To animate I decided to use Procreate Dreams,
an iPad app which is based on Procreate a drawing app but instead, it focuses
on animation. I have used Procreate for 5 years so my point of reference for
this app will be Procreate. Procreate Dream
is created for fans of normal Procreate and people who want a simpler animation
app.
When it comes to drawing, its interface is
very similar to procreate. Like its sister app on the top right, there is a color
picker, layer selector, eraser, and blending icons. Tapping them opens several settings
with different brush sections.
Procreate sample animation timeline, made by Seoro Oh
Unlike Procreate the bottom half is new
which is the animation section, there is a timeline where video, audio, and 2d
animation can be added with frames. Its process of adding frames and timeline
is simple as it's done by just drawing on top of the selected area.
Procreate no clipping mask layer
Clipping mask Layer
Alpha lock layer
This app is more approachable than Adobe animates,
with its one-time payment of 20 dollars and its simplicity making it easier for
anyone to pick it up. That is one of the reasons why I chose procreate dreams,
it was the most affordable option that was also good and simple. I already had
the necessary hardware for it as it's made for iPad and Apple pencil
combinations.
Its simplicity has drawbacks for example
there is a limit in clip length which can be constricting, when it comes to
this project it won't be a hassle but if I had to long term fully animate
something that was two minutes, it would be a big inconvenience. The simplicity
also makes options limited for example there are no alpha lock layers. This feature
allows for anything drawn on the layer to be locked into space. A way to get
around this feature not being here is by using a clip mask, but it adds a layer,
and it doesn’t lock the layer it just makes that whatever is drawn on the top
layer will only show up where the bottom layer is drawn on, but the drawing is
still there.
Procreate Dream is not a perfect program,
but it fulfills the needs of my film, that’s what matters, I wished that
something would be better, and it would cause me to change my strategy on how I
will animate on my film but it won't stop me. I just must be adaptable.
My film is a mix of live-action and 2d
animation, something I have never done. I'm aware of the basics of animation as
its an interest of mine but I have never really done anything that I have taken
seriously. So for the first serious animation, I decided to learn more about
the medium, and record the information here to have one place to come back to
when I needed to and put some of the knowledge into actual tests.
The 12 principles of animation
The book cover of The illusion of life Disney animation,1981
In animation one of the best companies
is Disney and their history with the
medium is deeply respected. In the 80s Two Disney animators Ollie Johnston and
Frank Thomas created a book that explained Disney's philosophy when it came to animation.
This was deemed the twelve principles of animations which is now used throughout
the industry. These principles are building blocks of animation and understanding
them allows for more fluid movements. These are simple explanations of the
principles so I can remember them.
Squash and Stretch: a figure is stretched
and squashed to an extreme level to add fluidity. But the volume of the object doesn’t
change.
Anticipation: When an audience expects
something based on the actions beforehand
Staging: Similar in Mise en scene where things are staged to make it clear and
bring the audience's attention to the important part
Straight-ahead action and pose-to-pose: different ways of animating. Pose to pose
means drawing key frames and then filling the in-betweens after. This is good
for dramatic scenes. Straight-ahead action scenes are frame by frame which are
more fluid and dynamic.
Follow through and overlapping action: Follow
through is the concept that a character action should continue after a, movement
only stopped by being pulled back for the next action. Overlapping action is when
parts of the animation move at different rates. These two create more realistic
movements that follow physics
Slow in and slow out: Animation needs time
to accelerate and slow down How this is done is by drawing more frames in the
beginning and in the end of an action.
Arc: Animation should follow implied arcs with
its fluid movements, without them the animation is robotic. A way to check this
is by drawing arcs into the animation as a sketch.
Secondary action: The main actions need an
added action that gives more expression to the animation.
Timing: The number of frames in an action
which means the speed of the action. Timing is important as it makes the action
look natural.
Exaggeration: Imitation to the real world does
not transfer well to animation. Making the movements more extreme brings life
into the animation. Yet too exaggerated can be a fault as it muddles the movement.
Solid drawing: Remember that whatever is
being drawn is in a three-dimensional space even if its 2d. Remembering the
volume, weight and size of them compared to their environment makes it more realistic
Appeal: The character can be appealing without
being good or evil. Cuter characters are more appealing.
Learning these were very helpful, before hand I knew when an animation looked wrong but I didn't know how or why. There was just something off about the movements .I knew that exaggeration was a part that was needed in animation but I didn't think about how the objects physical aspects like volume would affect it. Now its time to use these concepts in my knowledge.
Intrusive thoughts becoming corporeal is an important part of my film, as it is the main conflict that the character goes through.
When it came to the intrusive thoughts manifesting in the film I was directly inspired by arcane. Specifically, the character Jinx. Jinx often talks to herself as if someone else is there. The show depicts it as in a way that there is someone else there. But it is truly her thoughts and traumatic past that cause her to argue with her own thoughts as if she was arguing with someone else.
