Sound Analysis

The music/sound that appears the most in action/thriller is normally intense and chilling, but then becomes fast paced. This is dependent on the scene. Many action/thriller music starts off quietly and slowly builds up.  I have analysed two different pieces of sound that could potentially be used in our opening sequence.


This sound is more thriller...

When I first listened to it I got goosebumps. I would like to think that this a good effect that hopefully our audience will have too. I also find it engaging due to the eery and dark sounds. It starts off quite and builds into creepy, spine chilling sound. However I do not feel that it is intense enough and it does not build up enough to shock the audience. 

                                       

In this clip it shows an example of action/thriller type of music from The Rock. Just like the first clip it slowly builds into a more dramatic piece. I feel that some parts of this particular track would fit in very well with our film. I feel that the strings really bring the intensity and the mood that our opening sequence has. 

Plan Of Action 15/02/13

On the 15/02/13 I decided that our group should sit down and discuss everything that we need to do, as we are very disorganised. I led the group discussion and this is what we planned:

Blue- Filming schedule: We organised at least 2 days of filming that we could all attend to

Monday 18th Feb: Filming
Tuesday 19th Feb 
Wednesday 20th Feb
Thursday 21st Feb: Filming
Friday 22nd Feb

Green- Reshooting: We decided that the following need to be reshot

We need to film some of the science lab shots again as the framing was poor.
Due to the feedback we got, we had to add in some POV shots of someone spying on Theo's Character for the sequence to make sense.

Red-Blog: We are behind on updating our group blog. We have done many of our work on paper, however we need to upload it on the blog.

Yellow-Title: We have not yet agreed on a movie title for our sequence. We narrowed it down to these four:

• Bacterium
• Infliction
• Infected 
• Virus 

If i was to make the decision i would go for Bacterium. I personally think it goes best with the concept of our movie.

Orange-Sound: This is unfinished but we began to discuss the sound that would be used. Serena and I will begin to compose the music towards the end of the editing process. The other half of the group decided that it would be best to use a quiet instrumental music for the science scene. We also decided that we will experiment with synth, drums and symbol to create a mysterious effect. 

Feedback- Action Taken

One criticism that was mentioned from all the groups was that our opening sequence did not make sense. Having looked back at our opening sequence, we can see the confusion.
We used a POV shot for the ending of our sequence. This indicates that someone is watching+following Theos' character. We decided to add more POV shots during the rest of the sequence to make it more evident that someone is spying on him. We believe that this would solve our problem, as this gives our movie more of a story line.

Another criticism we had was Theos extended walk towards Mats character. There is nothing that we need to reshoot as we can simply edit some of the walking out. This also gives us an extra few seconds free to add any other shots we are planning on shooting.

Stolen Computers 11/02/13

On February 11th we discovered that majority of the media equipment including the computers were stolen. Our edited sequence was gone which means we have to edit all over again. However due to this tragic event, it has given us the opportunity to work better as a team and for everyone to take part in the editing. This has also given us more time to finish filming anything we have left.

Final Idea

Feedback- 7/02/13

Today we showed our rough edit to the class even if it was not finished. Our classmates gave us their opinions on shots they liked and what needed to be improved.

We received a lot of positive feedback for our rough cut:
"The last POV shot in the sequence was excellent and unique"
"Establishing shot was good"


We were also given constructive criticism:
"It didn't quite make sense"
"The walking part was too long"

From this information we will discuss how to improve the opening sequence and plan a reshoot schedule.

Codes and Conventions

We will be using various codes and conventions in our opening sequence.

Technical Codes: We will definitely be using an establishing shot as we think it is important to let our audience know where it is set. POV shots will be used to show that someone is spying on our characters. We may also use a tracking shot whilst Theo is walking. We will experiment with different shots/angles to see what effect they can create.

We will avoid all colourful/bright clothing. We want the costumes to be quiet dull. The lab coat that we will be using definitely matches with this idea. Theo will also be wearing a camouflage suit, which again has dull green colours on it.

There will be some diegetic sound e.g. when the clipboard is slammed onto the table. Throughout the entire sequence there will be non-diegtic sound playing. We will also enhance/edit in the sound on some of the shots e.g. the chemical drop and gun shot.

Representation- Our film

Representation in Media is concerned with the way that people, ideas and events are presented to us. There is a lot of thought put into every detail, it is not put there by accident. Films and its genres can represent things in many different ways, positively and negatively. Light, costumes, props, sound and the editing can all be used to help represent different elements of the film. An example would be representing a girly girl. The stereotype would be pink clothing, pop music and bright lights.
I will now be applying it to my film.

Stereotypes:
Stereotyping always suggest that the way we are portraying/categorising people is wrong. However, the categorisation of these people is the only way people would make sense of the character. Despite it being set in a lab, our character could not be dressed in casual wear otherwise it would not make sense. In our opening sequence we will be stereotyping the scientists. We decided to dress the person playing the scientist in a lab coat, goggles, gloves and hair tied back. We got this idea from cartoons and previous TV shows we used to watch when we were younger.

Events Taking Place:
We will over exaggerate all the movements we do, as we discovered that in many action/thriller films their moves are over exaggerated. An example would be the exchange of the suitcase. Although it is meant to be as subtle as possible, we will make it more evident to indicate that there will be trouble approaching. Another example is the frustration of the scientist when she cannot work out what she is doing wrong.

Setting: 
We decided to film the first half of the sequence in a lab to make it obvious straight away that there is a scientist creating something. The desk will be filled with stereotypical items that would be found in a lab, such as a skeleton and test tubes.

Group Update 05/02/13

Our main focus of todays lesson was discussing the voice over that needs to be done in one of Theo's scene. Due to the clip being filmed outside, the ambient sounds were too loud and we were not able to hear Theo's speech properly. We also began to discuss what type of music we should use for our opening sequence. Serena is a music student which is useful as she knows how to edit music. I am a pianist, so we decided to use a piano instrumental. We were thinking of using the piano quietly in the background whilst Theo and I are creating the cure in out sequence.
We are not entirely sure what to do for the rest of the sequence but we were thinking of using broken chords and half steps.