What would a film be without music. Nothing. Well okay, it would still be a series of images that make up a story, but it really wouldn't be that good. A film can be absent of dialogue, or color, and it can still be a great film. However, without music, a film cannot be great.
Music is the thing in films that evoke emotion. Music is what is going make you cry or laugh or get that really warm feeling when things turn out the way that you want them to. Music can really enhance the cinematic experience.
The score is what can take a film from good to iconic. There are some scores that have transcended our respect for music in films, here are some of the best film scores in my opinion.
By now, most of us have seen this. And while it has been met with a not so surprising mix of negative and positive reviews, I have to say one of the things I’m looking forward to is seeing how Colin Trevorrow, Frank Marshall and Derek Connolly (director and producers, respectively) handle the legacy that the original films have set up. It looks like Spielberg is once again taking up the role of executive producer (as he did in the third film) which isn't something that is unexpected. The downside to this though, is that we may be getting a more hollywood-version of the script: something we can already see if the trailer is anything to go off from. From the looks of this teaser trailer, the newest film (aptly named Jurassic World) takes place many years after the events of the third film when humans have finally managed to create a fully-functioning dinosaur theme park. If this sounds bad than you've been paying attention, as the first three films literally and repeatedly set up the plot that "dinosaurs plus theme park equals not happy fun times." And as the gritty look of the film takes on a darker approach, with a haunting version of the original theme song playing overtop, we see that this plot anything but new. Of course, you have the "genetically modified" hybrid but what's another dinosaur loose in the park? It's a film that's been anticipated for over a decade and from the looks of it, it's just barely holding onto expectations. Personally, I can't say too much based on roughly three minutes of footage, but from what I've seen it looks like the thing we need to worry about is that it's going to try too hard to be "different." And the thing is, people aren't really expecting different. The reason Jurassic Park is as iconic as it is, is because it took the time to sculpt a universe and look that catered to the plot of the film. It wasn't too over the top, it wasn't too action-packed, it didn't rely on gritty color-grading and cheap crowd noises. It took the time to develop and let each character do their own thing, and it circled everything back to the main theme: dinosaurs. Hopefully, once more trailers emerge we'll be able to grab a closer look at what the future of the Jurassic Park series entails. But for now we'll have to sit back and enjoy Chris Pratt on a motorcycle, cruising with his velociraptor buddies.
To be clear, "puppet movies" refers to movies that are made for puppets. There is yet to be a movie made for puppets, so puppets remain an un-tapped demographic. That being said, there are plenty of them IN movies, weather people know it or not.
Some movies revel in the fact that they feature puppets, with notable examples such as the Muppet movies or Team America: World Police.
The Muppet Movie, one of many movies starring Jim Henson's creations.
But most movies that feature puppets make it a goal for the audience to not realize it's a puppet! A great number of the aliens in the original "Men in Black" were puppets, as were the larger dinosaurs in the original Jurassic Park.
The "Star Wars" series is full of puppets as well, with one of it's title characters being one!
Jedi master Yoda in all his glory! (In the later movies, Yoda was CG.)
In more recent movies, the use of puppets has been replaced with CG effects. CG is often used in places where a good puppet would work just as well. In the late 1990's and early 2000's CG was over-used to the tune of laughable results. Though animation is powerful, there are times where a puppet adds an effect that can't be gotten anywhere else.
One of my personal favorite movie puppets, "Brundlefly" in the 1986 "The Fly" remains impressive, even today.
We already watched a video about professional sound foley. But, I came across a video that had a short 3 minute segment about sound foley for a quick fight scene by hooking the microphone up to your laptop and running it right through Final Cut Pro. Above the roomtone, they recreated the sounds of the door opening, footsteps, punches and shaking hands. The punches were done by hitting celery on top of a pillow and the rest just mimicked the actual actions.
The segment is from 4:25-7:45 (ignore the rest of the video, it's a little strange)
On the opposite end, here is a quick video about the sound foley for a dinosaur hatching during Jurassic Park. While these two productions are on opposite ends of the spectrum, they both use simple, every day foods to create sounds that have nothing to do with each other. But, the sounds end up fitting the scene perfectly.
This last video shows, again, how many different kinds of produce and other foods you can utilize to make sounds to fit a scene (starting around 40 seconds).
For other ideas for sound effects, there is a whole list of resources here.