These conversations show up presented by people from her family that had died in an accident she blamed herself on, yet she tries to forget them but thoughts wont. The hallucination depicts the fact that jinx mind is split, as she is not sure of her actions, causing her thoughts to question her.
Something unique about arcane is the fact that the show uses a combination of 2d and 3d animation. Characters, objects, and some settings are modeled in 3d while effects like smoke and objects that are far away are digitally added in with 2d animation. Giving the show is unique animated style of looking like a painting.
Jinx hallucination uses this unique technique as the characters have 3d rendered models but 2d animations are overlayed on top of them like children's drawings.
The scenes where this happens are powerful as they give a In-depth look into jinx fractured minds
Examples of Scratches
In this scene jinx has just learn information that affects her life a big way. She is distraught and how she processes this information is through talking to herself. The model and scratches come often, they do not speak but jinx talks and reacts to them as if they were real. Showing how disjointed her mind is.
My character intrusive thoughts will visually resemble the 2d animated parts of Jinx thought, but there will be some big differences. My character intrusive thoughts will talk which will make them more tangible, something that the audience can also hear not only the character. The sound they will make will be stronger as when jinx’s thoughts come into frame low whisper and almost slicing knives sound comes with them too. The intrusive thoughts of my movie will make more potent sounds, sounds someone cannot ignore.
Example of Scratches
Arcane is a masterpiece of knowing how to give its narrative and characterize their character without explicitly telling. The Scratches in arcane represent and do a lot of things, they aren't just nuisances but aa part of Jinx. They depict her pass, her present, her thoughts and what's happening around her. They are a source of pain to her, and they are created from her pain. Arcane can depict this with few words and imagery. Something I will take notes as I move on in my production as the scratches do not always show up when they do, they strengthen the moment.
I knew for a fact based on my genre statement that I wanted the cinematography to be slow, static and have uncomfortable angles.
A shot that I wanted to be a constant was a wide shot that showed three walls surrounding the character. This shot would be far away for the character. It is a good establishing shot, that also separates the audience from the character, adding more to the isolation the character experiences. This shot was repeated multiple times as it was recurring, and it had a parallel at the end of the introduction when she had to go and open the door.
I plan to use a lot of close ups with Dutch angle to make the audience feel uncomfortable while watching the film
Some of the shots I plan to use are ones I have not ever done, and they are more advanced. But i chose them as they fit want, I wanted to convey with my film.
A Dutch angle usually represent something going out of sync it also shows the character getting interrupted, and a dolly zoom creates a sense of unease to the viewer. The combination of these two will depict the concern and confusion of the character. I worry about continuing to study, and I will need practice beforehand.
The hardest shot will be shot 19 as it involves a movement that's quite difficult.AN horizontal arc which means that the charact will circle the main character. The purpose of an arc shot is to be a transition, centralize the focus of an audience and create dynamic shots without having the character moving. For my intended purpose it's a combination of the three, as the transition will happen when a sudden stop happens which causes the tensest part of the introduction. After multiple shots of the painting, I plan to use the arc shot to put focus on the character enjoying the painting process and then getting interrupted. The arch shot adds a lot of movement to the character and while the character in my film enjoys herself, she is less rigid, moving more fluidly and the cinematography should show the difference between her two forms.
The wide shot which will be a constant
The arc shot is the one I am most worried about, and I will def must practice and research how to do it. It is an overly complicated one, but it would add so much to the movie if I could figure it out.
A lot of my shots aren't too difficult or anything special, but there are some there that are very difficult, especially me as an amateur film maker. But just because they are difficult doesn't mean that it will stop me. I will persevere and learn how to do them because without these interesting unique shots, a lot of personality of my film would be taken off. Difficulty won't stop me from achieving my vision.
This video helped me seeing how I would want my own arc shot in my film
The sound statement relies on the genre statement heavily, as the sound of a movie usually is influenced by the genre and narrative of the film. This means that the genre statement, story, and sound are intricately linked.
For the sound aesthetic of my movie I could have done a couple different things, as psychological thriller is a genre that has a lot of different sound that people link to. I knew I wanted to do some things like movies. I liked their sound design yet also put my own spin to follow the identity of the movie.
One of the most recognizable sound aesthetics of a psychological thriller is Joker,2018. The soundtrack has long notes that are low and held for an uncomfortable amount of time. The main instrument, the cello, adds a sense of bitterness and melancholy to the music. The sound of the environment is also as dark but aggressive. As overlapping sounds of the city, like police, ambulance and people screaming tell the story of Gotham being taken over by crime. This sound aesthetic is one that is slow and personal to the film.
