For my portfolio project, I chose to create the soundtrack for Kuvastin – Reflector.
I kept the mind-set of achieving audio/visual harmony that would seamlessly integrate into the film. I chose this movie over the others because I hadn’t previously done any sort of animation sound design before and wanted to broaden my range of skill.
I first started by choosing a 5-minute section of the film to compose the soundtrack and create the effects for. I put the video file in Final Cut Pro X to trim the section I wanted to use, and re-encoded the video’s resolution to 1920x1080 and a frame rate of 25p. Because the film is dated, the analogue to digital conversion process has left the film encoded at a low resolution and low frame rate. Because the video is a stop motion animation, the upscaled frame rate won’t affect the video, but improve compatibility. In Logic Pro 9 the lowest frame rate synchronisation available is 25p, and ‘Reflector’ has been encoded at 12.5p, so re-encoding the film to 25p makes difference, but ensures proper synchronisation with the audio and video. Converting the videos resolution to 1920x1080 also allows better compatibility with modern monitors whilst still retaining a 4:3 aspect ratio. Video quality won’t improve, however, the film has upscaled well and is perfectly watchable at this resolution. Doing this helped solve (and prevent) a lot of problems with synchronising and cueing sound effects and viewing across different applications.
I studied the film intensely to get a feel for the aesthetics and generate ideas for the scope of sound effects and musical composition required. I found a copy of the original film and extensively listened to the original score and sound design to generate compositional ide...
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...ia SD card, and more importantly the recordings I was able to make ended up sounding far better to suit the film on the iPhone 5S than the Zoom H4N.
As my sound design progressed, I found that Logic Pro 9 had some great FX sounds that I could use for some obscure scenes and character movements that required sound. Whilst I created most of my effects, I used the samples and processed them to reimagine them for use in my sound design. For sounds like motors and impacts, the loops provided a quick way of getting the right sound without having to spend time trying to create them through recording.
In conclusion, I am glad I chose to do this film because it has taught me a lot on the aspect of sound design and composing for animation. I received a lot of incredible feedback from my colleagues I never thought I would get, and overall I am proud of the finished product.
Overall, the score was beautiful and appropriate, adding suspense and mystery at all the right times. The sound effects added psychological flavor to the story without drawing too much attention to it.
The films musical score alerts the viewer to an approaching attack of the shark and they automatically build this association with the music in their mind. Horror films often make use of high string instrument notes that irritate viewers and increase tension. Music plays an important role in film editing and the editor must choose its placement wisely to ensure its intended effect on the viewer’s mind and
the film, and talks to the director about what sort of music (styles, themes, etc.) should be used — this process is called "spotting.". The director might even have a “temp score”(a score of pieced ol...
Sound is an incredibly relevant part of filmmaking. Although often misunderstood, it helps to generate a more realistic episode by recreating the sonic experience the scene needs. Its main goal is to enhance the emotions that each section is trying to convey by adding music and effects alongside moving images. Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960), is one of the most popular films of the XX Century (Thomson, 2009). Commonly recognised as a masterpiece for its cinematographic, editing and musical values, it changed cinema forever by “playing with darker prospects (…) of humanity such as sex and violence (Thomson, 2009)”. This paper will analyse the sound effects used in the shower scene and its repercussions
For this essay I will be looking at the work of Hans Zimmer to discuss how music in film engages the viewer and evokes emotion and pulls the viewer toward the film. Hans Zimmer is a German born music composer. Hans Zimmer’s love of music stems from his childhood when he learned how to play various instruments. Before Zimmer began composing music for films he was in a well-known band. The band was called The Buggles whom were famous for their song Video Killed the Radio Star. After the Buggles Zimmer played in other bands but never had another hit. As Zimmer has progressed as a film composer so has his list of nominations and awards. Zimmer has won 4 Grammy Awards and 2 Golden Globes and many more for his outstanding film scores. The reason I chose to write this essay on Zimmer was that his genres and music score are extremely versatile ranging from animations to comedy to dark thrillers. This is important to highlight as it shows Zimmer can create almost any atmosphere with his music whether it be sad or creating tension that all cause us to engage with the film. Zimmer's use of themes and introduction of different instruments allowed him to create these wonderful engaging film score. In this essay I will look at three films by Hans Zimmer these are The Holiday Rush and Rain Man.
