Hey! So just to say I have began a new blog for my second year as a Media Production student, why not take a peek?
https://grantsnaithyr2blog.wordpress.com
UNITED STATES – CIRCA 1950s: Woman with surprised look. (Photo by George Marks/Retrofile/Getty Images)
For my 162MC edit, I chose to adapt ‘A Game of Bluffs’ to the film movement of Film Noir but also with the modern influence of director Steven Spielberg. Film Noir has long been an interesting subject for me and when I began to write the script I did so with the Film Noir movement in mind. Steven Spielberg is not one of my favourite directors however I appreciate his techniques and his invisible oner, or one take method of shooting as seen in films of his like Jaws (1975). I hoped to combine the two methods to create a slow paced and 
mysterious piece that drew from both sources.
The first decision we took upon ourselves as a group was to shoot our film straight into black and white. This was a group decision as most of us agreed we would be turning our footage into black and white anyway despite editing into different styles. During editing certain scenes appeared too bright since our location was lined with white walls and some large windows that couldn’t be blocked so in post I chose to decrease the brightness to keep a gritty feeling to the visuals. Film Noir makes use of strong lighting and the casting of distinct shadows. The film Double Indemnity (1944) was largely influential to me for the visual and style of 
shadow, in some scenes I left the brightness so you could barely make out facial features. I would have liked to have dimmed the backdrop more throughout if I had more time just to create the impression of the characters being in a dark bar somewhere.
Some of the cuts are particularly long in my edit of A Game of Bluffs so as to better keep to the style of Steven Spielberg, in particular the scene where Jimmy is telling the crude joke. Chapmann makes a remark whilst Jimmy is talking, if I was editing to a different style I would have cut to Chapmann to say this line but instead I feel that Chapmann is already an established character and the audience are aware that that is his voice and so hold the shot on 
Jimmy. These slow one takes allow the audience to connect with the characters emotionally and to soak in the atmosphere of a competitive poker game. Ideally I would have preferred to shoot the whole thing in one take by moving the camera around the table capturing the four men in shot throughout however we lacked a shoulder rig for the smooth movements and our actors joined last minute and were unable to memorise the lines.
Although I wanted to keep to long continuous shots, sometimes it was necessary to cut away to a different shot either because the camera was unable to move fast enough around the table or moving to the next shot felt unnatural as it broke the 180 degree rule. For these shots I still wanted to tell something about the characters so instead of cutting away to random shots of cards or chips on the table I chose to show a finger 
running on the edge of the glass to show edginess or a chip rolling through knuckles to suggest nerves. I feel these cut aways subtly inform the audience how much these characters mistrust one another.
The sound is always a crucial component in film and perhaps even more so in Film Noir. Sound effects need to sound real and grounded, no hyper-real effects. In addition to this music is a key component for pacing, atmosphere and setting. I deliberately chose to use Body and Soul by Ziggy Elman bec
ause it fit the time period to operate both as diagetic and non-diagetic pieces of music. For the majority of the film the music acts as diagetic, a record playing in the background of the bar however as the action kicks off it changes to non-diagetic music before changing back in the aftermath. I also wanted to use this song all the way through the film to reinforce the long takes that were being shown with the same continuous music.
During the course of the film there are several conversations taking place between the characters that don’t necessarily add to the narrative but help to develop the characters and their working relationships. I ch
ose to keep these in rather than streamlining the film to keep the narrative moving because I felt it was important that in a film so character driven it was important to understand these characters. My inspiration for this style of edit comes mostly from Quentin Tarantino’s in films Pulp Fiction (1994) and Inglourious Basterds (2009). In the latter of these two films, Tarantino has a bar scene which really influenced me in its style of long takes and seemingly pointless conversation only to suddenly flick into action.
I debated with myself about the opening of the film for quite some time and ended up choosing a different opening to what I had originally planned. Originally I was going to use a shot of New York city with a title indicating the setting of ‘Chicago, 1948’ and then cut to our main character Chapmann entering through the bar door. However, I decided against this in favour of opening up on a shot of a chip rolling across someone hand in the hopes that this would immediately establish the setting, tone and subject of the film. I then cut to our first character introduced with the close up of him taking the glass.
In conclusion, I was relatively happy with the outcome of A Game of Bluffs and learnt a great deal in the process about filming to meet the editing style of your piece and also the central column to film, sound. When I re-shoot this over the summer I feel like I will be much more prepared for the challenge and aware of what worked and what didn’t and how I can improve the overall quality of the film.
Film Bibliography
Double Indemnity (1944) by Billy Wilder
Inglourious Basterds (2009) by Quentin Tarantino
Jaws (1975) by Steven Spielberg
Pulp Fiction (1994) by Quentin Tarantino
Relevant Blog Posts
https://grantsnaithyr1.wordpress.com/2015/03/16/editing-a-narrative/
https://grantsnaithyr1.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/the-smokey-veil-of-film-noir/
https://grantsnaithyr1.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/a-game-of-bluffs/
https://grantsnaithyr1.wordpress.com/2015/04/30/schools-styles-and-the-researching-of-film-editing/
https://grantsnaithyr1.wordpress.com/2015/05/02/the-mystery-of-film-noir/
https://grantsnaithyr1.wordpress.com/2015/05/07/the-sound-edit/
https://grantsnaithyr1.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/a-game-of-bluffs-promo-work/
Sound is a make or break in film and television, and audience will easily forgive poor visuals but a poor quality of sound can send an audience running. Sound can be used in a multitude of ways, a simple sound can create fear, awe, love, sadness and discomfort. Sound in itself can tell a story.