Compared to black swan,2010
In this scene the plucking of the feathers sound is exaggerated to add more pain to the action, while this is happening screaming from both character add even more to the panic and intensive finally music from swan lake plays which add even more tension but also tells the audience this is a hallucination.
which uses classical music that is not original for the movie. Yet classical music characterizes the main character Nina through her hallucination as music of the ballet plays even though it makes no sense to the audience. In a way classical music is used to separate the main character from reality. It sounds cheerful and often is upbeat, but it does not take away from the sinister feeling, more like adds to it as causes a disconnect from what is happening in the screen. The sound effects of normal life are often exaggerated to emphasize big moments like when Nina hurts her ankle, and the sound is not close to life. But the exaggeration of the sound makes the audience feel like it is as big of a deal as Nina feels it too.
These two movies' sound design stuck in my mind, and they were my point of reference. I ended with a combination of both like Black Swan using classical music to connect the character but instead of disconnecting the character from the real world, classical music will bring the character back to the real world. From the joker I liked the clashing sounds overlaying each other which depict the turmoil of the city. So, I decided that something similar would be used for the intrusive thoughts that come to life.
The intrusive thoughts are a big part of the film, so I wanted to distinguish them more than just the clashing sounds, but also by their dialogue being whisper that have a scratching sound to them. This is how the character herself hears them as no matter how much she shushes them the whisper comes back.
The Joker,2019 ending scene where a dichotomy of the calm melancholic main theme plays, while the sound of the riots clash against each other.
Deciding how I wanted the sound design for my film was hard, as someone who is very interested in the subject, my mind goes a hundred miles a minute about the possibilities' different Things I could do, unique sound effects, having so much control about the sound as I'm doing this film solo is both a blessing and a curse. As I can get carried away, but once I started watching the films I liked the sound design of in the genre, I started brainstorming so I could use the things the other films did in my film. Inspiration is necessary to be able to do something, being completely original does not mean much in the grand scheme of things. The importance is to change it to fit the vision of the film.
I first did the genre statement as all the aspects of the film put together in one place. The goal of my genre statement was to figure out my film's identity. My genre statement had to tell how my chosen genre influenced my film to be similar and what I decided to change of the genre.
In my genre statement I directly spoke of influences that came from similar genres, Movies that I talked about was American Psycho 2000, Joker,2018 and Black Swan,2010 as the direct inspiration for the genre details of my film. For example, one of the conventions all these films follow of psychological thriller is an unreliable narrator, which in my genre statement I explicitly said that I would follow this narrative technique
These films were not only used as an example of inspiration for my film but also to figure out parts that I decided to oppose. For example, the main character becoming a danger to people around them through violence, which is something that I decided I did not want to depict in my film. This was an important part of my genre statement as it set the tone for editing,cinematogrophy,mise en scene and sound. My story is less of a morbid look into a bad person’s psychology and more of an empathetic look into someone struggling with internal conflict.
A big part of the genre statement was setting the audience expectations. What will be deny, delay, and deliver expectations the basis of storytelling. In my genre statement I wrote that my film would deliver the audience expectation of seeing a character struggle with mental health as it is expected of a psychological thriller. This might be a given some psychological thrillers do not have a main character that goes through those struggles instead sometimes the psychological thriller is given to the audience, or a villain is the one with those struggles. With me delivering the expectation I am following conventions of the genre.
Black Swan,2010 Nina hallucinating about killing lily
Black swam.2010 Nina after she stabs herself
Black Swan,2010 uses expectations against the viewers. The hallucinations are hard to decipher and through out the film during hallucinations Nina becomes violent. A lot of her hardship surrounds lily and viewer expect a breaking point were Nina actually does what her hallucination tell her to. On the top photo its Nina killing lily and the audience expectation are deliver. Yet later on they are denied as turns out it was just a hallucination and Nina actually stab herself instead. The uses of expectations in black swan are what inspired that part about my genre statement.
An important idea was finding the film's own identity. The genre statement is all about setting the tone, goal, and style of how my film will look. And while writing this statement I took a lot of inspiration from media that I liked, and this helped me a lot in the writing process. Yet it made it difficult to feel like it was my own movie. Often, I thought about if I was too much like one of the movies I watched or was subconsciously copying a film. It was worrying as I wanted to do something that would be identifiable as made by me. I figured that by rejecting some of the more conventional aspects of the genre like the dark colors, and violence it would differentiate film enough.
With all the research done it was time to put it on paper and use it to make a film. Working on the portfolio was difficult as it meant a lot of planning and strategy with the tight schedule I had. The portfolio work was divided into 3 days, in which I separated the different parts of making a film.