...successful collaboration of sound, colour, camera positioning and lighting are instrumental in portraying these themes. The techniques used heighten the suspense, drama and mood of each scene and enhance the film in order to convey to the spectator the intended messages.
Final thoughts, I really liked this film and really can't think of anything I had an issue with. The musics fitting, the cinematography is good and the ending is great. That said the whole time I was watching Re-Animator I kept thinking of how much this film feels like Return of the Living Dead and that made me just want to watch that instead. But that's just me and I still heavily recommend you watch this film should you find yourself with time to watch a true cult classic.
The music suited the movie very nicely. By the type of music playing, you could determine what sort of scene was coming up, either fast and light...
We feel that in the two movies both you and your team of special effect artists
As an audience we are manipulated from the moment a film begins. In this essay I wish to explore how The Conversation’s use of sound design has directly controlled our perceptions and emotional responses as well as how it can change the meaning of the image. I would also like to discover how the soundtrack guides the audience’s attention with the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds.
“Apocalypse Now” is a legendary war film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The film’s main theme is devastation, violence, and horror. In this film Coppola thoroughly scrutinized the main characters ideas, behavior, and emotions to depict the darkness and the horror of war. His goal was to make the audience part of the horror. He wanted the audience to have a tremendous impact on this film and he succeeded with the perfect use of sound and editing in the ending sequence of his film. I will demonstrate how Coppola exploits a wide array of sound and editing to create suspense, intensity, and anxiety in the sequence to affect the audience’s emotions, using diegetic ambient sound effects, non-diegetic music, voice over and four editing types.
Sound is what brings movies to life, but, not many viewers really notice. A film can be shot with mediocre quality, but, can be intriguing if it has the most effective foley, sound effects, underscore, etc. Sound in movies band together and unfold the meaning of the scenes. When actors are speaking, the dialogue can bring emotion to the audience, or, it can be used as the ambient sound. Music is one of the main things to have when filmmaking. The use of Claudia Gorbman’s Seven Principles of Composition, Mixing and Editing in Classical Film gives audiences a perspective of sound, and, how it can have an impact on them.
I really liked when the scenes where the image and sound both work together great. I refer to the silence as nothingness and feeling alone because that describes the dark silences perfectly. It is definitely the most prominent part in the movie, and I think more movies should try to use silence to their advantage. I absolutely think that the movie uses silence expressively. For one thing, they are in space so there isn’t a lot of noise in the middle of the galaxy, but for some reason when I think back to when there were shots of the rocket ship in the dark galaxy I think of how the film makers made there be no background noise except the ship which was nice because it made it seem very realistic. Usually in movies there is a lot of background music that you don’t notice, but it helps the scene out. In this case the director used silence to make the scenes more realistic. I think of the scene where Matthew McCaughey goes into the dark hole. He was narrating at the time then suddenly you hear dead silence. It made me have a deeper connection with the movie because the movie was silent, but so were my thoughts. When I think back to the movie, I don’t remember there being a lot of music because it all just blended in, then I went back to see if they had anything special about their music I noticed all the different types of music they had throughout the movie. (This is all referring to my discussion post from chapter
...n, the use of sound in films is highly significant in the development of the plot and in turn the development of the theme. Although, the sound components play a very significant role individually, it is through the combination and manipulation of such components that the sound design of the sound track has a greater impact emotionally upon the audience. Moreover, the effectiveness of this emotional impact can be significantly increased through the implementation of an effective combination sound to the image. Such combination can be seen within Gravity which exhibits a soundscape that successfully assist in bringing the world of the film to life. Sound is important to films and is an essential feature, many a time an audience will not even self-consciously acknowledge the music or sound effects but if they weren’t there the viewing pleasure would not be as pleasing
Howard Shore caused a musical adventure and created an environment musically that helped the audience have an emotional feel for the movie also to help increase the dialogue and action to the film. This allowed the film the “cherry on top” complete feeling; intensifying the movie experience. Throughout the film Howard Shore incorporates many popular artists such as: Sia, Vampire Weekend, Muse, CeeLo Green Beck & Bat for Lashes and the list continues with a few more great bands and artists which were featured in the film. I believe the key to making nearly all movies fall in place and complete is the original score. Howard Shore did a fantastic job using original score pieces. Throughout the film there are eighteen scenes and all of which include music even if it was a original score this helped the scene flow together with the film also allowing the audience to feel the emotions the characters where undergoing as well as the character.