Directions unit: Workshop notes

Steve Finn: directing Workshop

Try to avoid having character's backs to the camera as it encourages the need to add a cut during editing, always try to think is there a way the characters can face the same way?

Side views of characters ((two shots)) create distance, try to look for depth within the scene.

Tech workshop lighting

We played around and experimented with different lighting styles.

We used a three point lighting system consisting of;

Key light- the main light used on the subject

Fill light- to fill shadows created by key light

Back light- used to separate subject from the background

We also experimented with lighting gels, and tried out how various colours can change the feel of the film and the subject. For example red=danger, blue=calm and green=nature.

Directions unit lecture with Simon: Sound

Sound lecture: Simon

What is sound desgin?

Sound designer

Sound layers: sync, ADR, etc

The mix

The art of sound design

What is sound design?

'Point Blank'

Hallway walking, builds the tension, carries momentum, helps pass the time, replicating a ticking clock/heartbeat/gun shots

Sound design is essentially the capturing and layering of diff sound elements to create one single soundtrack for the project. Just as you would shoot and edit the image part of a film you would do the same for the sound, it occurs at all stages of the production but is essentially a post-production phase. The process is also called the sound edit. Sound is most often the biggest department.

The sound designer

Originally the sound editing of a film was completed by a sound editor or a team of sound editors. These were technicians who had little to no creative input in the project. In the '70's demand for increasingly complex sound-tracks created the need for editors to have creative input into the design of the sound track. This led to the role of the supervising sound editor. This position became known as the sound designer, the first person to get credit for it in a film was Walter Murch in Apocalypse now.

Sound layers

The job of the sound designer is to assemble a number of layers or tracks of sound which re then mixed together to form one who, commonly there will be between 5 to 20 tracks but on some there could be around 50 tracks of sound for mixing.

There are about 7 diff types of track:

Dialogue- All the recorded dialogue from the actual shoot. Voice over would be on a separate track.

Sync- This is the recorded sound from the shoot that is NOT dialogue. Someone walking across a room or getting into a car.

ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement)- All the dialogue re0recorded or dubbed after the shoot. Nearly all the Hollywood films use ADR for the whole film. This is to make it sound cleaner and nicer then when it's recorded on set.

FX-  Certain sound effects for elements such as a car engine, a computer, or an explosion. These will be recorded specifically for the production or more commonly they will come from a sound FX library.

Foley- Recording sound in a sound booth at the same time as the image

Atmos- The sound elements that make up the atmosphere of a particular location. This could mean weather elements like winds and rain, or room elements like the creak of a house. (Once upon a time in the west)

Music- this is all music in the film, both diegetic and non- diegetic (the score) (Miller's Crossing)

There could be any number of these tracks

The sound edit

Through this phase the sound designer and his/her team will compile all the tacks, editing the various sounds to the picture, making creative decisions all the time. The sound is cut just like the picture and can be done in final cut pro, but more commonly will be done using specilsd spund eiditing softerware. On larger productions individual tracks are handled by one person/team. That's where thesound desinger is ost importnent ensuring that all the eiditors work together.

The mix

Once thr track have been comiled and then edidited to the locked picture, the sound edit goes to the final pahse (the mix). It's wher the sound desinger along with a mixer and other key members in the production such as the director and the producer mix all the separte tracks of the sound together to form one complete sound track.

The art of sound desing

The art of sound design is to add depth, feeling and emotion to the pictue, not about making it sound LOUD it's aboutmmaing it feel right so the audeicne believe what they are seeing. Even if it is set on an Aliene world it should feel/sound right. Great sound desing can add details to the adueince that theyb can't actually see. A clock or a dog in the background add depth and detail to the picture.

'Breaking bad'

Silence is golden

You can still hear things when it is silent…you hear the things that you wouldn't normally in ordinary circumstaces.

Keeping it real

Large part of aounde design is about making the image come to life

"Heat'- using real gun fire it allowed them to get the echo off of the buildings

Atmosphere

Dding depth and emotion doesn't always mean adding music, it ca be done with sounds.

Music only atmos

Sometimes a single track of music of music can convey very complex ideas.

The cut

When you need to create a specfifc emotional moment such as horror, fear or live can be done with sound design. A classic edit in a horror or thriller is to cut from the image of someone about to scream to the image of a trin or a alarm clock. 'Godfather'

A production might spend 7 weeks shooting a film but often double in the sound design. You can have the most beautiful, clever and striking images ever captured on film but if you have crap sound all the work will be undone. Always think about what your audience will hear too.

Tips

Always get a close as possible to the mic

If windy try turning actor to the wind

Always, always, wlays record a buzz track. A min of location sound so you can lay this in under your scene to help the edit.

Directions unit: Casting

"Alice in Wonderland" redirected shoot cast

The cast for my shoot "Down The Rabbit Hole" are as follows:

Alice: 

Marie Kemp ((Audition tape)) *Dropped out*
Jemma Cotterell

Tarrent (Mad Hatter):

Zak Wilkins

Mally (mouse):

Ethel Crowe

Chester (Cheshire cat):

Jack Nix

Harold (March Hare):

Darren Hammock *Dropped out*
Character cut from script

Directions unit: Story board

Storyboard for "Alice In Wonderland" redirected

Contextual studies- Tim Burton

Auteur is a theory within filmmaking in which the director is seen as the primary creative in a motion picture.