Day 1 was mainly for the narrative aspects. Out of all the tasks, Figruing out a story took the longest and it needed my full attention, so I reserved a whole day to work on it. I had the theme of the narrative and genre selected before starting the script, which gave me guidelines to follow through the brainstorming process. These restrictions helped me focus my train of thought, it stops me from fraying too far into ideas that couldn't come to fruition. Yet it still left a lot of options that the film’s narrative could go
Regency Era
One narrative idea was about a lady that’s hosting a tea party in the regency era. The ladies are gossiping about current events, but the lady hosting her isn’t speaking. Her mind is somewhere else, and She keeps hearing things causing her to react wrongly to the situation. The scene would end with the ladies looking at the host confused because she responses wrongly. This was inspired by the strict rules, women had to abide during the regency era. I thought of how jane Austen often depicted the fact that being unmannered and perceive as lower standing was almost a death sentence and what would happen if one of her heroines didn't deal with embarrassment with grace but instead a decline of her mental health. I thought this would be an interesting idea. Though it would be quite difficult to do when its Mise en scene of the costumer, setting and getting enough actors. So rationally this idea could only ever be an idea.
A Morbid Painter
Another idea was about a painter who paints the different murders they accomplish at night. In this idea the first 2 minutes would be of the character painting a scenery, while in the background a radio can be heard mentioning the latest murder. The artist starts putting red to the canvas to finish the final touches of a morbid scene, until they themselves are covered in red paint and the radio broadcast ends. This was inspired by Walter Sickert, an artist who was known for being eccentric and did multiple works that brought attention to him because they were connected to famous murders of his era, most famously Jack the Ripper’s Bedroom. His obsession with Jack the Ripper has caused people to believe that he could be the Murderer but people around him said that he just wanted to confront taboo subjects with his art.
This idea didn’t get as much development as I realized I didn’t want a story line that deals with murder. In psychological thrillers often the main characters have mental health problems, which leads them to become violent. Which if not done correctly, it could add into the stereotype of mentally ill people as dangerous. As a still amateur film maker, I didn’t believe I could depict this subject well, if kept with the idea of having mental illness as a theme.
Jack the Ripper Bedroom,1907 the famed painting that has cause decades of speculation
Summer afternoon or what shall we do for the rent,1907-9 inspired by the Camden town murder in which a part time prostitute got murdered in her sleep. Sickert did a series of paintings based on this murder
A Mix
The first general draft of my script. In this I went deeper into the concept, yet it was not a full script. It gave a guide to the beginning, middle and end and I just had to fill in the in-betweens.
The final story ended up being a combination of these two. A painter who intrusive thoughts become tangible to them, and they get away of their desires. Painting can be powerful for symbolism and emotional states as paintings are inherently done with passion and emotion behind it. And as an artist myself I felt like I could write a script around someone who struggles to make art, taking from my prior experience.
Perfect Brainstorming
There were a lot more story ideas that I came up with. Brainstorming included writing everything down that came to mind. Something would be developed but others would just end up as scratched words. While brainstorming it was important to explore all the possibilities of an idea before deciding to go with it or scrap it. But it was also important to have some self-imposed guidelines that channeled creativity into one place. The balance between these two allows for a good creative brainstorming session.
In blogs, I often talk about how the narrative will affect my role as a sound designer and the progression of how the story is being creative with the team. My blogs of setting up the story and character exploration, figuring out the details, and sound design after a nice conversation centered mostly about these themes and group collaborations.
Our group had a lot of passion about the project but while working on the story it started to become clearer that our goals and thoughts weren’t working out. I wanted to do this film badly and it was important for me to get this done under the time requirement. My group were less worried about the time, and they had other priorities to work through.
I tried to be understanding but I felt myself frustrated and worrying about getting things done. Our goals were so different, and it wasn’t working. This wasn’t a good way to do group work, so I decided that it was best for me to split from them and make a solo film.
Now I’m doing every role in the film, yet sound design is still my passion, so all the research I have done will be used for my film as I will still be part of the same genre and some of the ideas of the sound design will still be present. I now have more creative freedom and there is less stress for everyone involve so it was the best decision possible.
Working on the bug film production has taught me a lot, from the technical aspect of film production but also in teamwork. Knowing if a team matches in their goals and way of working is important for good teamwork. Though we worked well in the creative aspects, it is constricting when it came to doing some of the work. I acknowledge my limits and my goals, and I went with a decision I’m happy with.
American psycho follows Patrick Bateman a wealthy man who surrounds himself with equally powerful and narcissistic individuals. But Patrick is a special case as he indulges in his violent fantasies against people, he deems disgusting. As the audience follows the main characters, it's revealed that Patrick is an unreliable narrator and the movie ends with the audience questioning what was real, and what were just fantasies. The unreliable narrator is an important part of this film as it gives a new context to almost all the scenes for first-time viewers. Some scenes become darker and other scenes are questioned about even existing like when Bateman kills Paul Allen. It encourages the audience to watch again to learn more. For these reasons this one of the features that interest me the most about American psycho’s narrative.
This is in the first 10 mins of the movie. Bateman is surrounded with light sterile colors. The only dark color is the suit he is wearing. Setting him apart from the rest of the shot.it also shows how different he is from his surroundings.
