Nemesis - Soundtrack Research

I have began this blog entry to keep myself and the crew up to date on the soundtrack of the film. The soundtrack is going to be something of huge significance within the film, so I am going to be patient while I look for that perfect piece or that perfect sound which will work the way I want it to. 

I aim to have a certain dark and atmospheric ambience behind a lot of the soundtrack which will accompany the visuals. Non digetic sound can be used to outstanding effect, particularly in how different tones and notes can manipulate an image or a scene. 

At times I want the film to have an eerie atmosphere, which is where the ambience found in most horror soundtracks would come in. I found a specific track which I intend to use in the scene where Oscar is surrounded in papers. I believe this kind of ambience will enhance that feeling of being lost in surrounding darkness. 

The link below is to the previously discussed ambient horror soundtrack. The creator of this has given free use to anyone wishing to use it, as seen in the description of the video.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9XMd2eAy_4\

A main source of inspiration for free use soundtracks is the site Audio Network. I have used this site in the past as it is 83p per track for students. There are some very high quality music pieces and you can almost always find what you are looking for. The site covers a wide range of genres and musical styles, and you can even search by mood. This means that scene by scene I can ask myself, what am I trying to achieve? What are the characters thinking? What do I want the audience to think or feel? All of these questions come in to play when choosing a soundtrack which can massively impact the feel of the film.

Audio Network becomes even more extensive with the extra mix feature. Upon finding a song that I really liked, I then found out that many songs offer other mixes of the same song. These mixes differ slightly, but upon experimentation I found a more useful version of the same song. Essentially the song I liked had 14 other versions of that song. Objectively speaking at least one of them has to work more than the other, no matter how small and subtle the changes are. Below is a screenshot of a song along with the 14 mixes of it.

I currently have a list of songs from Audio Network which I view as promising for the film or ones which I am definitely going to be using. I add to this list as I find something new. Below is the list itself which I will be adding to as I continue my soundtrack research. 

• Achilles Heel
• Karma
• Lightly Drift
• Liaison
• We Remember
• Empty

Paul Thomas Anderson - Director Research

Paul Thomas Anderson is in my opinion the greatest American director working today, he is also up there with the likes of Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch and Terrence Malick. A true visionary in every sense of the word, PTA brings some incredibly thought provoking films to the screen. Though his style of storytelling may be considered in-cohesive, his ability to inhabit the worlds he creates with rich characters is unparalleled. I have taken a lot of influence from the crazed characters we see in both The Master and There Will Be Blood, in my opinion PTA's finest films. Both 'protagonists' I say with distain, have such depth and offer some extremely unique characteristics. 

The below shot is from The Master. Incredible performances by both Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman in the lead roles. The performance by Phoenix inspired me in creating the character of Oscar, a character who embodies both good and bad qualities which fight against each other. Like Phoenix' character he becomes lost as his madness grows on him, and there is nothing he can do to escape his obsession until it is taken from him. This frame in particular is something I find to be very reflective of character emotion, especially in connection with the content of the scene. We see nothing but the characters, their faces, and the smoke they exhale. They are surrounding in darkness. This heavily connotes the fact they are both lost, or that they are both surrounded by the evil and the unknown. This scene directly influenced the writing process of the dream sequence scene in Nemesis. A character helplessly surrounded by darkness contrasting with smoke. The image catches the eye very well, aswell as having a lot of meaning. 

This shot from There Will Be Blood, comes from what I believe to be one of the greatest ending scenes of any film ever. I've never before seen drama reach such heights and it is done so through impeccable performances from Daniel-Day Lewis and Paul Dano. The sheer madness and selfish brutality of DDLs character inspired many aspects of Oscars character and how going borderline crazy would impact the way he moved and spoke. The scene between Oscar and Claudia when things become hostile is mirrored by this explosive scene from There Will Be Blood. Both characters reach their absolute limit. 

Magnolia is another influence of mine, also directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. This time the influence lies in the subject matter. The idealism represented in the film through family, and how we should treat our loved ones and close relatives. The film asks some bold questions about family ties, including the relationship between Tom Cruises character and his dying grandfather. Despite Oscars grandfather never taking physical form in the film, I feel like this would be unnecessary. I am trying to create a mood and an atmosphere around the character of Oscars dealings with loss, rather than focusing on the actual relationship between the two. 

A Silent Film - Production Research

Today we went into the studio with the hope of experimenting with the cameras and framing up some of the more difficult shots drawn into the storyboards. With the framing technique I am aiming to use it is essential we practice being able to divide the frame into four and have the frame tell the story in its own way. What happened was this. With a particular sequence we decided it would be good to get some extra editing experience. Ethan was able to brush up on his Avid skills, and me and Yiannis as director and producer had a greater understanding of how these shots can be used to great effect in our film. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs7su99m9qw

Final Production - Shoot 4

Final Production shoot - Arcade shoot 4

Today was the final shoot of the module, the shoot we were all very nervous about because it was so close to the deadline. We had been in preparation for this shoot for a whole week, finding out we had access to the arcade the previous Wednesday. We spent a lot of our time going over the storyboards and shot-lists in detail, preparing booking out forms and having tech dems with the equipment we were going to use but hadn't used before. This was going to be my biggest production so far, and as director I was both nervous and excited about the morning shoot. We planned our time accordingly for the shoot, keeping our actors and crew up to date on any plans we had. We had to call in extra crew for this shoot, as we had one hour to film everything we needed. The owner of the arcade kindly opened his arcade for us to film in before it actually opened to the public, giving us a one hour window to get in set up, film, pack up and get out. With the extra crew from the course we had three cameras altogether on three separate units. This worked very effectively I found on the day as all three units were given a separate shot-list and worked towards my own goal as director, gathering the shots I wanted and needed for the edit. We previously used the footage from both shoots to create a timeline with gaps, where the footage from todays shoot was going to go. This enabled us to see how much we needed in quantity, but also which shots we needed to make the narrative work. When we arrived on location at 9 in the morning, we had one of our actors and half of our crew at location. The other half were still waiting for the male actor to arrive at the University so they could drive him through. Having two cars was extremely effective, we were able to take the actors, crew and equipment to location all in one trip. The shoot itself flew by over the hour as we rushed to get the shots we needed with the equipment that needed setting up beforehand. This was partly because the main male actor was half an hour late. Despite this we used our initiative to get a lot of cutaway shots before he arrived, and by the time he did arrive we had covered the vast majority of shots we needed for the main female actor. In conclusion the shoot went very well. I was ecstatic with the visuals that came out of the location we were so lucky to acquire, and I am equally as happy with how the crew were so hard working during the shoot at such an early hour. Below are some images of myself, the crew and the actors all on location during the shoot.