sure it is in time with the clip but, also give you the idea that it is in slow motion. For the sound of the woman running, I just used the sound I used for her running before but as she got faster I mad sure the timing of the running sound was faster. You can also hear a breathing noise of the character breathing deeply whilst running as well as the same free use stock sound of the flare. When the flare is thrown and hits the other dinosaur, the dinosaur roars and for the roar of that dinosaur, I decide to use the same one as the other one but changed the pitch of it by making it more of a higher pitched roar so you can tell the difference between the two dinosaurs. For the sound of the T-Rex breaking through the skeleton, as I couldn't physically make that noise with the resources that I had, I decided to get some free use stock sound of wood breaking and added that to give the effect that the bones were snapping. For the teeth biting sounds, I had to bit into an apple in front of a mic so that, it sounded like a dinosaur crunching it's teeth when biting the other dinosaur. For the sound of the lamppost falling I had to get some free stock sound of some metal falling and a screeching door and blend them together. I also added some spark sounds that I had to download to give the effect of the fuse in the lamppost sparking. For some more skeleton structures and bricks falling I decided to use the wood snapping sound again. When the dinosaur gets thrown through a wall I decided to, use free stock sound of bricks being demolished and crumbling. For the line of the female character shouting "RUN!!" I decided to just use the original audio from the original clip for it.  

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Workshop 4: Original Non-Diegetic Music

For this workshop, I used a scene from Star Wars The Last Jedi which is Supreme Leader Snokes throne room/death scene and created my own music on garage band. I chose this scene as it has a lot of action in it and is fast pace and intense. For the start of the clip I used the original sound and dialog to build the tension. As soon as the character (Rey) catches the lightsaber, the music starts playing. The music starts off with the Doghouse Synth Guitar playing to set the pace of the music with the scene. As soon as the two characters stand up to fight the guards, a drum beat starts to play and I have made it so that the beat is in time with the movements of the characters and when their weapons collide. As soon as the clip changes, so theres a two against one with Rey against the guards I included a new guitar sound called "Full Measures Muted Guitar" to mix the sound up and change the tone of the scene and sound.