In 1954 critic and later director Francois Truffaut (F.T) writes an 'argument', in it he uses the phrase translated as "the authors policy". This was a reaction against cinema where the director who was usually seen as the 'chief-tech' who just shot what the script said. F.T was one of many critics who wanted a 'cinema d'auters': directors who expressed the individualistic world and use of mise-en-scene. 

Auteur cinema expressed a ground-breaking effect in French new wave films of the late 50's early 60's.Having started in the late 1940’s auteur theory (as championed by Andrew Sarris an American film critic who stated three key criteria that define an auteur director:

The director needs technical competence and the ability to organise a film with coherence

The distinguishable personality of the director is seen with recurring signs and styles

There is interior meaning from the cinematic art created from the tension between the director’s personality and his material)

was a development of original cinematic theories. Supporters of the auteur theory argue that the majority of successful films within cinema will have the ‘personal stamp’ of the director who made it.

Having made the decision not to listen to teachers and other art professionals such as Disney when asked to change his style, Burton has developed on in which all of both his animated and live action characters are based on as well as their settings and lives. His 'Burtonesque' style of drawing is one that generally exaggerates the human (or animal) anatomy, these kind of styles are evident in movies such as; 'Alice in Wonderland', 'Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children' and 'Edward Scissor Hands' to name a few.

For example due to his artistic style Burton's original character designs for the characters in Alice's 'Underland' had large eyes and heads (edited later in post), these changes helped characters blend in with the CGI world Burton had created. Something else that inspired Burton is German Expressionism a creative movement that reached it's peak in the 1920's in Berlin.

Another Burton trademark is his use of colour, commonly speaking Burton either swings from one extreme to another. Favouring vivd and electric colour palettes for reflecting madness and eccentricity in films such as 'Alice in Wonderland', while sticking to more sombre and dulls ones for ones dealing with death such as his animations like 'Nightmare before Christmas' or 'Corpse Bride'.

As well as all of this Burton's over all visual style that he is most commonly associated with gothic. This ranges from characters, settings (houses and cities) and props. One the most famous of his films to do this is 'Edward Scissor Hands', the film setting itself is contradictory to the gothic character of Edward who with his nest of black hair and scissor hands is stereotypical Burtonesque. However it is also used in films such as 'Corpse Bride' and 'Frankenweenie' to a larger extent. 

In his films Burton uses reoccurring character types, these include but are not limited to;

The Skittish Outcast

Everyone of Burton's films bar one or two will include an outcast character, the film usually revolves around them being accepted into society or finding love. Even in fictional worlds where everyone is mad there is none the madder then the 'Mad Hatter', even though 'Alice in Wonderland' is focused around Alice herself we as the audience are still made to empathise with the solitary nature of the Hatter (having been rejected from his family and ignored by other people such as the Red Queen). 

This could be due to the fact as a child Burton grew up watching horror movies as he himself felt outcasted and 'weird'.

Punky Rebellious Young Lady

These are often misunderstood women in a world that doesn't understand them, in other words they are extradorinaiy characters in a extremely ordinary world. Audience's can be made to feel they relate to these characters and therefore it can be easier for them to be immersed into Burton's world.

Overall I think Tim Burton is a auteur director as his films have: a distinctive style in terms of character, setting, mise-en-scene and follow similar themes. An audience knows a Tim Burton film when they watch one as it is "Burtonesque", they all follow a gothic theme even if it's something as light hearted as "Alice in Wonderland".

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Para 1: 'Auteur Theory' -https://www.britannica.com/art/auteur-theory

Para 2: Tim Burton character edits

'Director's Trademarks: Tim Burton' -http://www.cinelinx.com/movie-stuff/item/6889-director-s-trademarks-tim-burton.html

'The Influence of German Expressionism on Tim Burton' -https://storify.com/StrangeMixtie/the-influence-of-german-expressionalism-in-tim-bur

Para 3: "10 things you'll see in almost every Tim Burton movie" -http://io9.gizmodo.com/5909293/10-things-youll-see-in-almost-every-tim-burton-movie

Directions unit: 'Poldark' scene review

Poldark scene review: Demelza hits Ross

Tension in this scene has been created through the close up of Demelza as she hears Ross come up behind her, it then transitions to a side profile a the while Ross is a background character and the audience's attention is only brought to him when the focus is pulled to him.

His nonchalant facial expressions mean that the audience is likely to side with Demelza after witnessing Ross's infidelity,the lack of dialogue for Demelza and the minimal "What can I say" from Ross is designed to encourage the audience to get angry with Demelza. The sombre colours of the set also connote the sobering effect Ross’s actions will have on his family. Because of course up until now all of Demelza’s insecurities about Ross loving Elizabeth have been hypothetical. This scene is ultimately the culmination of the Demelza’s rightfully founded insecurities and is an explosion of expression from Demelza in the only way she knows how (flashback to when she was beating people up on the street in the 1st season the audience already knows the character can handle herself).