Soundtrack Production 1: Analysis Unit 38
In this assignment i'm going to analysis 2 scenes from 2 different movies and 1 documentary that explains how sound and picture creates different moods within them. The 3 movies i'm going to be analysing are Children of Men, Kingsman & Stacey Dooley Investigates UK Kids Selling Drugs Documentary. The first scene from the first movie i'm going to analyse is Children of Men. This movie was released back in 2006 in the month of September (22nd).
Children Of Men ~ Scene Analysis
https://youtu.be/wCTgUq6hzUk
Children of Men is an Action/Thriller film which was released in late 2006. The film also features a sub-genre of Sci-Fi as it has elements of products that look quite futuristic and also set in 2027.
The movie starts off with a black background until we hear the first element of speech by two news reporters. The use of a black screen signifies that something bad/tragic has happened. This creates sudden tension for the audience as they don't know how exactly the movie is going to start. As the black screen is shown at 31 seconds, the audio of two news reporters are immediately brought into action. Relating my next point to the colour of the black screen, the news reporters were only reporting bad and upsetting news, which explains why the director of the movie chose to start of the film with a dark black setting. The colour black also symbolizes death, evil and mystery. In this case the director decided to use black to start the film because it's leaving the audience in a bit of a mystery and wandering what has happened. "The homeland security bill is ratified", "After 8 years British borders will remain closed", "The deportation of illegal immigrants will continue". These sentences are all said by the news reporters yet no picture/screen change has happened.
At 49 seconds, the female news reporter reports that the youngest person in the world had been killed just at the age 18 years, 4month, 20 days, 16 hours & 8 minutes old. The use of exposition has been used throughout this opening scene and it helps the audience to understand what exactly has happened and what is going on at the point of the film. At 55 seconds after the female voice reporter mentioned the death of the youngest person on the planet, the black screen then cuts to a scenery of people bunched together inside a cafe.
At 48 seconds the heroic non-diegetic music fades out with a sustained guitar note. This is because Dean is not happy with Eggsy suggesting of taking his mum to his new house and he shows a negative energy which brings the music to a halt. "Sit down you!" Dean exclaimed to Michelle. "The only place she'll be meeting you is at fucking hospital. Did you hear?" At this point of where this has been said by Dean, it sparks an initial idea to the audience that a fight is going to happen. As seen before in the 1st bar scene in the movie the audience has seen what Eggsy is capable of doing after assassinating Valentine. The sound mix is dramatic but with the vocals louder than the music mix in the background which helps the audience to focus on the dialogue between the two characters. Especially the point where Dean told Michelle to sit down, the non-diegetic music cuts out and a slow-string tremolo starts to creep in. This makes the suspense from before build up even more to make the audience feel the rush of adrenaline.
At 57 seconds, after Michelle says Eggsy should go home the loud string noise stops and Eggsy replies with "Alright". The scene goes quiet for no longer than 1 second and Dean steps after Eggsy cussing him about a chicken he really is.
As Eggsy stops walking at 1.05, suspenseful non-diegetic music starts to play and this is foreshadowing to one of the early scenes with Harry (original Kingsman) from the previous scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDJEyqNw-9k). The same suspenseful non-diegetic music is also being used in this scene. This is called a sound motif as it is repeating the same music from before in the movie. This gives an initial idea to the audience that the same thing is about to happen like the previous scene and this has been used very effectively by the director. As Eggsy locks the first lock of the door, the sound effect is accompanied with a dark horn/tuba sound, this was possibly used to create that the pressure is getting higher between Dean and the other troublemakers. Eggsy throws the cup at Dean's head and the sound effects that are noticeable are glass shatter and a light high-toned trumpet ensemble. In the sound mix of the glass hitting Dean's head, the glass shattering was louder than the trumpet ensemble; this was mainly because of how the director wanted the glass to sound like as it was travelling very fast and it made Dean pass out with a heavy hit.