Sound is integral to life as a whole, its has shaped our world to the way we know it and a complete absence of sound creates a disturbing feeling. Here is a video that demonstrates the effect of sound on the physical world.
In important stage in the edit is to watch over your footage and Sound Spot. This is where you browse through your footage and s
pot various sounds that could be added to your scenes to create various feelings and impacts. The opening scene of Drive is a good example of the use of sound to convey subtle messages throughout. The radio not only contributes to the story but also helps to build tension as the scene progresses. In a typical hollywood blockbuster film you might expect a large score for a car chase, but instead this scene uses the sound of the car to build up tension coupled with an ever present heart beat bassline. Frequently throughout the scene, sounds are added for an emotional impact rather that to realistically portray the sounds of the physics at play.
Two interesting exercises in developing your soundscape skills: watching a scene without audio and thinking to yourself what sounds you would put to that scene, for example we watched this scene from Road to Perdition without audio and amongst the list of things that could be used are: Rain, Footsteps in rain, Car engine, Rain on Umbrella, Gun fire / Pistol fire, Intense music, Bodies hitting floor, Slow walking footsteps in rain, Empty Shells on Wet floor, Breathing, Voices, Gun being raised and Gun being drawn. The other interesting technique is to just listen to a scene without looking at visuals and consider what the sound is telling you.
https://grantsnaithyr1.wordpress.com/2014/11/03/the-magic-of-music/
Useful Sites:
– Audio Network
– Creative Commons
– Moby Gratis
Today sees the release of The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies and the end of the Hobbit trilogy by director Peter Jackson. His work has been inspirational for me from the early days of Braindead to present day and although I’m sad to see his time in Middle Earth come to a close, I am also excited to see what he will turn his attention to next. This beautiful song by Billy Boyd from Lord of the Rings really sums up the feeling of Jackson’s work, a journey that we have embarked on with him.
So a few of you know i’ve been busy in my spare time working on the early concepts for a short film I intend to start producing throughout the course of 2015, the ultimate goal being to enter it into a competition or festival. Its really early stages so far yet the few people i’ve gathered around me for this have shown such amazing commitment already and all seem really eager to get involved. But now on the edge of 2014 and the start of 2015 I have decided to extend an invitation out to everyone and anyone who would like to get involved whether it be in production, post-production, acting, lighting, make up, distribution, music anything! Without giving too much away here are a few images just to wet your appetite with (the storyboard provided by Carl Packer). If you are interested and would like to get involved please feel free to comment or message me with your interest and what you could offer to the group. Please bare in mind, not everyone can get involved as a group of too many people will become difficult to control. Thankyou 🙂
Further development on my Steampunk short film idea, I have been dabbling on the musical aspect and trying to establish a team or at least an individual to take the helm on that aspect. For this I wanted someone familiar with music in general not just sounds for film and also someone who I already knew as my knowledge of musical terms is weak and I am not confident in explaining exactly what it is I wanted. I reached out to a few but ultimately came across Adam Norman, who I had previously worked on a film project with called ’17 Spleens’ under director Sean Forj.
Adam Norman has his own band named ‘Puma XIII’ and sent me a couple of samples of his work that he has kindly agreed to let me share here for you guys to listen to. I am currently in talks with him to figure out exactly what it is I am looking for from him and what we need to acquire to achieve this goal. I am thinking about reaching out to some of the music students here in the university to see if there are any violin players whom would be interested as I think this might add an extra string to my musical piece (pardon the pun).
Heres a small video tutorial I found very useful whilst trying to get my head around using the Adobe Audition CC software that I was first introduced to in the first few weeks of my course. The software was tricky for me to adapt to as it requires a new mode of thinking; using sound rather than moving image was a new concept for me. So I hope that this can help you guys to get to grips with this useful software.
Im a big fan of film and television soundtracks, I feel a good soundtrack can sometimes save an otherwise terrible film, they add pace and narrative to a scene and create all manner of feelings from sadness to tension. For example the film Amazing Spiderman 2, despite being a slightly less then average film, had an amazing soundtrack to it that perhaps without it would have left the film to fail. Its use of techno and dub step during scenes with main antagonist Electro are really inspired and allow you to feel his pains of being lonely and an outcast. The fact that these particular genres of music are combined and put into use here is a clever link to his name, ‘Electro’ and his ability to shoot bolts of lightning at his enemies, in much the way people associate with that genre of music, particularly dub step music videos. Below is the Electro music and then another video depicting a take on dub step combined with ‘flashy’ lighting effects.
Some films use music against what is being shown in their films to create a sense of unease, for example using happy music during a particularly horrific and gory scene will make the audience feel at edge because the two do not join up. Alternatively, the music could be employed to reveal the emotions of the killer or aggressor as being happy, this would create a rather psychotic feel to the character in question. An example of this can be seen in the film Reservoir Dogs by one of my all time favourites Quentin Tarantino during a torture sequence that most will probably recognise. During this scene the music is used to create a sense of almost enjoyment of the torturer, whilst also making sense within the context of the scene.
Another way that music is often used, and was used rather effectively in a trailer I posted not too long ago, is when they take a piece of music that is typically associated with fairy tales or happy children’s songs and remake it into some form of dark and sinister tune whilst maintaining its lyrics or a similar melody to it. This has been used time and time again and to great effect as it strikes a cord at our very childhoods, to a time of naive safety and turns it on its head. Heres an example of this where the nursery rhyme ‘twinkle, twinkle little star’ used within the popular horror survival video game Dead Space 2. I hope that this has helped to open your eyes as to the importance of sound within film.
The Journey Begins 