Preliminary Exercise 14: Sound Case Study

 Introduction

"Sound Design is the alchemy that turns noise into art." - Walter Murch

To go more in depth of sound design, I wanted to dedicate this post about a great movie called Apocalypse Now. The cinematography, the direction, everything was top notch. Apocalypses Now portrays the horror and absurdity of War; The chaos and madness that follows behind it. This movie is about a U.S army officer in Vietnam trying to assassinate a Special Forces Colonel whos has gone completely mad. It also greatly portrays the journey of war and how, in the face of war, darkness and destructions descends. On the topic of sound, Walter Murch was the genius behind the sounds and effects of this movie. He did a great job trying to insert the true works of horror and war into this movie and it caused him to be nominated for the Academy award.

(Walter Murch 1943)

    One of the greatest sound designers of all time is Walter Murch. Walter Murch was born on July 12, 1943 in New York City, New York. His father is Walter Tandy Murch, who was a Canadian-born painter. Even as a young boy, Murch has taken a great interest to sound. He would usually experiment with sound recording, taping and layering the sounds to create a new combination. But now, he is considered, not only an American sound designer, but also a film editor, writer, and director. He has worked with countless movies, including 'THX 1138', 'Apocalypse Now' and 'American Graffiti'. He won three Academy Awards in 1974. (From nine nominations; he got six for picture editing and 3 for sound). Murch went to USC school of Cinematic arts to continue his studies.

    Murch was the first person to ever receive credit as a "Sound Designer," after his work on 'Apocalypse Now'. Then, he became the editor of "Apocalypse Now Redux." After his tremendous works, he wrote a book about being an editor, called "In the Blink of an Eye" which soon became really popular. People, such as Roger Ebert and David Thomson, grew a lot of respect for Walter Murch and his works. He has been called 'a suburb craftsman of modern film' and 'the most respected film editor and sound designer.'

(Apocalypse Now Redux- August 3, 2001 *Production Company: American Zoetrope*)

Work Cited

IMDb (no date) Walter Murch - Biography, IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004555/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm (Accessed: 18 December 2023).

The top 10 famous sound designers of all time (2023) Musical Theatre. Available at: https://robsummers.co.uk/the-top-10-famous-sound-designers-of-all-time/ (Accessed: 18 December 2023).

Walter Murch (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Murch (Accessed: 18 December 2023).

Preliminary Exercise 13: Introduction to Sound in Film (Be a Sound Engineer)

 Introduction

      Sound in film is many things that the audience can hear. These things include music, dialogue, sound effects etc. And is used to engage the audience with the film even more. It could also deliver information and heighten the nature of the production. Sound can support a genre, setting and characters by giving an audience a feeling that easily helps them determine what type of genre, setting and character that the film represents. For example, in a horror film, the audience could easily dictate that the film is scary based on the slow ambient music, the unsettling sounds, and the character's hasty dialogue. The atmosphere could be viewed differently based on what the audience hears. Compared to using something light and cheerful, it could make the audience think that the film represents the joyful and feel-good genres while something eerie and scary could cause the audience to think that the film is most likely horror or thriller. Sound can also be captivating to the audience. The more the sound matches the scenes, the more the audience will be more in tuned with the scene.

Reflection

I learned many things about sound in films during this assignment. The things I learned was that sound could cause the audience to be more engaged with your film and that different sounds contributes to different genres. In this assignment we had to do research on different genres and scenes and find their designated sounds that goes with them. Evan was in charge of Music, Joshua and Woodson was in charge of sound, and I was in charge of dialogue. In this assignment we had to put our minds together to find what sound goes with what and what was the best-known sound used in that certain genre and scene. 

Work Cited

Reich, J. (2017) 8. what is sound?, Exploring Movie Construction and Production. Available at: https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/exploring-movie-construction-and-production/chapter/8-what-is-sound/ (Accessed: 11 December 2023). 

Preliminary Exercise 12: Camera Movement Videos

 Introduction

    Now, in this assignment, we bring our ideas to life. After creating the storyboard, we move on to the hard part of the assignment which is to create a video containing the elements of camera movement. We needed props, such as our books, a camera to film and a tripod. The camera movements techniques we decided to use for this project is trucking shot, static, zoom in, tilt, camera roll, and boom shot. We chose these techniques because we found it easier to illustrate the making of our videos and would fit our ideas the best.

Videos

Video 1 (trucking)

• Action Line: Evan is walking to the vending machines.

• Shot size: Full

• Camera angle: Shoulder level

• Framing:  Single

• Composition: Deep focus

Video 2 (static)

• Action Line: Evan is trying to choose which item he should buy.