Stacey Dooley Investigates Uk Kids Selling Drugs ~ Documentary Analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3_ErXZ4Jvw
Stacey Dooley is a documentary presenter based in the UK. She investigates topics such as sex trafficking, drug smuggling and kids selling drugs. The documentary i'm going to analyse is about kids selling drugs and how the sound and picture makes the documentary stand out.
Straight in at 0.00 secs, the documentary begins with a non-diegetic upbeat bed soundtrack whilst Stacey introduces the main story of her show. The use of having a upbeat intro soundtrack with visual image that cuts to the beat stimulates the audience to engage more into the show. The director/producer of the documentary used this feature to make teens & young adults pay more attention to the main message of the documentary.
The soundtrack that is used sounds quite similar to popular house/garage tracks you would hear in a late night club rave. This was probably intended by the producer to give an idea that party goers, such as kids, tend to take drugs in clubs.
Children Of Men ~ Scene Analysis
https://youtu.be/wCTgUq6hzUk
Children of Men is an Action/Thriller film which was released in late 2006. The film also features a sub-genre of Sci-Fi as it has elements of products that look quite futuristic and also set in 2027.
The movie starts off with a black background until we hear the first element of speech by two news reporters. The use of a black screen signifies that something bad/tragic has happened. This creates sudden tension for the audience as they don't know how exactly the movie is going to start. As the black screen is shown at 31 seconds, the audio of two news reporters are immediately brought into action. Relating my next point to the colour of the black screen, the news reporters were only reporting bad and upsetting news, which explains why the director of the movie chose to start of the film with a dark black setting. The colour black also symbolizes death, evil and mystery. In this case the director decided to use black to start the film because it's leaving the audience in a bit of a mystery and wandering what has happened. "The homeland security bill is ratified", "After 8 years British borders will remain closed", "The deportation of illegal immigrants will continue". These sentences are all said by the news reporters yet no picture/screen change has happened.
At 49 seconds, the female news reporter reports that the youngest person in the world had been killed just at the age 18 years, 4month, 20 days, 16 hours & 8 minutes old. The use of exposition has been used throughout this opening scene and it helps the audience to understand what exactly has happened and what is going on at the point of the film. At 55 seconds after the female voice reporter mentioned the death of the youngest person on the planet, the black screen then cuts to a scenery of people bunched together inside a cafe.
Shown in the shot above you can see adults mainly around the age range of 30 - 60 and the director did this to show that there are only older adults left in this film scenario. In the picture above shows an elderly lady holding her dog too. This is because there are no young children in the movie as everyone is infertile and the only way this old lady is getting satisfied is by looking after pets as they are quite similar to little children. Bearing in mind that the cafe is crowded, there is an eerie silence where nobody is talking or making any sound. The director made this busy-looking scene remain calm and quiet because it shows how down the people are and how they have lost hope for the current situation they are in at that particular moment.
As much as there isn't enough monologue in this scene, but the littlest thing was said by the protagonist, whom plays as the main character (Theo). "Excuse me" "Coffee Please. Black". Both of the sentences Theo said was said in a dull/lifeless tone and him choosing the black coffee really shows he's not in the mood and really is fed up.
At 1.22, diegetic music is slowly faded in to create a peaceful yet sad mood. This music includes string instruments and it is strings are used to resemble a tragic event that has happened or to alert that silence is vital. The director has made the right choice of sound because it blends together with the eerie silence from the people inside the cafe to the upsetting news which was sadly mentioned.
Kingsman: Secret Service ~ Scene Analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vknl2oVwd8I - (The scene I'm analysing)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDJEyqNw-9k - (The scene that is foreshadowed in the scene being analysed)
Kingsman: Secret Service is an action film with the sub-genre of comedy as it contains unrealistic but funny scenes.
The scene i'm analysing is the last bar scene as it is filled with a lot of dialogue, music and sound effects. This scene is also related to the first bar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDJEyqNw-9k) scene because the scene being analsyed uses a key film device.