This scene is closer to the end of the film and color palettes have completely reversed. In this scene Bateman is indulging his dark fantasies by murdering some girls. He is covered in blood and surrounded by black. The light colors and lighting of the scene is all on Bateman. In this scene he reflects his mental state as he looks as unhinged as he feels.
Mise en scene
American psycho mise en scene matches the characters emotions. In the beginning, it's clean and sterile, with light colors surrounding the character. Patrick Bateman is dressed in prim business clothing that is generic but expensive enough that shows how materialistic Patrick Bateman is. Once Bateman starts becoming more unhinged, the gets darker, and the use of blood starts dirtying his pristine appearance
Edit
The editing of American psycho creates suspense throughout the movie. The movie doesn't have a fast-paced edit, its slow edit makes scenes longer than what they feel comfortable time.
Cinematography
American psycho cinematography is slow, still and weirdly angled. A unique thing is that during chase scene, with Patrick Bateman running through different location the cinematography is all static shots, with cameras far removed from the character. This causes the audience to feel separated from the action of the character as he starts losing mental stability, causing them to feel more surreal.
This scene depicts both the cinematography and editing of American psycho well. How they both intertwined to create the deserted effect. During this film Bateman is running away from something that the audience doesn't see. This running isn't like other scenes of similar natures as the the shots are long and the editing is slow. The camera is either static away from character angled like a security camera or slowly tracking the character. In conventional chase scenes the camera usually fast and close to the characters, the editing is quick and the shots are quicker to give a sense of movment and tension. Yet this scene accomplishes all of this without any of those techniques.
Sound design
American psycho uses diegetic 80s popular music that the character listens to. Its Pop music highly contradicts to the main characters personality and action causing a dichotomy for the audience. American psycho uses narration from the character throughout the movie, giving a deeper look into what the character is thinking.
Conclusion
Watching American psycho from an analyst point of view as it was helpful to figure out some of the aspects I wish to bring to my film. For examples I liked the wide shots far away from the character which makes the character feel isolated in their actions. I will implement the use of diegetic music to characterize the character in my movie. There are also some things that I figured out that I won't use like narration, as I want to make the audience infer and feel before being told. Using my research knowledge to put it into practice was helpful. Though I know a lot of these ideas in theory, seeing them being done helped me realize if this is the movie I wanted to make .
After my research I thought it would be a good idea to learn from experienced professionals in the industry. Learning about the ways they do sound design could help with my own process. Different perspectives on the topic would also expand my views and give me new ideas for my own sound design process.
Hideaki Utsumi
Hideaki Utsumi with his parrot Gumi
Hideaki Utsumi is a video game sound designer that worked in Capcom for 14 years. While working in Capcom he worked on Resident Evil series and Devil May Cry 2001.He now teaches sound design at Hal Osaka College of Technology and Design. Utsumi has been in the industry for a long time since 1996, and he has seen the rapid change the video game industry has been going through. In his view games should have a more dynamic sound with a big presence to give games more reality. In his games He has used a lot of dynamic sounds with elements having special music like the monsters in Devil May Cry 2001.
I might be making a film and not a video game, but that philosophy can be used for a film. Through music reactive to the actions in the film, like a musical with leitmotifs and music queues.
Devil May Cry 2001, Track list
Ben Burtt
Ben Burtt
Ben Burtt is a pioneer of sound design, he was the sound designer for The Star Wars series, Indiana Jones series, WALL-E,2008 and more. Ben Burtt has a style people know him for, one where he gets organic sounds, customizes them to fit them into the movie. These revolutionized the sci-fie genre especially as his work in Star Wars has inspired what we see today as the science fiction sound. Burtt uses a lot of sounds people wouldn't expect like sounds of animals and electric hums to give life to the movies he works on. In his mind being a successful sound designer means being able to choose and create the right sound, and that overly complication does not mean better.
When people play with toy lightsaber, they always do the sound effect with their mouth. It's something that without it, the lightsaber wouldn't be the same. And he made that sound. There is an obvious reason he is seen as such a big deal. His creativity of getting the sounds from areas, people wouldn't expect Is something That I hope to learn from him.
Star wars,1977 Ben Burtt is credited for all the sounds of the creature and robots
Respect
In every field, there are going to be people who know more and have more experience than someone else. It's important to be aware of that, respect them and take in all the knowledge that experts can give, yet it's important to separate and not copy them. I hope to get inspiration from them, but I want to have my own voice too. It's a tricky balance but I'm hoping I'll be able to accomplish it.
Sound design isn't just music, there are a lot of parts of sound design that won't be even thought about from the viewpoint of the viewer and that's the point. Sound design also involves sound effects, ambiance, and dialogue. For these parts the job of a sound designer is to make sure everything matches and blends into the movie, almost as if they were recorded while making the film.
Foley sound
In film production while filming almost no sound is recorded except the dialogues might seem impossible but from the footsteps to ice shaking, these sounds are added in post-production. Especially as silent props are usually used to minimize any sound that happens when actors use them.
