Sigur Rós - Valtari

Because it is officially finals week I figure it can't hurt to post about something a little lighter. Sigur Rós - Valtari is a beautiful work of art, the music and the music video. The dancers in the video are outstanding and the video itself is just extremely well done. From the editing to the coloring it was just outstanding. While it may be unpleasant to some people I think most can appreciate this piece for what it really is. There is so much that is told visually in this piece; with no dialogue to drive it forward it has to tell the story through the actions and the editing.



The piece is a little lengthy for what is supposed to be a music video however I would consider it a short film and not a music video. Anyway it can be a little unsettling so here are some still photos if you dont feel like looking at the whole video. There is a little bit of nudity but not much.

And for all the cool people here is the link: Valtari

Almost Famous

Over Thanksgiving break I was driving to Long Island to see my family while my Spotify played on shuffle. All of a sudden, the song Tiny Dancer by Elton John came on and I was overcome with memories of one of my favorite movies that I haven't even seen in the longest time. Isn't it crazy how music can do that to you? You hear it and are instantly reminded of a moment - whether its happy or sad, there is always an association. The movie I immediately connected this song to is Almost Famous, starring Kate Hudson. She is my favorite character in this film as she plays the quirky happy-go-lucky Penny Lane. The movie is based on a young writer who gets hired by The Rolling Stone and travels with one of America's most popular rock band of that time. What I love about this movie is how it incorporates real rock musicians from the 70s such as Simon and Garfunkel and Black Sabbath, but the band being documented is completely made up.The movie does a great job of incorporating Stillwater into the time period and connecting their music style to other ones that actually exist. This movie is an excellent period piece. It documents the 1970s very well along with the lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock n' roll. William, the teenage journalist starts out very naive but after befriending one of the rockstars, Russell and Penny Lane, his life quickly turns around. It is a great story for character development as we witness Kate Hudson's character nearly hitting rock bottom. There are sad moments, but the emotions that will come over you from watching this film are worth it. Directed by Cameron Crowe, it very much reflects his own experiences. He himself was a teenage writer for the Rolling Stone and toured with multiple bands including The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin and The Eagles.  You can definitely tell that this story is written from some kind of personal experience because it touches close to the heart.

Use of Music in FIlms

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.

E.T.

To Kill A Mockingbird

Jurassic Park

Back to the Future

Harry Potter

Movies: to Score or not to Score?

The simple fact that films typically have a musical score always seems to slip right by me when I'm actually making any kind of short film or TV show myself. It's just not something that I would typically think about. Good audio? Sure. Sound effects? Yeah, why not. But never a score. This lead me to thinking, hey, who says that films need to have any kind of music or instrumentality at all? That, in turn, lead me to google, which lead me to some interesting websites, which lead me here, to this blog post.

As behind-the-scenes as they typically are, we all know the names of a few movie composers: Hans Zimmer (please click that link for your own sake), Danny Elfman, and of course, the legendary John Williams. Their scores don't just add noise to all of their respective films: they add feeling, and set a tone for any given scene or even the movie as a whole  If you need an example for a really amazing score that is spot on in terms of creating an entire atmosphere for a film, look no further Howard Shore and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It doesn't just add tension or give scenes a certain flavor: it's music that like, I could actually see hobbits playing out on their front porches. Or whatever hobbit holes have instead of porches. Dirt clods? I don't know. 

 But what I'm curious about is if some films rely too heavily on composers and a musical score in order to fix what would otherwise be a weak script. Recently, there was a video going around the internet called "Star Wars without Williams." While it was meant to be funny, it also pointed out something pretty important: this throne room scene is super awkward without music. What was once a jovial and triumphant scene is now just echoey and weird. Don't get me wrong, I like Star Wars as much as the next guy or gal, but Audio (and script) - wise, Lucas kind of dropped the ball here. 

On the opposite side of things, however, is it possible to have a good film without any scoring at all? Sure. Just check out No Country for Old Men, The Birds, and 90% of Castaway. The key to scoring films, as I'm slowly but surely finding out, is to balance a good script with subtle yet powerful music. Emphasize certain emotions or themes that you want to have emphasized, while at the same time making sure that your film could still be successful without the music shoving those emotions down your throat. If you're looking for some more interesting info on how composers mess with our emotions, you check out a BBC article on that very topic right here.

Youtube now contains an audio library of free music

We have encountered the same problem at some point; you search for a video and by the time you finally find the exact video you were looking for, it has been removed due to some copyright infringement of the audio. Youtube realizes that this is a problem and is now trying to do something about it.

Youtube now contains an audio library of royalty free tracks to choose from. Currently there are only 150, but I'm sure it is growing daily. These songs are available for any use, not just Youtube videos. They can be downloaded forever to your computer as an Mp3 file.

