Sound Research

I found a clip on the internet from the James Bond film 'Skyfall'. This clip is of a 'chase scene' and I decided to analyse the sound in this particular scene.

At the start of the clip there is a lot of diegetic alarms from this I could tell that the protagonist would find an error which they would have to overcome also in this scene there is a dead body in shot. With this there is faint background music which becomes loader when the camera pans up to find a cage which has been emptied, this could suggest that a very important character has escaped. From this background music it makes the audience more tense to find out what actions the protagonist will take to secure the prisoner and if the prisoner has done any other damage which could affect the plot.

Throughout this clip there are a lot of dialogue scenes between the protagonist and other 'agent' type of people, through this they are communicating through ear pieces about the prisoner (antagonist). Through this dialogue the audience can learn about the antagonist and there importance to the plot. While this is happening the background music quiets down.

When the protagonist then spots the antagonist a lot of stringed instruments and drums come into play. These instruments bring along a lot of tension within the scene and leave the audience feeling on edge.

The music then calms down again but has the constant drum beat which could connote that something exciting and thrilling might happen. Straight after this Bond is let in a situation where he is trying to get through a door but it is locked, while this is happening a train is heading for him. Through this sequence of events the music completely stops so the audience can think about the situation and what might happen. When Bond hears/sees the train the music picks up again and becomes very fast paced while the protagonist is trying to open the door. When he finally opens the door the music stops completely and all the audience can hear are the screeching of the train on the tracks.

After this the antagonist is shown within the tube station, he passes by two people dressed in police uniform. The music starts of quiet but picks up pace and maintains this while the antagonist picks up a mysterious package from these two men. From this music and the scene the audience begin to feel more tense because they don't know what could be inside the package and what impact it could have.

With this th antagonist gets onto another train but dresses up in the police outfit from the package. The protagonist does not know whether the antagonist is on the train or not. The string instruments then pick up when Bond has to run and jump on to the train in an attempt to catch the criminal. When it is time to get off the train Bond finally finds the antagonist and they both go to run out of the train the strings then go high pitch and fast through this chase scene and while Bond acknowledges that he has lost the criminal the music then remains quiet.

From analysing this clip I understand what sound is necessary in a chase sequence. In my team we are conducting a chase scene and we are going to include intense music for most of the action/chase parts to make to scene more thrilling and exciting. We will also try to include copyright free music.

Risk Assesment

Hazard/Risk	Level of Risk	Control
Weather	Medium	We will check the weather forecast before going out to avoid any weather problems. We will also wear suitable clothing for if there is any weather disturbances. (Coats, boots, umbrella). We could also bring protection for the equipment to avoid any damages
Anything likely to cause trips and falls	Low	We would clear the area before filming to make sure there wasn’t anywhere which could cause harm. We would also plan on which areas are safe to film with a low risk of trips. We would also move all wires or equipment out of the way if it could cause harm.
Setting up, use and taking down equipment	Low	We will make sure that the equipment is on flat ground so it is a less risk of falling over and breaking. We would also have a bag so the equipment would be protected while moving locations.
Manual Handling	Low	With this we would move the equipment around in the bag so it is protected from harm and cannot cause any harm to anyone around. We will also be careful in where we are placing equipment.
Tidiness, cleaning up and rubbish disposal.	Low	We would make sure to clean up the area before filming to make for a better environment. We will also place all our rubbish into bins so it does not affect the environment of the location.

Final Audience Survey

 The first question we asked was 'Do you think it's better for the Antagonist's identity to be...'. The most chosen answer from the audience was 'shown slightly'. My team were already thinking of only showing the antagonist slightly because it makes the character more mysterious because the audience doesn't know their identity. This confirms that we will only show a part of the antagonist but not their whole face.




 The next question we asked the audience was 'Do you think it will be more effective to hear the gun shot rather then see the death?'. The majority vote for this question was 'Maybe' this shows that the audience are unsure about this question. This could be that they might not know if the death scene would be realistic if we acted it out. Our team have decided to go with the second most popular vote which was 'Yes'. This is because we thought the audience could tell that someone had died from the gunshot sound and it wouldn't look realistic if we attempted to act this scene.



 https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6GYWZ6D    

Texual Analysis (Student work)

This textual analysis is based of an As students production- I found this on the OCR Media Studies 'Weebly' site. The title is 'The Edge'.

The first thing shown in this opening is a tall car park space with the students ident on top of the building. During this the camera is quite shaky which could make the scene more tense. A character then appears on the screen wearing roller-skates they then enter this building. While this is all happening there is some non-diegetic background music which all stays at the same pitch which creates a build up of tension.

This then cuts to a scene where the main character is fully visible to the audience. The boy is shown to be wearing quite casual clothes which connotes that he is quite ordinary. With his backpack it could connote that he goes to school which suggests that he is young. The character then proceeds to get into a lift. Multiple pieces of text appear within these scenes stating who took part in the production. The music then begins to build which indicates a main event is going to happen soon.

As the boy gets into the elevator the camera then zooms in to a piece of technology in his hand. It then cuts to outside where two people in suits are entering the building. By having these two people walking in it could suggest that they want the piece of technology that the boy has. By their suits it could connote that they are from a big business and are therefor very important. The title of the production is then displayed. The background music has now picked up pace and is now gradually getting faster and loader this goes along with the tension of not knowing what might happen to the characters.

