Soundtrack Creation Evaluation

This assignment required me to create a soundtrack to add mood or meaning to a film scene of my choice. I chose a scene from 'Paranormal Activity 2' where a woman is in a kitchen reading a magazine when all of the cupboards burst open suddenly and scare her. The original scene had no soundtrack in it and only relied on sound effects. I used garageband with musical typing to create the soundtrack and combine it with the clip from the film. I then exported it to a .mov file. I chose to make a more atmospheric soundtrack rather than a more melodic song because I felt that it fit the horror genre of the film and this specific scene better. I used a celtic harp on a very low octave to create a sort of beating drum sound which plays quietly throughout the scene. I felt that this heightened the suspense of the scene as in the original it is just a woman silently reading which I don't feel has the same impact on the audience without the soundtrack.The soundtrack lets you know that something is wrong and that something is going to happen. The harp increases gradually in volume until the cupboard burst opens where it stays at it's loudest until the end of the scene. I also used violins in a very high octave at the point of the scene when the cupboards burst open because I felt that they added extra shock value to the event and heighten the scare factor for the audience.

This assignment required me to create a soundtrack to add mood or meaning to a film scene of my choice. I chose a scene from Pulp Fiction where the antagonist 'Marsellus Wallace' and 'Butch Coolidge',who is a boxer, are escaping from their captors and getting some revenge. The original scene had no musical backing to it and only used sound effects and dialogue. I used garageband with musical typing to create the soundtrack and combine it with the clip from the film. I then exported it to a .mov file. This time I chose to make a more melodic soundtrack rather than atmospheric. I still feel that it adds atmosphere, however. I used a gregorian choir on a lower octave to create a deep serious soundtrack. I feel that this adds to the mood of the scene as it is quite a serious scene where they are torturing and taunting a man who kidnapped them. The music fades out at the end of the scen so id doesn't end as abruptly. The soundtrack reinforces the idea that this is a very serious scene where there is danger present. I also made the music a low volume so as not to take away from the dialogue in the scene.

38.1 Sound Analysis

Moving Image Soundtrack Report

Children of Men
Children of Men is a 2006 Sci-Fi film. The audio of the opening scene sets the mood and setting of the rest of the film. The audio of the film starts before the video to make sure that you are listening because the audio is very important. I will be focusing on the dialogue, sound FX and the music of the scene.The scene starts out with only dialogue as it sets the scene for the film and explains the state of the world at the time of the film.The government is, for example, deporting all immigrants, Seattle is under siege for its 3rd year and the army has taken over all mosques. There is very little dialogue in the scene. It comes only from the newsreaders on the TV and from the main character ‘Theo’ ordering a coffee. The dialogue from Theo isn’t functional but the dialogue from the newsreaders is as it sets the scene and hints to us that the human race has become infertile because they explain that the youngest person in the world at the time was 18 years old. There are also multiple people crying in the background at the news of the death. Toward the end of the scene there is a bombing which results in lots of screaming from the victims and the witnesses.There is only one piece of music in the scene starting at 36s and running until around 1:01. It is most likely diegetic sound stemming from the news report on the death of the world’s youngest person. It could, however, be non-diegetic and playing only for the audience to hear to set the mood of the scene. It is used to set the mood of the film because it conveys the sadness that the world if feeling because of infertility problems.There are multiple sound effects in the scene. Most of the sound effects are that of the cars, buses and motorised rickshaws driving through the street that Theo is on. There is also an explosion when the coffee shop that Theo had just left is bombed toward the end of the scene which sets of a synchronous ringing of an alarm and in the ears of Theo as he was very close to the shop when It happened. The ringing is a sound bridge to the next scene where it becomes the noise of a scanner at the entrance to the building in which Theo works. The sound effects of the scene are naturalistic because they are realistic sounds that would be happening in that situation. There are multiple sound effects in the scene. Most of the sound effects are that of the cars, buses and motorised rickshaws driving through the street that Theo is on. There is also an explosion when the coffee shop that Theo had just left is bombed toward the end of the scene which sets of a synchronous ringing of an alarm and in the ears of Theo as he was very close to the shop when It happened. The ringing is a sound bridge to the next scene where it becomes the noise of a scanner at the entrance to the building in which Theo works. The sound effects of the scene are naturalistic because they are realistic sounds that would be happening in that situation.