• Shot size: Medium full

• Camera angle: Knee level

• Framing: Single

• Composition: Shallow

Video 3 (zoom in)

• Action Line: Evan is looking at the last sprite in the machine.

• Shot size: Close up

• Camera angle: Over the shoulder

• Framing: Insert shot

• Composition: Color

Video 4 (tilt)

• Action Line: Joshua and Woodson are working on math homework.

• Shot size: Establishing shot

• Camera angle: High

• Framing: Two

• Composition: Deep Focus

Video 5 (Camera roll)

• Action Line: Joshua and Woodson realizes that the homework is confusing.

• Shot size: Master Shot

• Camera angle: High

• Framing: Single 

• Composition: Shapes

Video 6 (Boom)

• Action Line: Joshua and Woodson are now talking about the work.

• Shot size: Master shot

• Camera angle: Shoulder

• Framing: Two shot

• Composition: balance

Reflection

We learned how each of these techniques worked and how they are composed. Evan was a camera man, I created the ideas and Woodson and Joshua were the actors. For the first 3 though, I had to become the camera man since Evan was going to be a character. Our team had different responsibilities and we all were helping each other out by giving orders and setting things right for the video. I needed help composing one of the techniques and usually Evan or Woodson would help. The team did a great job during this assignment; they were all so determined to get the job done perfectly.

Work Cited

(No date) Video production: A beginner’s guide | adobe. Available at: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/video/discover/video-production.html (Accessed: 12 December 2023). 

Preliminary Exercise 11: Camera Movement Storyboard

 Introduction

    Camera movement is the way a camera moves with a subject and give your ideas life. But before we do, we need a story idea and planning first. Me and my team has picked 9 camera movement concepts and planned on what our videos were going to be like with those 9 concepts. And also, how we were going to bring them to life. When story boarding videos, you use arrows to show what the camera is going to do. To complete the assignment we needed: a camera, subjects, a setting and props. Joshua and Woodson were the two main actors for the videos while me and Evan planned. I made the action lines and contributed my ideas to the story board. It is important to create a storyboard because you want to organize and remember the concrete of your project; how it was created and what to use again to make that concept come to life again. 

Storyboard

Reflection

I learned in this exercise what is the root of making video ideas and how to be organized with them. With this storyboard, we will be using it to finish Preliminary exercise 12, which is the actual video. Now the next step to finally bring our ideas to life.

Work Cited

Santa Monica (2023) Storyboard arrows - how to storyboard camera moves, StudioBinder. Available at: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/storyboard-arrows-meaning/ (Accessed: 05 December 2023). 

Preliminary Exercise 10: Camera Movement Techniques Organizer

 Introduction

     Camera movement is the way a the object used to film a scene moves to make each scene more alive and adds depth to it. The significance of camera movement in the planning of a film is very crucial because in order to make the scene the way you planned it or how you want it to go it would have to be more organized so it’ll go exactly how you planned the mood to be. A camera could mover left to right, or up to down and down to up. Each of these movements has its own meaning to the director and audience. By that I mean, the camera movements could make the scene and makes the audience feel a certain way because of how it is composed. In this assignment, the Objective is to research different types of camera movements and to analyze and understand them.

Reflection

Me and my team objective was to create a PowerPoint containing these key camera movement terms and have an illustration to describe each. We had to take notes and share our notes amongst each other so we could have all of the information we needed. Evan did the first 4 words, Joshua did the next 4 words and I did the last 3 words. Woodson did the design and illustrations for the PowerPoint. This assignment was pretty light and easy. 

Work Cited

Guide to camera moves: 13 types of camera movement - 2023 (no date) MasterClass. Available at: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/guide-to-camera-moves (Accessed: 11 December 2023).

Preliminary Exercise 9: Practicing Camerawork: Shot Sizes, Camera Angles, Framing, and Camera Composition Day 2

 Introduction

        Filming on a site or in other words, Filming location is the place where productions and shots are taken place. Cinematography is the art of photography, visual story telling and how all the elements comprises to create such a story. The person mainly in charge of the cinematography is the cinematographer/ the director of photography. Another person who was famous for their cinematography is Gordon Willis. The movies he has shot is Manhattan(1979) and Annie Hall(1977).

Shots 9-11

Shot#9 Woodsons passes someone in a grocery store.

Shot size: Medium

Camera Angle: overhead

Framing: Two shot

Composition: Deep

Shot#10 Woodson is checking out the vegetables.

Shot size: Medium full

Camera angle: Dutch

Framing: Single

Composition: Balance

Shot#11 Woodson is examining the bell peppers.

Shot size: Extreme Close up

Camera Angle: shoulder

Framing: over the shoulder

Composition: shallow

Shot#12 Woodson picks up s bell pepper 

Shot size: Close up

Camera angle: Eye level

Framing: Insert

Composition: point of view

Shots 13-16

Shot#13 Woodson is at the library checking out books.

