Camera angles, shots and movements - Video

Pandora's Box (Trailer Idea Research)

Pandora's box is an artifact which existed in Greek mythology. The "box" was actually visualized as a large jar which was given to Pandora and contained all of the evils in the world. The action "to open Pandora's box" now translates to perform an action which may seem small but can have sever consequences. 

In traditional Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on Earth, she had been created by Hephaestus as instructed by Zeus. The gods blessed her with many gifts Athena clothes her, Aphrodite gave her beauty, Apollo gave her musical ability and Hermes gave her speech. Prometheus stole fire from heaven ad so as a punishment, Zeus gave Pandora to Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus. As a wedding gift Pandora was given a beautiful jar like box and instructed never to open it. However, impelled by curiosity Pandora opened it and all evil contained therein escaped and spread over the Earth. She hastened to close the container, but the whole contents had escaped. All of the evil has released except for what lay at the very bottom which was the Spirit of Hope. Pandora feared Zeus for she believed he would be angry at her for this, however, he was not angry as he knew it would happen.

Jaws - Soundtrack Analysis

Here is one of the most famous piece of score music, it is a theme for the character of the shark in the film 'Jaws' written by John Williams. It is most well known for its simplicity and therefore how memorable it is, making it stick into the audience head. It was created to show the presence of the character of the shark. Motifs such as these are use very often in movies to show the presence of a character, the 'Jaws' soundtrack gives a sense of foreboding as the presence of the shark normally means an attack on people and so the audience quickly learns to get edgy whenever they hear this piece of music. The main "shark" theme, a simple alternating pattern of two notes became a classic piece of suspense music, synonymous with approaching danger.

Many other directors have tried to copy this idea within their own movies, to create such a powerful and effective piece of music to place alongside their characters as this soundtrack won many awards for its simplicity but effectiveness. It is because of this the movie is now known as one of the most effective movies of all time.

Technically wise the piece comprises of 2 shorts notes in minor going backwards and forwards in continuous rhythm on some kind of base or cello instruments. This creates a dark and mysterious sounding piece. It starts off quite slow and less repetitive and builds in both speed and repetitiveness, which makes it gain tension as the it reflects the shark approaching.


In trailers, there is normally a soundtrack which runs through the clips. The music often gives a sense of genre and is specifically chosen to give a certain effect (for example: an action film will have fast paced intense music to give the effect of constant action).

The History/ Elements of Film Scores

The History of Music in Film

Before the 30's, all movies were completely silent. Music was then inserted into a film to make it more interesting sense wise it also adds depth to the image which appeared on the screen. Music was already a common element within theaters which were the previous form of entertainment before film. 
The majority of silent films were accompanied by anything from full orchestras to pianists. Many books were published about different types of music to play over a film to add to the mood.

During the 1930's music was established as a vital element within motion pictures as it showed more positive audience feedback. At the beginning, Western Classical Music from the 19th century was used played over films but after this people began to write more modern scores. One of the first original films scores written was for 'King Kong' in 1933. Later in the decade composers began to experiment and develop their own style, including creating hooks for characters and to support plot and story lines.

In the 40's, composers refined their expertise even more. There were many breaks in the barriers and traditions of film music. In the 50's, film music had completely changed with the introduction of jazz music, therefore music was less expensive to make as not too many musicians were not need as an orchestra was no longer needed. This carried on throughout the 1960's. The 70's passed with very little new innovation, things were perfected from the previous decades. Even current score writers, such as John Williams use these techniques.

In the 80's and 90's, the use of synthesized sounds in films became more popular. For the first time, it had become possible to scored a whole film with only one performer, using a synthesizer to produce the sounds of many instruments.

Today, with the development with new technology film composers have the ability to create the perfect score helping move along the movies plot and give characters different pieces of music (for example the sharks hook in jaws), this helps to enhance the film and turn it into an experience.

Elements of a Film Score

TEMP TRACKS
A temp track is an existing piece of music score which is used during film production during editing as it serves guidance for the mood or atmosphere. Composers for film scores are asked to imitate a specific composer or style present in the temp track. Some directors have become so attached to temp score that they decided to use it and reject the original score written by the film composers.

STRUCTURE
Films often have different themes or motifs for important characters, events, story lines or peaks. These can be played in different styles depending on the situation they represent, scattered among incidental music. For example John Williams' score for the Star Wars saga, characters such as Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa have different motifs for different characters.

SCORE MUSIC
Most films have around 40 to 120 minutes of music. However, some films have very little or even no music whereas others have music running throughout. This types of music is called "diegetic" music as it is not part of the movie itself it is merely added on top.

Lighting, Editing and Sound - Research

Lighting:

HIGH KEY – The lighting is bright and relatively low in contrast. The majority of our trailer will not be using this apart from scenes where we wish to emphasise the innocence of our main character. However, as the film is dark and has elements of horror it will be mostly dark and eerie.

LOW KEY – The lighting has much more pronounced shadows and dramatic contrasts. We WILL be using this type of lighting for our trailer as our aim is to create a scary looking setting as there are strong elements of horror within our trailer. I will create this on the video mostly using MoviePlus which is the editing software I use for editing, I will be editing the curvature and apply shadow filters to the already dark light frames.

COLOUR FX – Can include: Clod or blueish lighting (connoting cold or spookiness). Warm or yellowish (connoting comfort, eg- a beach or sunset scene), Black and White or Sepia. We may use the blueish lighting on parts using the effect options on SerifMoviePlus to make the scenes appear spookier.

Editing:

CONTINUITY EDITING – Film sequences normally follow this type of editing so that time seems to flow in a natural and believable way. Cuts will only be used as this gives a real life effect to the movie. Continuity editing can also include “cross-cutting” which is where a sequence cuts between two pieces of action happening at the same time. But it still has to maintain the seamless flow of action. Within a trailer there is a lot of cross cutting between different scene and therefore a lot of editing will not follow a continuity structure but instead more of a montage editing structure.

MONTAGE EDITING – Opposite, the cuts are normally noticeable and do not represent the seamless flow of time. It can use juxtaposition of images to create contrast and a more artistic feel.

CUT – One image is instantly replaced by another without a viable transition. We will martially be using these as they are required for continuity editing.

CROSS-DISSOLVE – One image dissolves into another.

FADE-UP – An image fades in from black, we may be using a few of these between scenes as one at the beginning and between the production companies logo’s.

FADE-OUT – Fading out to black, like the previous we may use a few of these.

WIPE – One image replaces another, where the border between the image moving across or around the screen.

Sound:

DIEGETIC SOUND – Sound that seems to be part of what is going on, on the screen. For example, thunder, cars, footsteps. We will be using for this birds and other forest noises which are part of the direct action. The biggest part of the diegetic sound will be the dialogue which we will write a script for.

NON-DIEGETIC SOUND – Sound that is not part of the action or what is going on, on the screen. For example a soundtrack, we will be using a soundtrack for out trailer alongside the diegetic sounds.

SOUND BRIDGE – Linking two scenes together by sound. For example we may use bird noises to link the production logo to the first shot of the forest.

SOIND EFFECTS – Sound which is added on top which is not dialogue and music. Sound is added during the post-production stage using Foley.