Although this is an awesome tool for anyone in the media industry, it still has major flaws. 150 is a relatively small number, even for a free audio library. The songs can only be played with a start and stop button, with no option for skipping to another part of the song.

Obviously a paid service would better streamline the process of selecting an audio file, but lets be honest, who pays for music anymore? This is an awesome resource that I am very excited about using in the future, and I'm sure Youtube will be providing frequent updates to the library and video process.

http://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary?feature=blog

CGI or no?

It seems nowadays its extremely hard to trust what you see on the television screen is reality. I don't mean reality television but the actual visuals. Computer generated images seem to dominate movie screens. Movies such as Transformers, The Great Gatsby, and even the hobbit rely heavily on post production imaging. Knowing this is what makes the band Travis' music video for the song Moving so captivating. For the video the band projected images onto their breath in sub freezing temperatures. To this day it is one of my favorite music videos. 

NPR Tiny Desk Concerts

For as long as I can remember I have been listening to National Public Radio, whether it is news stories Prairie Home Companion, or the occasional Car Talk. Now four or five years ago NPR started up a Youtube series called Tiny Desk Concerts. The title of the series really sums it up but I will go into a little more detail. NPR invites in various bands, ranging from folk singers all the way to rappers, to perform an acoustic session of sorts behind a "Tiny Desk". Sometimes there is only one person performing other times there are twenty people, and these performers play their music in front of the office members. These performances are then recorded and put on to Youtube for everyone to watch and enjoy.

I have just recently started watching these videos and they are so well done and enjoyable to watch, especially from a film students perspective. Now from what I can tell, is there are either two or three videographers recording the show, one getting a wide shot on a tripod of the artists playing, and the two others focus on getting close ups of the performers faces, guitar fret boards etc. The videos are always edited together in a very clean yet creative way. The really impressive part is the audio piece. Keep in mind they are recording in a standard office. The last time I went into an office I don't remember there being acoustics like the ones in Ford Hall. Recording one person performances is one thing but to get crisp beautiful sound when there are horns, a string quartet, vocals and guitars going is a completely different task. The specific band I am referring to is Mother Falcon. 

Mother Falcon is a 20 person chamber pop band, yes this sounds weird but in fact they are one of my favorite bands. The members play many different instruments and tend to be a loud band. Yet when they were invited into NPR the only recording device I could see was a single shot gun mic placed a few feet in front of them. The sound for this performance was impeccable. Granted they are a very professional radio station but still an impressive feat nonetheless. The link below is to Mother Falcons performance and though it may not seem very interesting I strongly suggest you watch it purely for the example of pristine audio recording. I will also post a link to the Macklemore Tiny Desk Concert if that seems more appealing. 

I hope you enjoyed my little rant along with the awesome web series that NPR produces.

Tiny Desk Concert: Mother Falcon

Tiny Desk Concert: Macklemore

Semester Reflection

Last blog post of the semester! It has been fun. I want to give a shout out to Samantha, Dave, and Maddie. We managed to work on all three projects together. Great group. I'm going to miss you guys and Maddie, congratulations on graduating. Good luck with everything!

This semester has confirmed my love of editing. I definitely feel that it is something I am good at and a skill that I want to continue to learn about and perfect. I especially like editing audio. I realize I love making music and sound effects fit visuals. Working on Rat Bastard and having to find the best music to fit the mood of the film was both challenging and exciting for me. I had a similar experience in Fiction Field I. For our final project in that class, we had our music composed by a student in Whalen. The day before it was due, we mixed the audio with the video. It. Was. Awful. The music didn't match up at all, and it sounded like elevator music. This was a silent film. We needed playful, upbeat, music that helped tell the story. So that night, before it was due, I downloaded three royalty free songs that I sliced together to make the soundtrack for the film. I didn't tell my professor that I mixed the audio, he still thought it was composed by a Whalen student, and he loved it! I ended up telling him that I had done it, and he was impressed. It is something I like doing. To me it is like figuring out a math problem. It takes time and concentration to fit every piece together, but when it comes together it is so rewarding. Here is a link to my film from last semester.


Silent Love


Have a great vacation and spring semester!!!

Sound in Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead is a zombie movie parody starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. While the entire movie is definitely worth watching, a main staple of the film is the sound effects. Using intense and defined sound, that is typically found in action movies, for everyday activities heightens the humor of the scene. His mundane life comes with a soundtrack, muting outside noises, the viewer focuses on the loud stumbling on a curb, or listens as opening a soda can becomes an epic action. But all this is even before the dead come back to life, the climax of the movie. These dramatic sounds accompany his actions from the very beginning. Sounds like these direct the viewer to a genre or reference they are about to experience.

