Sound Terms Exercise Part 3

This clip gives an example of a direct address.

Sound Terms Exercise Part 2

Sound effects are added at 0:56 seconds when we see an explosion. This is a naturalistic sound effect. An unnaturalistic sound effect is given sometime when a gun is fired, 1:51 minutes is an example.

Sound Clip 9 - Hunger Analysis

Activity 1:

 At the start of the extract, we see the main character who was a soldier in the IRA in a bath. We know that he is hunger striking and all through this scene, the atmosphere is very hollow because there is not a lot of sound. We hear birds outside, i suspect they may be crows because of they're squawk. we also hear fairly loud footsteps and their echo, so i imagine the rooms people are in are very bare and empty. To me, this also suggests a disciplined area. This is reinforced by the opening and closing of what sound like heavy metal jailhouse doors and the jangling of keys. We also hear breathing of the main character and without seeing the character in his state, we can hazard a guess that he is struggling to breath. All these noises are harsh, this suggests that this is a place of discipline like a jail.

Activity 2:

The camera seems to be taking vague shots of looking down a hallway near the floor to emphasise the footsteps or to show the main character being put in bed without revealing too much of his body.

Activity 3:

While We can hear the breathing and the crows squawking, a flashback appears with similar noise and it shows him running and then he starts to run through the woods into the darkness. In the wood, the crows scatter when they see him and as he looks back through the wood, we see a tear in his eye signifying he isn't going back to where he was. Then Bobby Sands dies and the crows in the distance scatter.

Activity 4:
In this scene, we hear music for the first time in the clip and this music comes on when he is flashing back to being a young boy on a bus. We hear other kids behind him laughing, singing and shouting Bobby's name, but he doesn't reply and continues to sit there. The music has a slow tempo and I would describe it as strange or eerie and its also a plain sort of music, there isn't much diversity in sounds. In the flashback, we also see him jogging through the little wooded area and we hear bells or a horn at this point in time. This could suggest that the main character is very close or has died. The presence of Irish bagpipes in the music also suggests this.

Conclusion:
In this clip, the silence throughout it makes all the sounds seem hollow because they all echo out fairly quickly. Towards the endof the clip, there is more going on, and therefore there are more sounds. Like when they use a close up on the main character, we can hear him blinking. I feel the silence is a sign of the main characters impending death and i think that is why the filmmaker does this.

Sound Terms Exercise

0:33-35 Seconds shows diegetic sound
Throughout the trailer, there are places where there is non-diegetic sound (background music) and a voiceover.
There is a sound motif at 0:08 seconds when the main character says the other person is him from the future.
There is obviously dialogue because we see the character talking to each other in various parts of the film. this is also an example of synchronous sound because the persons voice we can hear is seen talking.
We can see a sound bridge between 1:47 and 1:56 where it gives the same music over multiple scenes.

Skins Analysis

Skins Analysis: Series 1, Episode 1

The first scene, we see it introducing us to one of the main characters of the series. The first thing that is noticeable is the title sequence which includes the theme tune. For me, the title sequence gives an impression that this is about teenagers and, for them life goes fast and the little montage of scenes that is the title sequence, i feel that it represents the life of teenagers, hence the music. It’s not easy listening or very fluent, however it is fast paced and catchy, and this is used because teenagers like that sort of music because there’s a lot going on within the music and it’s not a popular chart song, it’s something individual which is what some teenagers like, an identity. Teenagers will see this theme music as ‘timeless’ music that represents them because it’s associated with Skins and its unique music that isn’t branded to any time period. And after the theme music has stopped and the bird’s eye has zoomed out of Tony, another soundtrack start’s, it is the same genre and same pace because it represents teenagers lives, fast paced. Both pieces of music work similarly to a voiceover, its non-diegetic so the characters can’t hear it.

Now into representation; the first character we are confronted with is Tony. We perceive him to be a typical stereotypical teenager because after he wakes up, he starts working out and admiring himself in the mirror and he does this because he wants to look good. This also shows us he is a person of routine; we also see this when his 2^nd alarm goes off to either indicate the woman across street or Effie, his sister. Either way, he is clearly organised in one way or another and this isn’t typically a trait of stereotypical teenagers. What also isn’t stereotypical is as the camera pans around to show different mid shot of him, we see his walls and sheets are dull and boring in colour. We can also see some, I think, French film posters, again, giving evidence that he isn’t like the typical teenager because he doesn’t have naked women, cars or anything like that. That may be why his walls are neutral in colour, but another theory behind that is to do with his sexuality. As the camera zoomed out at the start of the scene, we noticed a white duvet cover with a male and female body either side, and he is lying right in the middle of them, in bed. The neutral colour could show he is confused and being in the middle of the man and woman could also suggest this. In that shot as well, we see that Tony is lying in the middle of the bed and the duvet is immaculate. It’s even neat when he is still in bed! And this is like the whole room. All his shirts are folded and neatly in a draw and everything is on hangers. By now, the audience would have conjured up an idea that Tony isn’t the typical teenage boy, he is almost the binary opposite of a normal teenager because Tony is tidy while typical teenagers are messy, he has French film posters on his wall, whereas other teenagers may not have that. We also see this binary opposite when his dad walks in the room, Tony is thin while his dad has a belly on him.

The relationship between Tony and his dad is rough, because most of the time we see Tony messing around with his dad by locking the bathroom door and then climbing out the window. In that scene, we see Tony taking a dump while reading ‘Nausea’ which is all about philosophy, it very hard to get into, so we can see that Tony is no average teenager. But back to him and his dad, Tony always seems very composed and in control, whereas his dad isn’t in control and is not very composed at all.

As Tony comes in through the front door, his mum asks whether ‘he wants eggs’ and this leads onto a shot of Effie at the table, giving a look to Tony. Now at the start of the scene, we see Effie coming in from a night out. She has been clubbing or something like that because she has messy hair, one of her socks are lower than the other and her makeups smudged. Tony uses diegetic music to distract his dad so she can come in and this is where we see the other side of Effie. As she sneaks into her room, she changes from her miniskirt into her school uniform, gets rid of her makeup and neatens her hair and this suggests Effie has 2 lives, one being the binary opposite of the other. She is also pretty quiet, she hasn’t got a lot of character dialogue and I think that suggests something about her personality or maybe it’s because of something she goes out for most nights. Also, in her uniform she looks younger than she did at the start of the scene; this could be why she has so little dialogue.

Shots and Angles: Killing Them Softly Trailer

Killing Them Softly

To give an idea of this film, its about how the mafia run their operations. in this part of the film, we see two characters in a tight medium shot talking about what they will do to a person in the film, while creating a voiceover for another scene of what actually happens to that person.

Boths scenes are shot in small tight spaces/shots because the discussion and incident are on a need to know basis, like the mafia. This also gives a sense of containment because, in the first scene: the two characters are talking in a car, and in scene two: the three characters are the only people featured in the frame. The tight shots also give an impression that they dont want anyone else to know what they are doing or speaking about, like the mafia is known for.

Both shots in the car are there for a reason because it gives the audience an insight into the conversation, like we are in the car, but at the same time, the camera anlge concerns us because while both characters are in the most appealing thirds of the frame, the other appealing part is where the window is and that gives the idea that someone is there or some is listening into our conversation when they shouldnt be. At the same time, the medium shot at the start and in the car shows that there is tension and something is building up and it does eventually.