To get these sounds, sound designers have to make the sound that would make the objects, this is called foley. And it might look over complicated as it might be easier to record the sounds that are in the set. But sounds in a set are very different and don't react the same compared to real life. To make it seem real, it's made artificially.
In a thriller movie it's especially important to know these techniques as it allows the sound designer to emphasize or exaggerate certain sounds. Like the footsteps of a character running from the danger or is the danger and so the footsteps become foreboding.
How Noiseless Props Are Made For Movies And TV Shows | Movies Insider | Insider
This video shows different way silent props are made, the sound they create and then a comparison to the real thing.
Ambience
Footsteps are a good source of ambiance. Ambiance is the environment's atmosphere in the film. Ambiance can characterize a setting and a production. For example, the office,2005 is of course set in an office, and there are certain sounds that viewers expect to hear in such a setting like phones ringing, typing, writing in pen and a general overlay of sounds that indicate business. Yet the office doesn't sound like a normal office, there are too many quiet moments where people should be working and yet there is no sound. But this works causes even though it isn't realistic, it makes the viewer feel awkward and it follows the humor of the show. This precedent is set in the first 5 minutes of the show.
Comparably in thriller background noises can be exaggerated which can unnerve the character and the viewer just the same, setting the eerie ambience.
Footsteps | How Movie Sounds are Made. An Inside Look at the World of the Foley Artist.
A look into the process of making foot step sounds.
The First 5 Minutes of The Office - The Office US
Dialogue
One of the most important aspects of a film is dialogue as it usually is how the plot is given to the audience, its characterization and in general where most of the script is. So sound designers have to make sure that the dialogue can be heard at all times, without anything impeding it, unless it's intended to be impeded. Like overlapping voices which can do the same job to show the story like any dialogue could. Yet they still must be balanced and not overpower each other if the story wants to have a balanced argument.
"We Fight About Fighting About Fighting!" | Community
This clip shows a lot of different fights that all starts with balance between the argument, until the story demands for one character to over take the others in volume.
Balance
While researching and learning, it's become clear that a sound designer's task is to ensure that all those different sounds of ambience, dialogue, music and sound effects fit into the movie in a balanced way. In a way balance is the key and it's difficult to fully do, not only in sound design but in general. In my last project, I had difficulty balancing the volume of the music; my first draft was way too loud. It took a lot of testing, but I got to a level where I was happy with it. This film asks for even more balance as it has all aspects of film production compared to my last which didn't ask a lot for sound. In this production I won't only have to balance the sounds in the film but also the responsibilities that come with it.
In my quest to learn more about sound design, I had to go deep into research. I am far more knowledgeable about the musical part of sound design, yet my knowledge is limited and especially for film production. So, as a refresher for the more basic stuff and an opportunity to learn new things, especially relating to the type of film my group is making.
A pattern
Music is a set of patterns that usually follow a rhythmic sequence. A combination of instrument and singing is used.
The most common patterns involve a 4/4-time signature meaning that for a full measure or line to play, there needs to be 4 beats to finish the pattern
In horror and thriller these concepts get bent and are distorted. Horror and thriller sound design involves making the audience tense waiting for what happens next. Especially the sound design of a thriller feels unpredictable, yet most of the time the music is quite slow and has lower notes. The reason why it feels unpredictable and wrong is because it breaks these patterns. Causing a sense of dissonance or lack of harmony in the music
Music in Films
Call me Cruella by Florence & the machines, 2021
the only original song created for Cruella with the rest of the soundtrack which has popular songs
Mamma miah,2008
Most big blockbuster movies use a combination of an original score and a soundtrack that has popular songs. A score is highly tailored to the movie, in which a composer works with the production crew to create a unique sound to the movie. Soundtracks involves everything sound related that has to do with a movie, things like dialogue, effect to even original scores. Media does not have an original score for example the movie and musical mamma Miah,2008 with all the songs coming from the popular group, while others like Arcane,2020 has a full original score that include instrumentals and music with popular artists and some can have a mix like Cruella,2021. But all these movies have soundtracks.
A great way to put unoriginal songs in a movie is through diegetic mean. More than a way to set the tone and mood of the scene, it also characterizes the character based on how they are listening to it, where they are listening to it and what they are listening to.
In Arcane,2021 the song dear friend, across the river, an original song for the show is sung by one of the characters, making it diegetic.
In thrillers, diegetic music is listened to through speakers at a party or headphones, usually it demonstrates the characters are having fun before anything bad happens to them. There is almost trope where music will get cut off once the bad things start to happen and things get more serious. Sound design is also when to choose to be quiet in a film to enhance the creepy factor and knowing when to cut off the pop song will keep the suspense.
Splitting things up
While researching, it felt overwhelming. Especially as when I started researching, I was doing all of sound design. Trying to learn everything all at the same and that felt like it was too much. So I separated topics into a way where I could research and learn it easier, taking my time to go deeper into each one instead of an overview.