The last scene of Kingsman ends with what seems to be a happy ending where non-diegetic music is being played but then transitions into a diegetic sound. The device in film used to carry out this transition is called a sound bridge. This is used to give an idea to the audience that the film isn't over yet and this has been used in an effect way because the dialogue starts with Dean's accent being very dark and grim. Dean opens the final scene by telling Michelle to turn the music of as it is annoying him. "Turn that shit off, it's doing my nut in." Dean saying this in a evil tone creates tension between Michelle and let alone the audience too. This also causes the diegetic "happy ending" music to dim out before Eggsy makes an appearance. At 12 seconds we hear Eggsy speak and his voice over makes the sound mix sound rich, there are 3 elements of sound at this point; the non-diegetic song that transitions to diegetic, Eggsy's voice and also another non-diegetic piece that fades in. As the scene is set in the bar, Dean is also accompanied by 4 other guys, this suggests to audience that the same action from the earlier scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDJEyqNw-9k) could happen again.
As Eggsy stops walking at 1.05, suspenseful non-diegetic music starts to play and this is foreshadowing to one of the early scenes with Harry (original Kingsman) from the previous scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDJEyqNw-9k). The same suspenseful non-diegetic music is also being used in this scene. This is called a sound motif as it is repeating the same music from before in the movie. This gives an initial idea to the audience that the same thing is about to happen like the previous scene and this has been used very effectively by the director. As Eggsy locks the first lock of the door, the sound effect is accompanied with a dark horn/tuba sound, this was possibly used to create that the pressure is getting higher between Dean and the other troublemakers. Eggsy throws the cup at Dean's head and the sound effects that are noticeable are glass shatter and a light high-toned trumpet ensemble. In the sound mix of the glass hitting Dean's head, the glass shattering was louder than the trumpet ensemble; this was mainly because of how the director wanted the glass to sound like as it was travelling very fast and it made Dean pass out with a heavy hit.
Stacey Dooley Investigates Uk Kids Selling Drugs ~ Documentary Analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3_ErXZ4Jvw
Stacey Dooley is a documentary presenter based in the UK. She investigates topics such as sex trafficking, drug smuggling and kids selling drugs. The documentary i'm going to analyse is about kids selling drugs and how the sound and picture makes the documentary stand out.
Straight in at 0.00 secs, the documentary begins with a non-diegetic upbeat bed soundtrack whilst Stacey introduces the main story of her show. The use of having a upbeat intro soundtrack with visual image that cuts to the beat stimulates the audience to engage more into the show. The director/producer of the documentary used this feature to make teens & young adults pay more attention to the main message of the documentary.
The soundtrack that is used sounds quite similar to popular house/garage tracks you would hear in a late night club rave. This was probably intended by the producer to give an idea that party goers, such as kids, tend to take drugs in clubs.
Also seen throughout this documentary is functional dialogue. 7 mins 44 secs - 9:10 shows a great example of this as Stacey is really intrigued to know how the 15 year old gets his drugs and other information about what he does. At 7 mins 35 seconds, where the camera crew come out and film Stacey and the 15 year-old dealer, a piece of suspenseful non-diegetic music is heard. The producer has used this function and sound at this particular time because the dealer felt exposed at the time he's spotted the camera crew come out of a hidden location. This has created an impact on not only the dealer but the audience to making us feel pretty intense as they both don't know what is coming their way.
The same type of technique is seen in 12:00 - 16:00 as Stacey is trying to get to know how adults obtain cocaine. The reason why this scene is also called functional dialog is because Stacey is trying to find out more info about the gang's motivation of the class A drugs while the gang members give her short snappy replies mainly due to not giving a lot of information out about what they do.
The documentary on a whole also has a meaning and this is to tackle the use of drug intake by kids as young as the age of 13. Most of these kids don't even take it, but they sell it and this could lead to putting more vulnerable lives such as juniors at risk. The presenter has decided to use upbeat dance music, images of social media accounts and real life drug dealers to help her gain more attention from the audience. The main attention wanted from the presenter/producer is from the younger generation as they are more into social media apps such as, Snapchat, Instagram & Facebook, where these drugs are commonly sold and the lives of children are at risk.
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