Feedback Focusing on Sound

Feedback Focusing on 'Friday'

Danny Boyle

In class, we recently watched 127 Hours (2010) and The Beach (2000) both directed by Danny Boyle. His style of film is made blatantly clear in the hyperactivity of sequences with consistent rapid straight cuts. Contrast between the realism of often isolated natural settings with abstract edited sequences assisted by contrapuntal sound is evident in both features.



127 Hours use of split screens and contrast in colour palette:

Overall plot

As shown in the opening itself, the film begins with the scene of a party. The text saying "Don't worry tonight will be fine" refers to the party happening on the Friday night. The protagonist is revealed to be a heavily introverted character, struggling with the expectations of teenage life hence the purpose of the text to reassure her. 

At the party itself, the protagonist witnesses or overhears a suspicious argument between numerous people. Upon realising that the protagonist has overhead their conversation, two other characters violently threaten her, leading into the bathroom scene. 

It is revealed later in the film that she was threatened again at the party forcing her to leave, evidently distressed. Helin's character seen waiting outside the flats could then have received a text saying something along the lines of "if you see a girl running out of the party. She knows!". 

I think if we were to create a full film it would be based upon the idea of her almost being hunted down and forced into keeping quiet. In doing so, the plot would be in keeping with the teen drama/thriller genre as key aspects of youth would be explored alongside the more thrilling, psychological aspect of the plot. 

Clique

BBC Three have recently released a new TV series called clique which follows the lives of two teenagers and their lives at universities however the plot begins to become much for complex. The BBC summarise the story as "In the first year of uni, childhood best friends Holly and Georgia find themselves drawn to an elite clique. When Holly begins to suspect darkness lurks beneath the glamour, she will do anything to save her soulmate."

I first decided to watch the show as it is written by Jess Brittain who also wrote the Channel 4 series Skins. In an interview with the BBC, Brittain said that she hoped the quite extreme themes of friendship and challenges will resonate with young people but particularly young women. The series was filmed in Edinburgh which I find quite interesting as its so common for programmes to be based in London  and surrounding areas. From the two episodes that I've watched so far its clear that the series is driven by strong determined female characters with regard to both their personal and professional lives.

Full Interview : http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/entries/a1acff0d-f7f3-4ef5-86fc-d03d73c5c6a8

Relevance to Audience

I decided to ask a few of my friends to watch the film opening and get their views on how the themes explored are relevant to our desired audience. It seems that the sort of ambiguous nature of the opening with the only dialogue being a single line entices teenagers as it can be adapted to suit their own interpretation.

Katie

"I'd say that your film has loads of appeal to the target audience because firstly the premise of the film revolves around teenagers, like the characters featured are all in their teens and its a party which makes it relatable to loads of people. Also recently there's been loads of psychological thrillers on TV that have had an audience of young adults and that links in quite well with how your film is done with the glicthes"

Alev

"The fact that young adult culture is incorporated in the opening with the party scene. Also, it proposes a problem with the 'I need your help' which adolescents could relate to"

Catherine

"The themes are very relatable to stereotypical teenagers for example parties, so it makes it interesting to watch as you can relate to the main character as she is a teenager so you feel connected to her as you have something in common"

Isobel

"The contrast between the party scene and the roof top scene is applicable to contrasting parts and emotions in young peoples lives. The intensity of the first party is also relatable to the intensity often felt by young people with the lighting and noise"

Use of FreeSound

Within our film opening we used a variation of recorded diegetic sound and foley sound effects either recorded separately or non diegetic sound. For the non diegetic sound used to accompany the constant action of the opening, we relied upon the website FreeSound for uncopyrighted sound. The diegetic sound of the party scene was included in editing in turning the sound down on the actual clip then converting our desired audio into mp3 format. In doing so, constant varied sound not only was in keeping with the mood of the protagonist but also emphasised the awkwardness and shock of the glitch sequence.

Once we'd finished cutting together all of our footage and decided upon having no sound in the glitch segment (use of a poll) we began to layer and enhance sound elsewhere. One key example was the our of focus POV shot prior to the running sequence where we didn't want the stillness of the shot to cause a dip in tension which is why we added the sound of a heartbeat.

Key Influences

Rather than replicate the style of one film's opening, we adapted aspects of numerous films to create our own. Most obviously is the style of the titles themselves is inspired by Drive (2011). As well as that we included 'Friday' without any date or reference to previous action, similarly to Seven (1995). In regard to mise en scene, the costume draws similarities to the Channel 4 series 'Skins'.

Our party glitch sequence was partly inspired by the TV film 'Ellen' as mentioned in my initial blog post. We adapted the bright coloured lights of the 'Gaycation' opening sequence to suit our party scene as a direct contrast to the neutral, silent glitch images.

La La Land: A Classic?

After seeing La La Land, I was immediately a huge fan and evidently so are most as it has already grossed $405.2million from its $30million budget. It has proven successful with people of all ages, avid fans of musical theatre and film geeks alike. I recently watched Youtuber and filmmaker Hazel Hayes' video highlighting why Damien Chazelle's film is likely to see years and years of success. The film partners modern life and cinema with classic American musicals, allowing it to be successful on an international scale.

Beginning Evaluation

I decided that for the first evaluation question, I would create a stop motion video assisted by voice over to explain.

 

After briefly planning my key ideas, I printed off pictures to use including the title of Drive and our film opening Dazed. Following that I had to take numerous photos of them, changing their position each time. I may need to re do some photos to make it appear less jumpy but also ensure my phone is in the same fixed position to take the photos. I will edit them all together, possibly change increase the speed and once I'm happy add ,my voiceover. Here are just a few of the photos I took to use:

 

The Nice Guys

I recently watched The Nice Guys and although the quite random comedic content differs from the intended genre of our film opening, I noticed that the colour and fonts used in the title sequence are similar to ours including the style of the production company:

Continuity

One the biggest issues we encountered in our film opening was that of continuity. Filming in numerous locations at different times of day would heavily affect lighting and sound quality which we quickly realised in our first shoot. Initially filming inside the block of flats, lighting continued to vary between shots whilst we were first getting accustomed to using the camera. However, eventually getting into the habit of paying attention to light level and focus before recording prevented us from taking longer than necessary for the rest of the film. We found similar problems with mise en scene but it highlighted to us early on to take pictures/notes of costume and frame compositions. In our final film opening, we think paying such close attention to light levels paid off.

Age Certificate

Every 4-5 years, the BBFC carries out a major public consultation exercise to find out what the public thinks about the age rating of films and videos before they are released and whether the BBFC's classification standards meet public concerns.

The BBFC adjusts its standards in response to any changes in public attitudes.

These standards are laid out in the BBFC's Classification Guidelines, they detail what is acceptable at each age category, from U to R18.

The current ratings consist of:

Universal
Parental Guidance
12 Accompanied Advisory
12
15
18
Restricted 18

If our film dazed was to be released as a full length feature, it would most likely be released with a 15 certificate due to the potential for mature subjects and language.

Light and Dark

Within our film open, we wanted to focus on a constant contrast between light and dark which meant we needed to pay close attention to constant light levels for continuity purposes. Within shot 7, we relied upon the artificial lighting of the stairway as a directly opposing image to the party. Focus on contrast, as mentioned previously, complimented our decision for rapid straight cuts in emphasising the confusion of the protagonist. As well as this, changing light levels act as a time stamp, indicating the length of the party for example.