Devising and Planning a Soundtrack

Introduction

I will be devising and planning a soundtrack, I will be summarising the ways I might be asked to devise a soundtrack, which includes; who would work it out with me and what different input they might have, who else would be involved, I will be explaining the terms picture lock and spotting, and explaining the best practise in recording sound securely and what other plans they would have. I will also be establishing the sounds I want, where and how they will be sourced or recorded and what purpose they would have. I will be using links for my own pre production for the short film I made and providing explanations for downloading music from the internet and other relevant issues.

In the 'Real World'

- Who would work it out with you and what different input would they have?

The soundtrack would be worked out by many people, the Director, Producer, Sound Editor and the Editor, there would be many different impacts as the Director may want something different to the Producer but they know what they want so it would be easier to work out, some things could go wrong though, as some sound might not be greatly recorded so they might have to compromise and change the soundtrack around. I think the sound editor would know mostly what they were doing as they have worked on sound longer than the Director or Producer and this would be the biggest impact on the soundtrack.

- Who else would be involved?

As I said above the Director, Producer, Sound Editor and Editor would also be involved with the soundtrack planner and others would also be involved like the sound recorders and locations reporters because they could of recorded a sound at a location for the editors to add in.

- Explain terms such as Spotting and Picture Lock

• Spotting - The Spotting Session usually takes place after the filming and editing phases of a production have been completed. At the Spotting Session, the director and composer agree on what types of music will be used in a project and on where in the film (usually time code locations) specific musical cues will occur. The Music Editor documents these decisions and provides Spotting Notes to the composer and director for reference.
• Picture Lock - Picture lock is a stage in editing a film or editing a television production. It is the stage prior to on line editing when all changes to the film or television program cut have been done and approved. It is then sent to subsequent stages in the process, such as an line editing and audio mixing. Any last minute changes can force portions of subsequent work to be re-done.

- Best practise in recording sound securely

This is just making sure you have a back up plan in case the sound you have fails to record, like having extra sound sources like more boom microphones but also making sure you have a clapper board to sync the sound and the image later in the editing process.

Establishing the sounds I want

The sounds I want in my film are mostly ambience sounds to give the film a better thriller feel to it as the images do that but the sounds do it more, I also want music throughout my whole film, a scary, eerie, uncomfortable track to make the audience scared, I will also add sound effects to the end of it like police sirens and a heartbeat, I want those sound effects to be when the tension is running high in the last shot, some of these sounds will be off of freesound.org and some of the dialogue will be recorded when filming the production and some will be location recorded at the same location of filming but just with a clearer sound as I am not expecting it to be perfect the whole way through. I will be using foley, ADR and location recorded sound throughout my whole production.

Pre Production Links

http://50172071.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/shot-list-and-sountrack.html

http://50172071.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/list-resources-and-budget.html

http://50172071.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/production-schedule.html

http://50172071.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-untold_30.html

http://50172071.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/proposal-for-untold.html

http://50172071.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-treatment.html

- Potential Equipment to choose from

The sound equipment to choose from varies from clip microphones to shot guns to built in microphones on the camera. We initially used the boom pole and shot gun to record sound for our short film and it worked nicely as it picked up sound from further away and it was clear and vivid. This enabled us to speak how we wanted to speak and not have to exaggerate our voices to much so it seemed more real and didnt seem too much.

We wanted clip microphones as a back up source in case the boom pole and shot gun failed but they were not in a working order and are not as good as the shot gun, if we had used the clip mics it would not have been that good in sound because they do not pick up a lot of sound around them and they tend to not work when batteries need replacing every ten minutes, also you would of had to spend more time on hiding the wire on the actors/actresses and this would of wasted valued production time.

In the last part of our filming we tried to book out another shot gun and boom pole as the sound was clear and good with our film but our technicians office did not have any left and we did not have anyy clip microphones either our only other back up source was to use the built in microphone in the camera which surprisingly worked well as the shots we had left to create were not too far away from the camera and if they were we just recorded the sound on to the camera and made sure it was close enough for the camera microphone to pick it up and then added it over on to the image, luckily the sound that needed to be recorded again did not have to be synced as my head was buried in my knees and you don't see my face.

Another sound recording device we could of used is the BOOM sound recorder, this is good for recording a script over a presentation if you are holding it or sitting down next to it, we decided not to use it as the actresses were fully in the shot and we could not have got it close enough to hear the sound clearly without getting the recorder in the view of the camera.

Overall I think our choice of sound recording was a good idea and I would use the boom pole and shot gun again, they made a good impact on the images in my film and the sound was bold and clear, I would also use the built in microphone again as it surprisingly worked really well with the shots we created.

- What software do you intend to use and why?
I intend to use Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack as these are the editing and soundtrack software I am most used to, I will probably use final cut pro more than soundtrack as I know how to use it better than soundtrack and I feel more comfortable using it. We also used freesound.org as we didn't want to get into legal or ethical problems and freesound.org  is copyright free and has no legal considerations to think of.

- Provide explanations of MP3, AIFF and WAVE files? What are the benefits and drawbacks of each?

• MP3 - a means of compressing a sound sequence into a very small file, to enable digital storage and transmission.
• AIFF - Audio Interchange File Format is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices.
• WAVE - a format for storing uncompressed audio files.

- Provide explanations of the following and relevant issues connected with them:

• Public domain materials; 

Pulp Fiction Narrative Theories

There are a few narrative theories in Pulp Fiction one of them being Claude Levi Strauss' theory Binary Oppositions, these Binary Oppositions are as follows;

Good - Bad

Men - Women

Friends - Enemies

Black - White

These oppositions are conventional and unconventional as in the scene where Marcellus and Butch, who are enemies, have been kidnapped and Butch manages to get away and then goes back to save Marcellus from being sexually assaulted, this is unconventional as they are supposed to be enemies so the audience wouldn't expect him to save Marcellus but he does and that is why it is unconventional, these theories are conventional as well though as you would expect the film to have some sort of opposition like friends and enemies and good and bad.