Kingsman: The Secret Service
Kingsman: The Secret Service is a 2014 action film. There is a particular scene toward the end of the film where implants, put in certain peoples heads by the villain as a way to keep them safe from the cull that he wants to perform on humanity, are set to explode to help the Kingsman agents escape what would otherwise be certain death and to help save the world from the villain of the film. I will be focusing on the dialogue, sound FX and music of this scene in this analysis. There is little dialogue in the scene and it is mainly used to explain to the audience what is about to happen in the scene. The rest of the dialogue is the reactions of the main villain 'Valentine' and the Kingsman agents to the events of the scene. The Kingsman agents having a good reaction as it has helped them in their mission to stop Valentine. One of the characters, called Merlin, went as far as to say 'fucking spectacular' after the implants had finished exploding . Valentine and his assistant Giselle having an adverse reaction as it has damaged his plan to keep the most 'useful' people alive whilst the rest of the world is culled. an example of this is Valentine screaming 'No' as he realises what is about to happen.All of the sound effects in the scene are naturalistic as they are realistic to the scene and would actually be heard in that situation. They are also all diegetic as they all come from sources that are actually in the realm of the film as opposed to added in later for only the audience to hear. The sources of the sound effects are computers, a surface to air missile launcher, guns cocking, exploding implants and exploding heads. There are no ambient sounds in the scene. The sound effects are synchronised to the music in the scene to help with comedic effect as you can also see the heads exploding into clouds of colourful gas instead of gore because the antagonist is extremely squeamish. There are two separate pieces of music in the scene, both of them being non-diegetic. The first piece of music runs from the beginning of the scene until about 38s in and is used to build suspense as the two agents are trying to find ways out of seemingly inescapable situations that would almost certainly lead to their deaths. This piece is a sound bridge between the main shots of the main character Eggsy surrounded by soldiers in a hallway and another agent Merlin in a plane which is about to have missiles launched at it. The second piece of music starts at around 43s and runs until about 1:45s is used whilst the implants are exploding within peoples heads and is synchronised with the sound of the explosions. The first piece of music was an original score for the film but the second piece of music is a very well know composition by Sir Edward Elgar. It is called March No.1 and it is from the Pomp and Circumstance series of marches. This piece of music is probably most commonly associated with American college graduation ceremonies in modern times but it is actually a military march from 1901. This music choice could be used to represent the fight between the good force that is The Kingsman and the evil that is Valentine. The name of the series of marches also comes from an Othello quote describing how war is glorious in all of its ritual and ceremony. This may be representing the glory of stopping evil and saving the world and it's values from said evil. It is also seen as an unofficial national anthem for Britain by some people so it could also represent the agents fighting for their country. This music is also used as a sound bridge as we cut to different settings around the world to show the scope of implants exploding and the amount of people swayed by Valentine.

Louis Theroux: Dark States
This is a programme that uses live interviews and so the dialogue in the programme is live location sound the fact that the conversations are real also means the dialogue is naturalistic. In the 3rd episode 'Murder In Milwaukee’, for example, he interviews the family of a man who was fatally shot by police on location a the scene where the shooting had previously taken place. The actual interview begins at around the 35s mark in the scene before which the dialogue is recorded post production to explain the situation before the interview. There is no music in the scene because we are meant to be focusing on the dialogue and the setting being explained rather than anything else. The only sound effects in the scene are diagetic ones. All of the sound effects come from the setting that they are in during the scene (A street in Memphis). The sound effects are essentially limited to cars driving by in the distance as well as a police car driving through the frame.

Dubbing Evaluation

This assignment required me to dub over the dialogue for a scene from a film of my choice. I chose to use a scene from The Matrix where the main character Neo first meets Morpheus and they have a conversation about the matrix. I used google to find the script for the scene. I then went on to record the voiceover through garageband on a macbook laptop. I then combined it with the original video clip and edited them together in GarageBand to later be exported to a .mov file. I recorded my voice in a relatively empty part of the college. I believe my recording was synced well and fits with the characters speaking. We did this task in pairs and I played Neo whilst my partner played Morpheus. As it was a voiceover we used the same dialogue which meant that the scene's mood and meaning stayed the same through both the original and the dubbed version. 

Adding Music Evaluation

This assignment required me to add a soundtrack to a film clip of my choice. I decided to use the final scene from the 2014 film 'Ex Machina'. I chose to make the first edit signify the perspective of ‘Ava’, the AI from the film. In the scene she has escaped her facility and is experiencing the real world for the first time. To show this I chose music that I believe signifies wonder and curiosity. I chose the soundtrack for the 2012 game 'Far Cry 3'. I believe that this accurately portrayed the mood that I wanted to give the scene. I used garage band on a mac to combine the scene from the film and the music. I found both the clip and the music track on YouTube. I edited the music track so it fades out at the end rather than ending abruptly.

 I chose to make the second edit seem more from the perspective of ‘Caleb’, one of the scientists in the film. In the scene Ava has trapped him in the facility after he helped her to escape. I chose to make the scene rather dark and ominous for this reason. I found a short clip of ominous music on YouTube. I believe that this portrays the mood that I wanted to. At the start of the scene you might not understand the music choice but when it cuts to Caleb trapped with dead bodies near him I feel it starts to make sense. This edit also fades out at the end to stop it from finishing abruptly. This edit was also created on garage band and the clips found on YouTube.