I had an idea, and I started by drawing little sketches of scenes that I imagined we could have. At this point in my mind, I thought of a young man who does insect taxidermy, and he has all of them mounted on walls in his house. The frames obviously being taken care of and were the only things on the wall to show how much his interest was part of his life. A way to show the character better with limited time would be to go into a place they live in, as decoration tells a lot about people and so I thought it would be an interesting idea. But it's something that isn't on our budget and couldn't be possible.
Because the original idea was about insect transformation, I got the idea that the introduction of the film could start in media res. The first minute giving hints of the transformations, with use of shadows and destruction around a dark mysterious creature that you could only see hints of what happening. Insect noises, screams, and deep cello would play. Then we would cut to the beginning and use the rest of the time as an introduction to the character. Our character is an obsessive man who longs to feel normal and likes his routine. That's why in the first draft there was the idea of him going through his morning routine in a way that showed that it’s such a common occurrence for him that he wouldn’t realize it.
This was my original idea that I shared with the groups, another problem with this idea was how cheesy it could be. Our director didn't want to do something overdone and was worried about the fact that this was supposed to be the first two minutes and setting up the rest of the movie.
My little sketches
The more plausible idea
The director gave the idea of mixing elements with mine which evolved into the character going through their morning routine, and the idea of showing that it's something he knows by hand stuck. That routine gets interrupted right as soon as he goes to read about insects through a call from his phone. This takes Him completely out causing him to be a mess. The next scene then happens where he is at a coffee shop journaling about cicadas when a waiter comes one and tries to talk to him, which takes him out and the film goes as long as the cut off point for 2 minutes after that.
This idea was the one we decided on after some talking to each other. The only part I see this idea having problem, is the coffee shop but both the director and editor said they could figure it out and I trust them to do it.
Compromises
Sadly, when it comes to doing films, a budget is a real and worrying thing. Sometimes the creative vision is too much and though I will miss the bug transformation and taxidermy wall, they had to go to make a more plausible project. Film making is all about compromising. Compromising with other people in the group or with the available material. Any creative venture is like that and it's important to understands.
This is what the character is going to be intensively doing.
I had a rough idea in my mind about the movie, yet I wasn't sure what genre it specifically fit. According to Steve Neale's genre theory narrative similarities are one of the key stones of how to group media into genre categories, and so starting with that idea, I started researching genres that have similarities to our film. The thing is genre similarities doesn't mean that it's that genre. There need to be multiple key similarities for it. For example, our character transforms into an animal but it doesn't make it a fantasy as there is no magic or creatures. It's all about figuring out the most similarities.
When talking to my group members they said that the two genres that fit the best were thriller and horror. Those two genres have always been unclear to me in their similarities so the first thing to do was to find out the differences between thriller and horror
When Evil Lurks,2023
Horror
Horror is an old genre that is all about scaring and shocking the audience. Through a lot of ways and that's how subgenres of horror happen like supernatural horror and psychological horror to name a few. They have different changes to what the audience is supposed to be scared about but the audience always must be scared. Horror uses timing, editing, sound and cinematography to bring out reactions of tension and dread to the viewers.
Thriller
Parasite,2019
Compared to horror, thrillers are newer. Thrillers are a mix of a lot of genres, mostly horror, action and crime. The point of the genre is to cause uncertainty and anticipation in its audiences. Thrillers can be slasher movies or superheroes. The conventions of thrillers are suspense, tense music, uncomfortable camera angles and themes like crime, psychological, science and action.
So, which one is it?
An important thing that to keep in mind when to think about genre is why is the film created, each genre has an intended purpose like slice of life is to make the audience. Our film was created to show how bad obsession can be, how detrimental it can become. To show that to the audience there must be awkward long shots, tense full music, and keep the audience uncertain. With those conventions written out the best fit would be a thriller. But there are a lot of types of thrillers.
Some subgenres of thriller are action thrillers, but the film I am making doesn't have any fighting scenes, crime thriller but our character isn't trying to steal anything, horror thriller, but the movie isn't supposed to bring terror to the audience. The best match is psychological thriller as our movie is about an unstable character that keeps the audience guessing.
Think of the bigger picture
Genre is a tricky thing, even following Neale theory it's a difficult topic to divide, there are so many sub genres, and sub genres of sub genres. It's easy to get carried away and go insane searching for all forms of genres to see which one matches best. Paying attention to those small details can be detrimental to the bigger pitches. Sometimes it's best to accept something and keep moving. .I took so long finding the perfect because so many fit into our film. Getting lost in endless circles of all types of genres trying to get the perfect one is not worth it.
My ask is to create a 2-minute introduction for the film, in those two minutes I must set up the premise and hint at how it's going to go. The start of a production is one of the hardest parts because it's new and there is no concrete idea if it's going to work. The introduction must do a lot as its the only thing its going to be seen, there is no rest of movie that will add more information or give sense to the introduction.