The other narrative theory in Pulp Fiction is Vladimir Propps theory which was concluding that all the characters could be resolved into 7 broad character functions in the 100 tales he analysed: but I also think this can be used in Pulp Fiction as the characters are all villains, heroes, doners, helpers, and the other characters. For example Vincent (John Travolta) is a hero and a villain in a way because he is a 'Gangster' and kills people, also dealing drugs for his boss Marcellus but he is a hero for saving Mia when she has a drug overdose and nearly dies, another example would be Lance (Eric Stoltz) he is a villain because he is a criminal for being a drug dealer but he is also the helper for assisting Vincent in saving Mia.

Shot List and Sountrack.

Script for Sight and Sound Presentation

Script.

Slide 1.

Another example of the film being unconventional is when ‘Hunny Bunny’ and ‘Pumpkin’  are talking about robbing liqueur stores and then ‘Pumpkin’ says ‘Why don’t we rob this place’ this surprises me as I wouldn’t expect such a ‘loved-up’ couple to rob a diner! The dialogue in both these sequences are unconventional but as for the costumes and other elements these are conventional for example two gangsters in an expensive car in their expensive suits going on a job – this is what I expect for gangsters to do.

 

Slide 2.

For example at the very start when ‘Hunny Bunny’ and ‘Pumpkin’ are about to rob the diner and it then goes onto the credits, near the end it goes back to the diner when Vincent and Jules are having something to eat in that same diner that they are about to rob.

 

Slide 3.

Tarantino plays with these oppositions, for example when Marcellus and Butch are being held hostage and Butch manages to get out without his enemy Marcellus,  in the end Butch goes back to save him from being raped and that plays with the audience as you wouldn’t expect him to save his worst enemy.

 

Slide 4.

In the pre credits scene where ‘Hunny Bunny’ and ‘Pumpkin’ are in the diner the camera uses ‘Shot Reverse Shot’ I thought this was used really well in this scene.

Again in the first scene with the two lovers, I don’t think that studio lighting was used as they are sitting in front of a big window, so I think natural lighting was used, that’s not to say that it was all natural lighting used in the film though.

 

Slide 6.

In both opening scenes of Apocalypse now and Saving Private Ryan both sounds compliment the visuals even if you cant see them, In saving private ryan if you didn’t have the sound of the waves with the visual of the man then changing to thevisual of the waves you wouldn’t really get it, but doing this implies to us that its his memory of the waves and they were so distinctive and choppy which connotes a bad memory.

Slide 7.

For example, if we were to watch saving private ryan at the cinema with a surround sound system and a bigger screen we would take much more with us like the sound of the waves crashing against the stone than we would watching on a laptop with a small speaker, in an environment like a cinema i think you are more likely to get every single detail than you are to at home.

 

Slide 8.

In this scene everything seems studio recorded like when you can hear the man’s hand shaking with bullets in his hand and the sound of the chain rattling, this seems studio recorded to me as the waves disappeared and little sounds like this overpowered them. The impact on the audience with the first scene in Apocalypse Now is very confusing because there is internal diagetic sound which means its voices in his head, at first I thought he was talking but it was his thoughts.

 

Slide 9.

The mood created from Saving Private Ryan from the sound is sad and I think even if you closed your eyes watching the film you would be able to tell that it’s about an army as the sounds link together and create visuals in your head, with the sound of the flag and the drums.

 

Soundtrack - Introductory Exercise

Introduction;

You have a character that is feeling stressed, think of as many ways you can tell the audience this through sound alone.

Stressed Character;
Quiet ( uncomfortable silence )
Banging
Eerie
Tapping Fingers
Deep Breathing
Increasing Volume
Echo
Heartbeat
Footsteps
Repetitive Noises
High Pitched
Classical Music
Voices
Shouting
Tears
Rustling
Inner Thoughts
Clock Ticking
Sirens
Screams
Music
Exaggerated Sounds
Gushing Wind

Audience;
How do audiences listen to soundtracks? Think about the space, the environment and the speakers?

The audience have a different view of the film in different environments with different speakers and tones, for example if you were to watch a horror film in the cinema you are more likely to get scared as the speakers are surrounding you and are louder than you are at home or watching on a smaller screen with smaller speakers.

The reason for this is that on a 5.1 speaker, the ones you get in a cinema, the sound is much louder and is surrounding you in all areas, even if you are sitting right at the back of the cinema you are more likely to hear better than sitting right in front of the TV with a built in stereo at home.



The sounds;

The video clip I am going to talk about is the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, the sounds in this clip are very strong sounds which imply strong feelings - like when you can hear the waves but cannot see them shows that it was a vivid memory and has stayed with him, I think these waves were studio recorded and then added into the film after it was in picture lock. I think that the waves were recorded using this method is because they wouldn't of been as strong if they were location recorded because you would of had all of the background noises like sea wind and other ambience sounds, using this method with this particular sound compliments the picture more because it implies a stronger memory with the stronger sounds.The sound of the chain rattling and the hand shaking had a really big impact on me as the waves were dimmed out so you could not really hear them and the chain rattling insinuated that it was important to the character, also at the very start you can hear drums and waves with only a few images this immediately connoted to me that the film was about the army. I think that if these sounds were recorded differently the audience would not have been as intrigued because these sounds recorded using these methods compliment the picture very well and even without the picture you would of been able to make those images in your head.