Music choices

As editor, I am also responsible for sound. This includes the music and sound effects we need for our film. Back in January, Chris and I listened to many different pieces of music before deciding on 4 top choices. These are shown below along with the reasons why we shortlisted them:

• 'Mausam and Escape' by A R Rahman - This piece of music is fast paced and would suit our running scenes. We applied and kept this music on our film for a while, but after showing it to class members and our media teacher, we gained feedback that it was a little too dramatic and made our sequence sound like a film trailer instead of a film opening. I also felt it sounds too Indian for our film, though there are some good parts in the song that add extra emphasis to certain scenes in our sequence.
  
• 'Clues' by Jan Hammer- This music is well suited to our film and the noir genre. It's slow paced but mysterious and matches with the action scenes in our film, as well as the slow studio scenes. The quietness also allows any diegetic sounds in the background to be heard alongside the music. We applied this music in our second edit sequence and the whole group agrees with its suitability compared to the first piece.


• 'Keep Running' - This music varies in pace throughout, which would be useful for our running scenes. The title also links in with our film narrative, but overall we don't like the music enough to see it fitting in well with our film and matching with all the action.


• Theme from 'The Warriors' - This music is from a film called 'The Warriors'. It suits our film in regards to pace, but the genre of the music isn't very noirey. We also want to avoid using any music from a previous film as we want our film to be individual.

Applying for commercial use of our music

If we were to finish the rest of our film noir and publicly release it into cinemas worldwide, one of the things we would need to apply for is permission for music use. This is because we haven’t created our own music to use in our opening sequence, as we are using the song ‘Clues’ written by Jan Hammer. PRS (Performing Rights Society) acts as the agent between our film production company ‘Take Two Productions’, and Jan Hammer, as they ask the owner of the music if we would be able to use in our film opening. To apply for music use, we would have to log onto the PRS website (www.prsformusic.com/Pages/default.aspx) and apply using an online application form. On receipt of our request PRS would then contact Jan Hammer and ask for his permission, and negotiate a price we would pay for use of his music.

As I am responsible for sound in our group, I undertook the task of going through the process stage towards applying to use our music, ‘Clues’. We would need a broadcast licence for a feature film for commercial use only. I entered the name of our production company, our film title, a brief synopsis of our film and various other information, so that PRS can inform Jan Hammer the specific use of his music. Then I entered the piece of music we wished to use and who PRS would have to ask permission from to enable us to use it.

Below is a scanned version of the details I was intending to submit to ask for music use permission:

Looking at titles and fonts

In our film we have chosen to place the main title, 'Shadows Present', at the end of the sequence. We found this popular with many films and we thought it would create an enigma for the audience and keep them watching to find out what the film is called. However, as editor it is my responsibility to choose a suitable title font that will match with the noir style and be interesting for the audience. The same chosen font will then be applied to our name titles (which will be shown during our final fight scene and between the running through the forest) to show continuity throughout. We have also had a group idea that the actors' names should appear during the woods scenes, but are unsure if this idea will stay as it is not neccessary to have too many short unreadable titles disturbing the film, rather than a few good readable titles that break up the action nicely. For the background to our titles we had already decided upon black as it would make the text stand out and would match the noir style.

Below are some of the font ideas and the reasons behind them: (the font examples shown below aren't the same as the ones we looked at in the editing suite, but they are very similar. You might have to click on each font example to see it more clearly as the quality isn't very good)

1. The first idea was to have the titles written on a piece of paper attached to the package, which would be in the hand of the person who dies at the end of our film. The shot we took panned out from the title to slowly reveal the hand holding it, however after following advice from Jon (our media teacher), we decided to abandon the idea on the thought that it looked unprofessional and too 'studenty'.

2. The second idea was to keep the handwritten appearance from the first idea, but use a professional font instead. For this our options were 'Copybook' (shown on the left), 'Brush Stroke 26', 'Bradley Hand ITC' or any other similar examples. After applying the title to our film, we realised it didn't look very noiry and gave connotations of a comedy or children's film instead of a dark crime/horror noir sequence.

3. The third idea was to choose something more gothic and detailed. For this we'd use 'Annual' (shown on the left), 'Copperplate Gothic', 'StoneSerif.1 Gothic' or any other similar font. I liked this font style as it suited the noir genre and introduced our film title nicely according to the previous action shown. However, there were still other ideas that could work just as well, so I looked at these first.