There is then a sequence where both sides (the boy and the two men) are climbing the building. This includes multiple scenes with both party's climbing stairs and running. The boy is then shown to be outside of the building- this is shown from the bright light. He then stops where he is and waits. There then is a close up of his face which shows his emotions clearly to the audience. The two men then emerge from the building and spot the boy this then leads to a chase scene between the characters. From this chase scene it connotes that this could be an action film because that is one of the main convention- this could also be proven from the use of technology which is also used in action films. Through this scene there are POV shots from one of the men which shows him running towards the boy this then gives the audience a different perspective.

The final shot of this production is one of the men is pointing a gun towards the boy this then leaves the audience very tense because they do not know what will happen to the boy. The scene then fades to black and leaves the cliff-hanger. Also the gun has focus on it which connotes the power of the object. Another point about this production is that there is not dialogue at all the words are shown purely through the action sequences

Production by Rory Campbell

Locations for shooting

The Locations-
One of my team members Maddy went out today and took some pictures of our location. The first location is an abandoned farm and the second location is a forest. In both locations we are planning on having a chase scene going across there areas. This is also a good place to shoot because there is not many people around this area so we wouldn't have to retake a shot because of pedestrians. These shots were taken at around 10am in the morning and are all done from the natural lighting.

Antagonist Costume idea

For our first idea for the costume my team thought of was a very simple outfit consisting of a hoodie, jeans and shoes. We though that from this outfit the antagonist was able to blend into the environment. They would also have their hood up to hide their identity so there is a lot of mystery within this outfit because the audience cannot tell who this character is (e.g. woman/man, age etc.) Also my group decided to make the costume black because is connotes the evil and darkness within this character- it shows the audience that this particular character is the well know 'bad guy' and therefore will have a main part in the plot line.

The second outfit we thought of was to keep the original elements (jeans and shoes) but we would change the hoodie to a coat. The coat shows the antagonist to be professional and able to buy more expensive items of clothing. The coat however wouldn't be able to hide their identify because their is no hood. We also stuck with the black theme for both the hoodie and the coat.

(Pictures created by Maddy Flaherty)

Roles

Role	Person who plays the role
Antagonist	Honesty
Victim	Ronan
‘Boss’ Antagonist	Maddy

Conventions of an action film

Conventions-

Narrative-
Todorov created a theory about the different stages that are typical in movies. In most action movies it follows Todorov's rule with a equilibrium and a resolution at the end. Usually in the disruption there is some form of chase or fight scene which defines action movies. Action movies also tend to include binary opposites as part of the storyline (Good vs Evil) In our production we are thinking of using binary opposites because it is a massive convention of action films and we though it could be easy to include.

Characters-
There is also very many stereotypes within action movies regarding characters. For example the common 'hero' is usually a male who is shown to be very strong/violent and does whatever it takes to overcome evil. The hero's also tend to wear bright clothing to define them from the villains. The women are usually seen as 'princesses' or 'damsel in distress', there roles mostly consist of them getting captured and having to be saved by the hero. In modern day films however some of the main producers have tried to get women to be shown as the hero type. For example Black Widow is shown to be very strong and capable to look after herself and save other people like the typical hero. In our production there probably wont be much input from the hero characters because our idea is based around the antagonist. The villain in action films are seen to mostly be a male figure who is clever and 'creepy'. The antagonist wears mostly dark clothes which connotes evil and hatred within the character. In out production we are using the villain as our main character and we are going to be using most of the conventions associated with evil like dark clothes.

Mise en scene and camera/editing-
In action films it is mostly set in the real world but with a slight twist- e.g. superpowers. In most of these real world settings it is very glamorous with high tech facilities. A lot of CGI is often used in action movies to make the scenes more exciting for the viewer. There is also a lot of costumes used in action films- e.g. superhero costumes. These help define the character and what there values are. - for example bright clothes of a superhero costume, the character needs to stand out from the crowed so they can be noticed for there values and actions. For editing there is a lot of faced paced background music this goes with the fast paced cuts to bring energy to the scene.

Twitter poll 3

One of my group members Maddy did another twitter poll asking if the audience wanted the antagonist to have the power of telekinesis or not. The results came out as 50/50. From this my team have decided to keep the idea of the villain having powers because it will make our production more exciting and will show off some main conventions. It would also be interesting to see how we will include this part within our production and how we are going to make it look visually appealing.

Another Production Idea

Earlier on today my team had the idea of including a text message on the screen, now we have developed an idea of how we are going to include this. First the antagonist walks into a shot with trees and a background, after this the antagonist would then send a text message which would appear in the shot so the audience can see what they are talking after this there would then be a fight/chase scene- when this is over and the victim dies at the hand of the antagonist the camera would then pull away from the scene to a computer scene which shows the cctv of that previous scene this shows who the antagonist is talking to. (Shows on phone)

Production idea

Over the past few weeks I have been noticing in the films I have been watching there were quite a few scenes where text is shown on the screen from the characters phone. My team felt that we could use this aspect in our production. From using this it can make the audience be more included in whats happening in the scene, it also makes the scene more visually appealing.

1/12/15

Today I decided to put labels on all of my pieces of work so they were properly categorised and need within my blog