Foley Sounds

 A few months ago, we did a project in AICE Media about foley sound creation. This project was to help the class learn about how these sounds are made and it gave us the opportunity to try it out and make it on our own. This project, although difficult, helped me improve my newfound skills and allowed me to learn the correct way to do foley.

Foley sound creation is essentially the process of recording sounds that are edited over the film to be in sync with the scene, which helps the scene mimic real world sounds.

As Clem and I continued to brainstorm for our project, we knew we wanted to include foley sounds into our film to make the diegetic sounds incorporate into our film well. We did a variety of foley sounds to pick and choose which ones we wanted to use, and recorded some foley sounds more than once so we could have the option if we needed it. 

For the first scene, we decided that we wanted to create a foley sound of the bottle smashing instead of using the real sound from the film, since we wanted it to be more noticeable while watching the opening. We smashed a glass bottle on a concrete floor to create the best sound effect we could. When editing, we will layer this sound over the original audio of the scene to keep the dialogue in the scene but also making the bottle sound intensified.

For the car crash scene, we record the car horn a couple of times. This is too intensify the scene and induce anxiety for the audience. This will be used to layer over the car crash to make it sound realistic and give it a very serious tone to the flashback.

For the scene when Scarlett is walking into the party, we are planning to layer over the sound of waves crashing to make it seem like Scarlett has her mind on other things. This will also be used to transition into the first flashback during this scene.

Group Meeting #2

 Today our class had our second group meeting. I was in a group with Octavio, Fatima, Gabriel, and Julian. We all discussed our project ideas, how far we are into filming and editing, and any problems, issues, or just anything we needed suggestions or help on. We also looked at each other's blogs and gave any constructive criticism, suggestions, or compliments as well.

First Gabriel shared some insight about his project. His film is about basketball, and it is about a basketball player (played by one of his group mates) facing struggles. The protagonist’s older brother was very successful in basketball and the main character is struggling since he strives to be like his brother, but he isn’t at that level yet. The film’s title is “Airball.” He also shared some ideas he has for his CCR, which was to do something similar to an interview while having another student or one of his parents interviewing him. 

Next, Fatima shared her project, called “Dear Diary.” It is about a girl and it takes place during the last day of summer. She is not excited about going back to school and is dealing with suicidal thoughts, so she writes in her diary about it. She says she filmed for 3 days in total, but on the 2nd day, she realized the film looked way too rushed and bad quality, so they had to film another day. They ended up cutting some scenes out and focused on the main scene to focus on the girl’s depression more, so Fatima’s group decided to make the film more slow-paced to truly portray her depression. They are currently in the process of editing. She also expressed some concern about the film being roo quiet, so I gave her a suggestion of having a radio in the main character’s room and having diegetic sound coming from the radio. I said some sad, slow music would be able to add to her depression and make it easier to communicate her depression to the audience.

Octavio’s project is called “Mending.” It is about a couple who is going through a rough patch in their relationship. The film opening shows a fight that the couple had and shows the aftermath of the fight. The next scene is about the day after the argument and it helps to develop the characters in the story. The girl ends up running into someone she knows and then the film opening is left on a cliffhanger after this scene. Octavio chose the title “Mending” because the film is supposed to show the couple trying to bring their relationship back and try to mend things. He says he is done with filming and also almost done with editing, but just needs to tweak a bit of the sound effects such as the foley sounds and the music in the background.

Julian’s film is an opening of a video game genre with one person playing the game. One person gets transported into the video game. Basically, you’re walking around and you see a neighbor being caught and he gets trapped in a basement (I was a little confused while he was explaining so I tried my best to write down what I did understand). Since he hadn’t come up with a title yet, we gave him suggestions for this, and since the film revolves around video games we suggested the title “Game Over,” which we thought was very fitting to the theme. He also said he was done filming and doing the editing himself on Adobe Premier Pro.

Mise-en-Scene (#2)

 The mise-en-scene of the party scene begins with Scarlett walking around in the party. We are going to achieve this effect by throwing a small party with our friends and acquaintances to give the effect of a real party. The house where the party is being thrown has three areas. The pool area opens up from the front door, and the scene begins with her walking outside the front door.

Her costume for this scene is a black cropped shirt and a skirt. This symbolizes that she is mentally aware more than ever that her relationship is toxic and she is grieving the lost love. The skirt symbolizes her pending freedom once she finally leaves the relationship. Ricky is wearing a white shirt and jeans. This signifies that he now believes it’s his time to play the perfect, apologetic, innocent boyfriend. (But if only this was the type of act that lasted, since this version of Ricky was the one Scarlett fell in love with.) 

She walks through the door and the camera follows her. The audience can see a scar from the cut from the bottle, made with prop blood and a fake scar from a halloween store. The lighting in the house party is low, and there are some colorful lights around the house as well. We would get these from any store and scatter them around the house.

There are also many people talking in the background, drinking, dancing, laughing, and overall just having a good time around the house. As Scarlett looks around, she waves to some of her friends and even stops to talk to some of them. She continues walking through another door to the inside of the house and sees people sitting on the couch, dining room, and just gathered around chatting and having a good time. She continues to walk through the house and walks out the back of the room into the garden and looks around. She sees Ricky waving and she grabs her arm, as a sign of distress. She masks her anxiety with a forced smile and figures she should at least talk to him.

The mise-en-scene is really important for this part of the opening. This is because it is where most of the plot is uncovered and the audience can tell there is a change in both of their demeanors. The biggest change is that Scarlett is no longer willing to be by Ricky’s side anymore, after all that she has been put through with him. Ricky, on the other hand, wants to pretend as if nothing happened and wants to have a good time at the party, but it cant happen because Scarlett cannot forget the past.