Shot size: medium

Camera angle: shoulder

Framing: crowd

Composition: Shallow

Shot#14 Emma searches for more books.

Shot size: wide shot

Camera angle: over the head

Framing: over the shoulder

Composition: lines and shapes

Shot#15 Emma finds a book.

Shot size: Extreme close

Camera angle: knee level

Framing: Insert

Composition: Deep

Shot#16 Woodson examines the books.

Shot size: Medium

Camera angle: ground

Framing: point of view 

Composition: color

Reflection

   This activity has the same objective as Exercise 8 but these shots contains harder components for the shots. The roles stayed the same expect when we needed our director (Evan) to become an extra character for our shot. We did end up creating our shots and being successful at finishing them. As always, I was in charge of the editing, drawing and planning, Woodson was the main actor, Joshua did research and Evan was in charge of filming. 

Work-cited

Film 101: What is cinematography and what does a cinematographer do? - 2023 (no date) MasterClass. Available at: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/film-101-what-is-cinematography-and-what-does-a-cinematographer-do (Accessed: 14 November 2023).

J.B. (2022) The 20 best cinematographers of all time: Wedio, Become better creators - together. Available at: https://academy.wedio.com/famous-cinematographers/ (Accessed: 14 November 2023). 

Preliminary Exercise 8: Practicing Camerawork: Shot Sizes, Camera Angles, Framing, and Camera Composition Day

 Introduction

       Camerawork is techniques used to make the general composition of a scene. It is important to filmmaking because it helps directors shift the audience’s view without cutting. The 4 major categories that I consider when planning my camera shots are shot sizes, camera angles, framing, and composition in film. Shot sizes refer to the size of the frame relative to the people, figures and/or objects within the frame, for example an establishing shot is a shot when you see where the setting is and where the scene is taking place. A camera angle is the angle that the camera is positioned for example, a low angle is where the camera is positioned almost under the subject and usually there to communicate dominance to the audience. Framing is the placement of objects within the frame, For example a two shot is where two characters are shown in the scene. Composition is an arrangement of elements in your film, mainly subjects representing Mise en scene. The cinematographer is mainly the one in charge of the camerawork in film production. Roger Deakins is one of the famous cinematographers that was said to have a way of filming people in a very unique way. The films that Roger Deakins contributed in was Blade runner and Empire of Light. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 2020. It is important for my team and I to develop camerawork skills because we need our audience to really capture the feeling in each shot and scene and understand why we composed the scenes the way that we did.

Shots 1-4

Shot#1 Selina and Woodson is sitting on the benches outside of their school.

Shot size: Establishing shot

Camera Angle: High

Framing: Point of view 

composition: Shapes

Shot# 2 Selina and Woodson are talking to each other.

Shot size: Master

Camera Angle: Eye Level

Framing: Over the shoulder 

Composition: rule of thirds 

Shot #3 Woodson leaves the table after the conversation.

Shot size: Wide shot

Camera Angle: Eye level

Framing: Insert shot

Composition: Shallow Focus

Shot#4 Woodson enters the building.

Shot Size: Full

Camera Angle: Eye level 

Framing: single shot

Composition: asymmetrical

Shots 5-8

Shot #5: Woodson is sitting at a dining table.

Shot size: Medium close up

Camera angle: Low

Framing: Single 

Composition: Shallow

Shot #6 Woodson is talking to the waiter.

Shot Size: medium

Camera angle: High

Framing: Single

Composition: Color

Shot# 7 Both Selina and Woodson is talking to the waiter.

Shot Size: medium Full

Camera angle: Shoulder level

Framing: Three shot

Composition: Deep

Shot#8 Selina and Woodson is having a conversation.

Shot size: Master

Camera angle: eye level

Framing: Two shot

Composition: Balance

Reflection

       The objective of this assignment was to actually bring our storyboard to life. We followed the key components in teach shot and followed it to make the real life shots. I learned in my still shots that it was much harder to gather up the content and create a real life image since we had to make the still shots more realistic. The location that we chose for these 8 shots was school and a restaurant and the characters were just us showcasing what we do in our everyday life. The tones were pretty simple, nothing too exciting since our story lines were supposed to demonstrate what we do in our everyday life. Creating our shot were definitely harder considering we were bring our imagination to life and we had to work inside and outside of school just to take the shots. Evan used his Camera and Tripod to take each shot and he perfected all of them, I was one of the extra characters while Woodson was the main. I was also in charge of editing the pictures and making sure nothing in the pictures seemed off. And Joshua was in charge of research as always. 

Work- Cited

Cinematography (2023) Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/cinematography (Accessed: 12 November 2023).