Working with Soundtrack Pro

We both found working with this program quite hard. But after a lot of practice, we managed to create a successful soundtrack suitable for our Thriller opening.

Soundtrack Pro is a full-featured professional audio application that has been designed specifically for audio post-production work on video and film projects. As we started to use this program more frequently, we started to find more sounds that would fit into our Thriller appropriately.

We found a short piano piece,which is really appropriate but does come in with a beat which distracts the audience. We struggled to find the effects to make the sound get louder or softer but after asking loads of people and searching about, we found the fade in and found out controls. For a while, we also looked at trying to cut the drum beat out of the track but were unsuccessful.

In the final edit, we used a drone to give the piece atmosphere and then added in the piano piece to give it an inoccent feel, making the audience feel sorry for ther girl. In the second section, of the film, we left it silent with just the diajetic, cafeteria sounds.

Media Terminology

Over the past term, we have expanded our knowledge on a variety of things, such as:

• Thriller genres
• Thriller directors
• Thriller films
• Typical thriller locations
• Thriller protagonists and antagonists
• How to use the filming equipment
• How to use final cut pro

However, in this post, i have decided to re-cap on the terminolgy. We should all know have a fairly wide vocabulary of media terms:

Genre: A category of media texts characterized by a particular style, form or content.

Industry: The agencies and institutions involved with the production of media texts. The term is also used in a more narrow sense to describe the commercial production of media texts for the purpose of making a profit.

Film Noir: French for "black film" or "dark film". A term used describe a genre of film popular in America between 1940 and 1960.

Fade: A transition to or from "nothing". In audio, to or from silence. In video, to or from a colour such as black.

Focus: The process of adjusting the lens in order to obtain a sharp, clear picture

Pan: Horizontal camera movement.

180 degree rule: The 180° rule is a basic film editing guideline that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.

Mise en scene: The arrangement of visual compositional elements and movements within a given space. In movies, it is defined by the frame that enclosed the images.

Editing

I found the editing process quite challenging.  I had never used final cut pro before and i came across quite a few difficulties.  Thankfully, i had my group there to support me.  I was given the task of doing the tittles.  I managed, on my own, to find out what to do for this.  I'm still not confident with using final cut pro
However, I found this video, which could help:

Preliminary Evaluation

I really enjoyed this project.  However, we did encounter one major problem which put the filming process to a sudden holt.  Things were going ok, we filmed our scene, included all the requirements and we thought everything was fine.  It wasn't until we watched our scene on the computer that we realised that there was no sound.  Next time, we will definitely ensure that the camera has sound and that we check it properly.  We figured that we hadn't checked the camera before using it.  This was a really big problem.  We had to organise, in our extra time, some time to re-film our whole scene.

After our small mishap, things soon got back on track.

For the exercise, there were a few requirements.  We met all of them:

Match on Action-00:16 minutes

Over the Shoulder shot-00:20 minutes onwards

180 rule-our 180 line went through the two characters and we always stayed on the left.

I feel that our video looks good, however there is a slight problem starting from 00:18.

From an audiences perspective, it looks like the camera is going to pan across with the actor, however half way through the panning, we cut quite suddenly to an over the shoulder shot.  When filming, it seemed like a good idea, but watching it back, it looks odd.

If we were to film this again, i think we would be more aware of the sound.  Because there was a constant drilling near where we were filming, which therefore cause inconsistency in the sound.  Also, to achieve a more professional feel to it, at the end we think it would have been better to use the actual soundtrack of Shania Twain's "Man, I Feel Like A Woman" instead of Alex's voice.  We couldn't do this however because it is copywrited.

Thriller Directors

Alfred Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980)

Hitchcock was an iconic and highly influential director and producer. He introduced many techniques into the suspense and thriller genres. His most reknowned thriller was Physco (1960). Here is the film's pivotal scene, and one of the most famous scenes in cinema history; the murder of Janet Leigh's character in the shower.



The following information was taken from the blurb of this film clip::
" It was shot from December 17 to December 23, 1959 and between 71 and 78 angles (the exact number is unknown). The scene "runs 3 minutes and includes 50 cuts." Most of the shots are extreme close-ups except for medium shots in the shower directly before and directly after the murder. The combination of the close shots with the short duration between cuts makes the sequence feel longer, more subjective, more uncontrolled, and more violent than the images themselves were they presented alone or in a wider angle.In order to capture the straight-on shot of the shower head, the camera had to be equipped with a long lens. The inner holes on the spout were blocked and the camera placed farther back, so that the water appears to be hitting the lens but actually went around and past it.The soundtrack of screeching violins, violas, and cellos was an original all-strings piece by composer Bernard Herrmann entitled "The Murder." Hitchcock originally wanted the sequence (and all motel scenes) to play without music, but Herrmann begged him to try it with the cue he had composed. Afterwards, Hitchcock agreed that it vastly intensified the scene and he nearly doubled Herrmann's salary. The blood in the scene is in fact chocolate syrup, which shows up better and has more realistic density than stage blood on black-and-white film. The sound of the knife entering flesh was created by plunging a knife into a casaba melon."

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RN47mpzxgYA

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino is an award-winning American film director, screenwriter and actor. He rose to fame in the early 1990s for his unique directing method that relied heavily on dialogue.

A recent film directed by Quentin Tarantino is Kill Bill, starring Uma Therman

This is the opening scene from Kill Bill volume 1.

I personally love this opening, the tension created is amazing.  Then the sudden shooting at the end makes the audience jump and gives them a thrill.

Thriller Protagonists

I have decided to research further into the main characters or protagonists in Thriller films. This role is usually taken on by a male, showing that men are the best for handling situations which they are usually faced with in Thriler films. It is rare for us to see a woman take on this role. Personally, I feel that there should be more Thrillers which feature a female as the protagonist to show how the story would develop differently and how the outcome would differ.
Female actresses who have taken roles in Thriller films are:

Jodie Foster-Flightplan


Katherine Heigl-Zyzzyx Road



Halle Berry- Perfect Stranger



I found it hard to find even these. So i have therefore come to the conclusion that it is most common for males to play the protagonist in thriller films.

Protagonist-The main character in a play around whom most of the action is based.(http://www.dramatic.com.au/glossary/glossaryp_z.htm)
Antagonist-Any force in the story in conflict with the protagonist. It may be a person, the physical or social environment, a destructive element in the protagonist’s own nature.(http://faculty.weber.edu/dkrantz/en2500/Shortstoryvocab.htm)

Different Types Of Thrillers

I have looked into different types of thrillers, and i have found examples from each sub-genre.

1. Murder Passions-

Based around triangle of husband, wife, lover. The central scene is the murder of either one or two of the triangle members. (research from

The Suspense Thriller

By Charles Derry)

-"Dance With A Stranger" by Mike Newell (1984)

-"The Postman Always Rings Twice" by Bob Rafelson (1946)

2. Political-

"A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of political power struggle. They usually involve various plots, rarely legal, designed to give political power to someone, while his opponents try to stop him from getting it. They can involve national or international political scenarios"-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_thriller

-"Special Section" (1975)

-"Under Siege" (1985)

3. Thriller of Acquired Identity

is Organised around the psychotic effects of a trauma on a protagonist's current involvement in love affair and a crime. The protagonist is always a victim - generally of some past trauma and often of real villains.

-"Spellbound"(1945)

-"Body double" (1984)