Well executed mise-en-scene can make or break the scene. I think it is one of the crucial parts of this film especially and it is very important to me and my partner that we get it right.

Mise-en-Scene (#1)

 To develop mise-en-scene, me and my partner have decided to use clothes to express emotions and set the tone for the rest of the film opening. By using different tones, colors, and styles of clothing, one can set different tones and emotions through the screen to the audience.

The mise-en-scene for the first scene, which is the bottle scene, where Ricky throws the empty alcohol bottle at Scarlett, is as follows.

The scene starts off in the living room. There is a couch, a TV, food scattered on the couch where they were sitting and chilling before the argument got heated. the movie on the TV is paused, and the audience can hear a dog barking in the background as the couple is fighting.

Scarlett is wearing a white shirt and shorts. This signifies innocence, purity, and devotion to the audience. This helps develop the personality of the character as it reflects their emotions and feelings at the moment and gives background and provides context for the rest of the film.

Ricky, on the other hand, is wearing a red shirt and sweatpants. This signifies anger and violence, and the sweatpants signify laziness towards their relationship. This outfit gives the audience the sense of his emotions and his true personality throughout the film.

After, Scarlett runs into the backyard of the house, after sensing the argument getting really heated. Since context provided shows she's been in the relationship for a while, the audience can infer she knows when the argument or bickering is getting too intense, so she walks outside for a breath of fresh air. Ricky throws the bottle at her and gets mad that she's walking away from him. The lighting is very bright up until the bottle smashes into the wall right next to Scarlett's head. This signifies she is being stripped from the life she loves. She does truly love him, but she slowly is realizing this isn't the life she wants to be living nor the type of relationship she wants to be in.

The props being used are the fake bottle, the fake blood for a cut on her face, and her phone she holds up to try to protect her face from the bottle. The bottle were going to use is a prop bottle which smashes really easy and doesn't leave shards of glass or anything that can be prone to being injured.

This is one I found from this website.

Character Development

The two main characters in my film, "Turbulence," are called Scarlett, 17 years old, and Ricardo, 17  years old. The two are in a relationship and this is established within the first shots of the opening, when the audience sees them cuddling on the couch. 

They are in a very toxic, abusive relationship, which affects mainly Scarlett's character development throughout the film opening and would continue to be developed throughout the rest of the film. Their dynamic is also established in the first scene, where Ricky throws an empty bottle at Scarlett, and the audience sees his alcoholic tendencies and the abuse towards her. 

The main development of character is Scarlett. The growth she goes through throughout the opening and film helps the audience's understanding of their toxic relationship. As they see, there is love in the relationship. This is shown through the first scene when Ricky throws the bottle at her. In her body language and facial expressions, the audience can see it isn't the first time something like that has happened. This shows their love, especially Scarlett's, because she stays with him throughout the abuse, due to her love and devotion for and to him. There is a strong connection between the two, but there is heavy miscommunication and violence. This is intertwined in every romantic or loving activity they do.

The audience understands this through her actions because she has a deep desire to stay for the good parts, but also knows she has to leave due to how bad the abuse and mistreatment gets. 

Ricky has less character development throughout the film,  but it is still prominent. In the opening, there are scenes where he is very abusive and mistreats Scarlett, but they are also scenes where it shows his true love and devotion towards her. He also feels the same way she does him, but it is clear to the audience that alcohol turns him into a very different person. He gets mean, rude, frustrated, and most of all, abusive. He knows the alcohol doesn't do him any good, but the addiction gene runs in his family. He is trying to change for Scarlett, and for those around him, but doesn't know how. He wants help and wants to be sober for her, because he truly does love her, but he thinks it is too hard and never fully gets to the point of recovery.

This relationship takes a toll on both of them. Scarlett, because she loves him and doesn't want to leave him, but knows she should due to the abuse. Ricky, because he wants to change so badly and knows he doesn't deserve her love and devotion to him. The toll is seen in the opening with their facial expressions, body language, and particularly how they act around each other. The audience clearly sees how the relationship also takes a mental toll on both of them.

Project Summary

 This post will be solely dedicated to my project idea.

The plot is essentially about a toxic couple, and the boy has a alcohol problem, which is shown in the first scene where the couple is in a fight, and he throws a bottle of alcohol at her, but she dodges it and it hits the wall next to her. (This is a flashback to just give context and establish their relationship before the rest of the opening.) It then cuts to a party scene, where the girl is walking through all the people. He sees her and grabs her arm, and there are a few 5 second flashbacks showing the bad parts of their relationship. This serves as her remembering the things that have happened in their relationship. She then goes up to him and talks to him as to continue the rest of the storyline in continuation of the plot. The plot isn’t fully developed yet, but this is the main idea and how the film opening will probably be organized. There might be a few tweaks and changes, but besides the whole plot needing context, this is basically the solidified idea.

Media Theory

 One important media theory I want to include in my film opening is Stuart Hall’s active audience theory. This theory states that audiences are active in interpreting media messages, rather than passive recipients. I would like to include this theory because I would like if the audience watching the film opening would interpret the message of the film actively, rather than passively.

Research:

Active audiences are when they are engaging, interpreting, and responding to the message being given to the audience through media forms. Passive audiences just accept the message without analyzing or interpreting it, without giving it a further thought. Hall claims the audience dictates whether a message is successful or not. He also found that the audience is able to change the meaning of the message intended to conform to the social context they are it. He concluded from this that the message intended by the creator is not always the message the audience is going to take from the media forms. The encoding/decoding model is also part of this theory, but looks at the relationships of messages and the audience interpreting the message. Below is a picture of it.

I got all my info from this website.