Soundtrack

Sound is characterised as non-diegetic or diegetic. 

Non-diegetic sound is not heard within the film. Classical examples of this is the use of themes like in Psycho and Halloween. This is created through electronic or instrumental strings, with a mixture of long or short drawn out notes. This makes the audience hold their breath as it mimics the heartbeat, and increases the tension. 

The diegetic music heard within the film is typically related to the killings. These are usually sounds of slashing, stabbing, and the allusions through sound allow for less graphic deaths, as the audience's imagination is often more gruesome and effective than a films visuals. 

Hand of God:

Non-Diegetic Sounds:

• Eerie singing like in Cherry Falls (2000)

• Piano notes recreating the Friday The 13th (1980) theme, which we recreated on GarageBand

For the Hand of God scene since we were replicated the Cherry Falls opening.

Cherry Falls Hand of God:

We wanted to replicate the eerie singing as it connotes the horror genre and creates the feeling that something is not quite right. It is similar to the use of a children's choir in IT (2017). The IT soundtrack had some interesting elements of eerie whispers, screams and shrieks echoing. 

We tried to imitate it by first recording some vocals: 

I changed the pitch of the audio and added a distort effect in FCPX

I then proceeded to add the Diegetic/Foley Sounds:

• Church bells
• Birds chirping 
• School bell 
• Water flowing 

I also added the free sound effects of Thunder Roll and Drone Dark Suspense. 

I wanted to mimic the soundtrack of Friday the 13th (2009):

In the Friday the 13th soundtrack they recorded whispering kill kill and distorted it, I recorder myself saying eyes eyes and distorted it for a similar effect. The music was made in Garage Band by using the the loops.

• Swallowing vodka 

• Passing cars and birds

Forest Scene:

• Footsteps 

• Droning sound for the wind 

• Owl hooting 

• Crickets 

• Branch snapping 

• Phone ringtone 

• Slashing

Non-Diegetic Sounds:

• Static in the cross cuts 

• Heartbeat

Title: 

• Slashing

• Phone receiver tone

• Water dripping 

• Splatters 

• Static

• Fingers clicking

Locker Scene:
Diegetic/Foley Sounds:

• Background chattering

• Locker opening 

• Locker slamming 

• Footsteps

Non-Diegetic Sounds:

• Piano and singing of "Killer Queen" by Queen

KEY TERMS I've learnt

General industry terms:

Arthouse- movies with niche appeal, opposite of multiplex, challenging difficult and more obscure films

Social Realism- genre that depicts real life as closely as possible

Box office - total revenue from cinema tickets

Big 5 - production and distribution companies who command a significant share in box office revenue. These Include NBC Universal , Sony Columbia, Disney, Warner Brothers, and Paramount

Conglomerate - a larger company that has ownership of smaller companies

Convergence - (the media C word) the merging of the traditional broadcasting, like theatre showings, and internet content

Horizontal integration - conglomerates creating synergy through owning subsidiaries across the same or multiple industries, eg. music label/publisher working with film 

Vertical integration- a conglomerate combining production, distribution, exchange/exhibition subsidiaries

Subsidiary - a smaller company owned by larger companies

Indie company - short for independent, a smaller company not owned by a studio

Tentpole- synonym of blockbuster, conglomerates use movies to hold up company, will collapse if film flops

Narrative enigma - intentionally withholding information to create mystery

Mise-en-scene - what is put on stage, the arrangement of the scenery, props, actors etc.

Verisimilitude - creating a sense of realism though different aspects like: mise-en-scene, sound, costume etc.

Denote - be a sign of / indicate

Connote - imply or suggest

Anchorage - conventions being reinforced, details that signify a certain genre and point the audience. (links to Roland Barthes' theory).

Polysemy - lack of clear signifiers, leave it to interpretation

Preferred Reading - how the producer wants the audience to view the media text

Intertextuality - connections between media texts, references to other films in your film. Example: Jason's mask in Bride of Chucky (1998 Ronny Yu)

Hybrid- two or more combined genres

Stereotype - a widely held and fixed idea

Archetype - a typical example of a certain person or thing

Counter type - opposes stereotypes

Counter-hegemonic - challenging normative ideas  (links to Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony)

Normative - the repetition of representations that come to be seen as normal

Franchise fatigue - describes the fall in demand for the increasing number of sequels, a big threat to The Big 5 as they rely heavily on franchises

Criticproof - the idea that the 'word of the mouth' is strong enough to overcome critic's con-sentience 

Niche - narrow appeal, small audience

Mainstream- mass-market appeal, opposite to arthouse, large audience (opposite of niche)

First look deals: a production company will bring new movies to the distributor and they decided they want to take it.

SANS SERIF vs SERIF FONTS: a font can be either with or without serifs, small strokes added to the letters 

Digitalisation - the broadcasting media market shifting to online streaming services. 

Disruption - links to digitalisation, the change that happens when new digital technologies, services, capabilities, and business models affect and change the value of the industry's existing services and goods

Audience: 

Four Quadrant: male, female, young and old

GAPS- 

G- gender 

A- age 

P- primary 

S- secondary 

PIES- 

P- personal identity 

I- information 

E- escapism 

S- social interaction 

ABC1- AB (upper class/high disposable income), C1 (middleclass) 

• focused as targets when texts are challenging, sophisticated and complex (Tatler, The Times) 

C2DE- lower middle class/working class/students/unwaged (low-disposable income) 

• less sophisticated, simplistic, easily digestible terms, linked to tabloids and red-tops (The Daily Mail, Reveal) 

Editing and Filming techniques:

Cross-fade - make a picture or sound appear or be heard gradually

Cross-cutting - shots cutting from one scene of action to another, often signify them happening at the same time

Ellipses - a chunk of time removed through editing 

Matched cut- cut from shot A to B with clear similarity in framing and content

Snorricam - attaching the camera to yourself when filming, very useful in stalking scene. 

Brokeh effect -  the effect of a soft out-of-focus background that you get when filming.

Deep focus- on background, subject in front blurred

Shallow focus- on subject at front, blurry background, connotes importance 

Rule of thirds- shot split into 3rds, directs action focus 

Hand of God- opening horror technique created by Hitchcock in Psycho, pan of a city continuing to zoom into a window until it reaches the protagonist

Shots: 

ELS- extreme long shot 

LS- long shot 

MLS- medium long hot 

MS- medium shot 

MCU- medium close up 

CU- close up 

BCU- big close up 

ECU- extreme close up 

Tracking Shot- follows specific image or subject, typically done on tracks  

Crane Shot- camera operator on a crane, shot from above   

Master shot- building up shot, withholding exposition, multiple close-up shots of an area before extreme long shot to incorporate, builds up narrative enigma  

180-degree rule- used in shot/reverse shot sequence, continuity editing 

More on shots here

Angles: 

High Angle (HA)- subject is low and looking up, vulnerable and small 

Mid Angle (MA)- neutral angle 

Low Angle (LA)- looking up to subject, powerful and threatening  

Dutch Angle (DA)- tilted angle 

Worm’s Eye View- camera on the ground  

Bird’s Eye View- like helicopter and drone shots but without movement 

Sound:

Foley sound - reproduction of the sound post production, basically just recording it separately.

Ambient sound - site specific background sound

Audio bridge- sound of one scene begins in previous, creates link 

Diegetic- sound from world on screen/studio 

Non-Diegetic- sound not from the world on screen 
soundtrack, voiceover, radio