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.