The movie also strongly brings music into play. Aside from using music from other classic zombie movies, director Edgar Wright incorporates it right into the action. In this scene, they are fighting off zombie in a pub, and become rhythmically intertwined with the music playing the background, fighting off zombies to Queen's Don't Stop Me Now.

Production wise, the sound is very clear. The ambient sound such as subtle music and constant zombie groans seem natural when paired with the main dialogue.

Music

I think the one of the most important aspects in a film is sound, especially music. Music can either destroy your project or help enhance. It can also add certain feelings and emotions to a scene. One of the biggest mistakes that we as filmmakers often make is adding music just to add music on our projects. If the score you choose does not fit your idea or concept, the final result may look cheesy and weird. That's why I think that the director and the music director have to work together to combine film and music together to create a master piece. I think that one of the greatest movie's composer of this era is Michael Giacchino. The man is a genius. He can literally make you feel happiness and sadness with just one song. He has composed for TV shows like Lost and Alias. He also made the scoring for movies like Ratatouille, Up, Star Trek and Super 8. I just love that all the music that he composes tell a story along with the movie. It is absolutely amazing. One of the greatest example in how music and film sync in perfection is in this montage from the movie Up, where Giacchino literally brings the audience from one extreme to another in terms of emotions.

Bur my favorite Giacchino's song is actually the "Main theme" of movie Ratatouille. I feel that this song depicts the main message of Ratatouille. it just fits perfectly with the movie. Also the instruments used by Giacchino remind me of Paris, and French culture.

Giacchino also composed one of my favorite TV shows of all time, Lost. With its music he added suspense and drama to the show. Every fan of the show would recognize this next song used composed for Lost.

Finally I think that everyone should keep this post in mind, and really think the kind of feelings you want to transmit to your audience when choosing the score for your short film.

Manson's Music Videos

So, I have a confession to make: I am a complete music video junkie...and my latest obsession is Marilyn Manson videos. While I realize that he might not be the most loved person in the music industry, I have immense amounts of respect for him for speaking his mind, and the combination of shocking (but most often, true) lyrics and images in his videos. His videos always manage to be incredibly interesting, often not only telling the story of the lyrics, but somehow managing to tie in commentary about current issues, and past issues that he himself has dealt with.

My personal favorite has to be, "I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)." The first time we see Manson, he is pinned up on a cross made of televisions, dressed in all white, in between shots of people with huge eyes peering out of falling-apart buildings. This is all going on while he sings the lyrics:

"Norm life baby,

We're white and oh so heater

And our sex is missionary...

Norm life baby,

We're quitters and we're sober

Our confessions will be televised..."

Next, the camera switches between Manson on the cross and the people inside, huddled around a television and learning simple words from flashcards, indicating societies isolation of children and teaching them a narrow range of subjects. This is all while these lyrics are said:

"You and I are underdosed and we're ready to fall,

Raised to be stupid, taught to be nothing at all,

We're taught to be nothing at all..."

At this point, Manson finally gets off the cross, and is being chased by headless police officers, portraying that the law has become less about what is right and wrong, and more about doing as you are told. He runs from the officers into an emergency room, complaining of a hurt arm, while he sings:

"Norm life baby,

Our God is white and unforgiving

and we're piss tested and we're praying...

Norm life baby,

I'm just a sample of a soul

made to look just like a human being..."

While he continuously talks about "norm life," the video shows flashes of different scenes, all in white. Two more verses of "norm life" later, Manson finds himself armless, trying to represent being forced to live without an essential part of himself. He runs into a Jerry Springer-ish talk show set, where looking around, he sees the madness of the entertainment industry, touching on everything from doe-eyed pageant girls being primped by their mothers to the sexualized fights that occur nowadays on "trash TV." In the midst of all of the chaos, the lyric, "Raised to be stupid, taught to be nothing at all," in sung.

As the video concludes, Manson finally "escapes" from the insanity, only to find himself wandering around aimlessly, all while still being chased by the headless officers. Law enforcement seems to be a common subject in almost every Manson video, which could be attributed to the amount of issues he has had with it in real life. Just like he has said in many interviews, at the end of the video, Manson is faced with a decision to surrender himself and face silence, or death. In the end, he chooses death over silence, and jumps off the building that he has been cornered on top of.

Once again, I realize that Marilyn Manson's music may not be everyones cup of tea, but I encourage you to at least check out some of his videos. They all hold a staggering amount of symbolism pertaining to not only the lyrics and the tone of his music, but issues that he (and many other people) are facing in everyday life. Below is the link for, "I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)," be sure to check it out!