4. The fourth idea was to choose something simple but looked like a typewriter, to give the impression that someone is present and has just typed/written it onto the screen (like in the first and second ideas above). For this we used a font called 'Perpetual Elite' (which is similar to 'Courier New' - shown on the left). The font suited our film noir, and is similar to the titles in the opening sequence to the film 'Se7en' (as analysed previously). We decided to put the font into size 86.0 for the production company titles at the beginning, and size 70.0 for our names.

5. Once satisfied with the font choice, Josh and I tried to apply some sort of title effect that would create the appearance of a shadow walking across the font. After a long time of fiddling around, cutting bits of the title and inserting different effects, we decided that our ambitions were set too high and it wouldn't be worth it after all. So we then decided that the font could change colour to red. This would give connotations of blood and death, and would be a nice touch to the end of our sequence, but the beginning of the film. We kept the same font but changed the colour to red. We placed the titles next to each other in our film timeline, and applied a fade transition between the 2 titles. We then applied a 'blur' vidoe effect to the end of the red title to disorientate the audience and add a noirey touch. We showed the rest of our group and we all agreed that this effect worked well.

So above are the few ideas we had as a group, and ideas I had myself. Each idea is good in certain ways, but had to match the noir genre for it to go well with our film.

Looking at effects and transitions

Being the editor in my group means I have to decide on appropriate film effects and transitions to apply to our sequence. Below is a short film using images from 'Galleryplayer' to demonstrate various effects and transitions that we could use:

Many different effects and transitions have been applied, some noticeable and some not. Each effect and transition between each image adds to create a certain feel towards the film. Below I've analysed each image to explain what has been applied:

1. Image 1 is of a a green leaf. The image fades in from black, so it is slowly introduced to the audience. It also reinforces the vibrancy in colour of the image.
2. Image 2 is of an orange rose. The transition applied between Image 1 and Image 2 is a dissolve, as the audience can see the beginning of Image 2 appearing over Image 1. This gives a soft and gentle feeling, which helps to represent the characteristics of the rose in Image 2.
3. Image 3 is of seashells and starfish. A black and white effect has been applied to this image to give connotations of old and the past. The transition between Image 2 and Image 3 is known as a 'checkerboard'. The effect is common in cartoons but otherwise isn't used as it breaks up the atmosphere created previously, and gives the film a cheap amateur feel. We won't be using this transition in our film noir opening sequence as it wouldn't set the right mood for our audience, and it isn't very noiry either.
4. Image 4 is of a spider's web. The transition applied between Image 3 and Image 4 is called a 'cut', and it is the most simple of all transitions. One shot appears directly after another shot, and the 'cut' is where the 2 shots come together. It is basic but is used frequently in many types of visual media (tv programmes, films etc.). We will be using the cut the most in our film opening as it is basic and gives a sharp, snappy rhythm to the film, which is what we want since our film involves lots of fast-paced action.
5. Image 5 is of a snowy landscape. The transition applied between Image 4 and Image 5 is called 'pixelation', and is common in TV programmes and films to show a character's ill mental state or emotion (e.g. a migraine or headache, confusion or in a nightmare scene). The images blur together to confuse the audience, which could be the same feeling the character shown is feeling too. We won't be using this transition in our film as it doesn't suit our narrative and would break up the tension we are trying to create through our footage. Image 5 fades out to white at the end, which matches with the snow theme from the image. We want to use this effect at the beginning of our film sequence, to give connotations of death just before the anonymous dead body is shown, and also to mark a change in location. Or maybe at the end to mark the death of one of our characters and the beginning of the film.

As demonstrated through the short film above, even motionless images can create a certain atmosphere or feeling when a certain effect or transition is applied. That is why it is very important that we choose the right transitions and effects in our film sequence, as we want to ensure there is tension and enigma so that it fits in with the noir genre style.

The images used can be found from http://www.galleryplayer.com or from the 'Sample Images' file located on most 'Microsoft XP' computers.

Inspiring Images

Above are a few images (found by Google Image search) that inspire our film noir narrative...

Each image shows something that is represented in our film sequence. Two of them show shadows amongst the trees, light seeping in and a mysterious figure. The other one shows an envelope containing money. It is useful to have images that inspire you when creating a film as they can help you to think of good shot possibilities and new ideas for when you create the film yourself.