So, it's important to research more about introductions, and one of the best ways to learn is to see how successful media have done their introductions. So, I investigated the first two minutes of a couple opening sequences that had thing that would benefit our film and had different starts.
Knives out,2019
A lot of things happen in less than two minutes, it starts with a long establishing shot which feels surreal as it's in slow motion and it has very dramatic music over what is supposed to be a normal scene of dogs running. This effectively puts the audience out and makes them start asking questions from the beginning. Characterization starts happening even before meeting the characters. While woman walks around with the tray of breakfast there is fast edits with a lot of cuts showing different parts of the house. Especially all the different Thrombey books which start hinting to the audience about Thrombey being a writer.
This was a good opening scene to study as it has a lot of the elements that My own film has. This introduction has so much personality in everything, it's important to think about how the house of someone will say so much about them and to do story telling as quick as possible in 2 minutes to set up the character something as simple as showing some of the decorations and surrounding the character is will be a good way give them personality in a fast way,
Joker,2019
This film intro does a good job of making the character as unsettling as possible while still giving him a bit of humanity. The cinematography is uncomfortable close, and the camera is always shaky, it makes the audience feel like they are invading a private moment where the character is breaking down. The use of clown make up is a fast way of telling the audience about the job the character has but also a really easy way to show his tear as it makes the makeup smudge. While the radio is a diegetic sound that is more of the general narrative and foreshadows the future. There is an abrupt change to happy piano music which is also diegetic and the camera being farther way from the character, making it less suffocating.
This opening sequence is slower than Knives out, yet it does tell a lot. The use of radio for seamlessly giving information to the audience while also at the same time having the character be the full focus of the shot does a lot for storytelling. A problem that i see in this is the fact that the audience won't be able to pay attention to both fully. Especially because the audience will mostly look at the character first, so the information given orally through radio or phone won't be fully taken in. So, any information given in that way is best if it isnt too complicated or necessary. Another thing to take in with this introduction is the cinematography of the first scene. It makes the audience feel awkward and tense yet feel empathy for the character which is something we want to invoke in our movie.
Its learning not copying
These opening sequences are unique in their way, they have different forms of story telling a short amount of time. None of them perfectly fits my film but its a way of seeing what worked for them and what would work for us. Not every movie is the same and each one has different need. These introductions worked for them and we can take small elements of them, but its important to be aware of differences and to not copy it just because it won awards. Take things, learn and tweak it so it works for the intended project.
One of the reasons why I decided to work on this film is because the idea has such potential for some interesting combinations of sounds. The director spoke to me about how they thought I would do well with the sound design as they imagined that the film would have a unique sound to it. A mix of insect noises and unique instrumental as the music. This felt like such a good project to be a sound designer. When I spoke to the director it felt like they understood the importance of sound in a movie, and how good at story telling sound can be.
Possible sounds
I immediately started thinking about possible sounds that could be used for the film. My mind went quickly to the sounds that bugs and transformations like that involve; I got excited thinking about all the different sounds. All types of bugs, the sound of bones breaking and string instruments that have dramatic and somber tones. My mind specifically went to Marvel’s spiderman 2,2023 as there is a little robot spider that you play as in one of the missions, and the little walking sounds are what a sound I imagine our film would have. This sound would be used to give hints about the bug obsession like littles queues that if u listen closely to the background will just like how the main character always has his obsession in the back of his mind.
Marvel’s spiderman 2,2023.In this mission, a little spider robot is used and the sound design for this robot are mixed of robotic and spider sounds.
When the obsession becomes too much it would sound like insects are crawling everywhere not letting the main character think anything else because they are too loud to be ignored, very similar to The Mummy,1999 ride in Universal Orlando.
Cicadas
Something important is that Cicadas are sound-producing insects, which means they produce loud rhythmic noises. These noises are quite distinguishable from any other insect and it's one of the main features that people know about the Cicadas. These rhythmic sounds can be loud specially when cicadas are in groups. They are very overpowering and exactly what I'm looking for.
This is a video of a singular Cicada creating the rhythmic sound
While going through videos of cicada, I found this video that explain some general things like the life cycle of a cicada but it also explains two the sound is made which is very interesting. Similar to almost a Guiro Latin percussion instruments, cicadas have tiny ridges called Timbles that when they moved back in forth it creates the sound.
This is a Guiro, a traditional Latin instrument that use a little stick to rub the ridges which create a sound kind of similar to the Cicadas.
Respect every role
Some people think very little about some job in film production, not a lot of thought is given about sound or editing. It can be disheartening to work in a project where it doesn't feel like the role I have is respected and treated as seriously as director or cinematographer. It can destroy motivation and creativity. Respecting other people's crafts is so important and the fact that our director took time to talk to me about sound design in general and in our film made me excited to be part of this production.
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