Monday, March 8, 2010

In Thursday’s class (3/4/10) we went over different things to use for our short films. We had a workshop on different ways to use the camera and what kind of sound we are looking for to put in our movies. Eric gave us great tips to use for our films. He suggested that we find live music because it will sound much better in a movie. He also told us that holding the mike will be a little difficult because it might be in the way. I’m the sound director so I think that will be really hard for me to do. Also, he told us that we should think about the different types of actors we want in our movie. We should do a casting call so that we can have great actors in our movies. But, we also have to do paper work and handle a lot of legal issues so that we won’t get sued or go to jail. I didn’t think we needed to do all of that for this short film but we do.

After our workshop, we broke up into our groups. My group went over our story board. We wanted to make it better. We actually had a great story board but we really didn’t have a story line behind the story board. But throughout the class, Cameron, our script writer, came up with this awesome script for our film. With having a script we can move along with much faster. We now know what type of actors we are looking for and the setting of our film. Our genre is horror and I know it might be hard to “scare” the audience but I think we will do a great job of that. We are in the process of finding what kind of sound we want in our movie that can be accomplished in time and that will set the tone of the movie. The movie is horror so we need creepy scary sounds that will help the movie seem scarier than it is. We are also thinking about what types of shots we are going to use in our film. We want to use a long view, zoom in and out, dolly, and other shots as well. The effects of the shots will also help the genre of the movie. Another important element we are thinking about in the process of this movie is the lighting. We have to figure out if the lighting in the place will be enough or if we are going to need additional lighting of our own. It’s a lot to think about even for a short film so imagine for a long film.

Ending question: which genre do you think is easier to work with?

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Blow Out

In Thursday’s class (2/25 /10), we watched this movie called Blow Out. I have never seen or heard of this movie before, but I love John Travolta and he was in the movie! So it was a pretty good movie.

So like all of the other movies we watched in class, this movie was about movies. It focused on some key point such as sound in movies. It did overlays of sound, sort of like Singing in the Rain. They had actors/actresses create sound vocally for an already production. The difference is, there was more to work with and it wasn’t that difficult to get the actresses into a booth and just put their voice to the action on the screen. Also, during this time period, there is more vulgarity and sex in the movies.

In the movie, John Travolta goes out and gets some “real” sound to make the movie sound more real. Sad enough, it’s someone who is actually going through a horrible situation in which was recorded for her protection. This movie also highlights the selfishness and corruption in America. It’s as if everything is being covered up. A great scene that illustrates the corruption is when the young lady dies during the parade. The parade is so big and loud, the fireworks are going off, and she dies in front of everyone but sad enough no one sees it or hears it. This movie had great features such as split shots, owl shots, split screen, and narrow depth of field. By having these different shots, it brings attention to what is not visible or key points to remember throughout the movie for later reasons. For instance, the scene when the camera focuses on the very thin string that he uses to kill people, is very interesting because it’s such a small method he uses but it is given this time to let the audience see what it is and how it’s being used. Also, timing is very important in this movie. Where the characters are at any point and where the sound is in any action. for example, when the car when off into the water, everyone thought the tire blew out and that the driver was just drunk and had a terrible accident, but actually because of the heard gunshot and the spark of light, it was clear that a gunshot was fired and the tire which cause the car to go into the water.

Ending question: Do you think they ever really use sound form someone who was really going through a situation that was recorded other than in documentaries?