I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)

Molly Boekenheide

The Music and Script of Inception

After talking about the spinning hallway in Inception during class it got me thinking about this complex and intriguing movie. Underneath the effects there are many other great things this movie has including its music and story.

First for those who have not seen the film, Inception is a 2010 film written, directed and co-produced by Christopher Nolan one of my favorite directors who has done movies like The Dark Knight and Memento. It was also nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Leonardo DiCaprio stars and plays Dom Cobb, a specialized thief. Instead of robbing, banks he steals ideas from the unconscious minds while they are asleep and dreaming. This is called extraction. Cobb has been on the run and unable to go home to America to visit his children because he is wanted for his wife's murder. Cobb is offered a chance to go home and have his old life back if he could perform the impossible task of inception; the planting of an idea into someone's subconscious. That is Inception in a nutshell. It is a lot more complex and a definite watch for anyone who loves science fiction, action or heist movies.The music from Inception is just beyond epic. Hans Zimmer, who has worked on movies like The Lion King, The Dark Knight, and Rango, completed the score. Now the score is described as a very electronic score but the coolest part about Zimmer's Academy Award nominated score involves Charles Dumont's 1956 song "Non, je ne regrette rien." In the movie this song is used as a "kick" to wake up them up. To know they are running out of time in the dream the song softly starts as headphones are placed on the dreamer's ears. The music builds and then they are awakened.

Now as explained in the film, time moves differently when people are dreaming or when they are dreaming within a dream. ("It's a week the first level down. Six months the second level…"). Zimmer used this information and incorporated this into his soundtrack. Listen carefully to "Non, je ne regrette rien" and then to Zimmer's "Half-Remembered Dream" from the soundtrack. Do you see what he did there? When slowed down the song, like it would be in the dream world for the characters. Check out this video for an audio comparison. Another user also did the opposite and sped up "Half-Remembered Dream" to have it sound like Dumont's song!

Two final points, one small and one large, I want to bring up involve the story and the script, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Let's start small first. Nolan was so detailed when writing the script that some of the character names are allusions. Ellen Page's character Ariadne is an "architect" who creates the various dreamscapes, which are designed like mazes. The name alludes to a princess in a Greek myth who aided by the hero Theseus by giving him a sword and a ball of string to help him navigate the labyrinth, which imprisoned the Minotaur. Ariadne in the movie aids the hero Cobb and the rest of the characters on how to navigate the dream mazes.

The other point I must bring up when talking about Inception is the ending. The ambiguous and controversial ending involves a spinning top wobbling. For the characters in the movie they each have a totem that allows them to find out if they are dreaming or in the real world. For Cobb if the top stays spinning he is dreaming but the ending fails to show if the top falls or not because of the abrupt cut. In other words the audience is unsure if the final sequence of the film is reality or just another dream. While many of speculated and even came up with theories involving Cobb only wears his wedding ring during dreams and that is your clue to look for, Nolan has denied this. When I first saw the movie I was a little confused and looked for clues to find out what happened but after my second viewing I realized how it doesn't matter what happened. Whether he is dreaming or not, Cobb is not looking at the top for the answer but is looking at his kids. If he doesn't care, neither should we. Nolan has backed this in interviews but the audience is free to believe whatever they want. Maybe they should sleep on it and dream their own ending to this wild movie.

Dexter: A Good Way to KILL Some Time

I love television but there is one show for me that sticks out above all the rest and that is Dexter. Dexter is a show on Showtime about Dexter Morgan, a blood splatter analyst for the Miami Metro police department. The first season was based on the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. Dexter is your average guy except for one small difference; he kills people. One of the reasons I like this show besides from the suspense it creates is how it makes the viewer feel for Dexter. Even though he kills people, he only kills bad guys and other killers. So in a way he is an anti-hero and the viewer almost roots for him to escape so he can rid the world of evil. It brings up a good question. Is Dexter a good person doing bad things or a bad person doing good things?

Besides from great storytelling and acting, done especially well by Emmy nominated actor Michael C. Hall who plays Dexter, the production team makes some interesting and great aesthetic choices. First off the color of red is everywhere. Dexter will drink red wine and eat red meat. Streetlights behind Dexter’s head will often be red. Red, obviously, is supposed to signify blood, which Dexter sees a lot of. Another example is what they do to show the different sides of Dexter. When Dexter is the good, average Miami citizen upbeat Latin music plays against the sunny Miami city. The colors are bright and the world just seems happy. However when Dexter is acting as his “dark passenger” the lighting becomes chiaroscuro. There is a sharp contrast between light and dark (which is a metaphor for the sharp contrast between his two sides). Soft and creepy music also plays as Dexter slowly lurks in the dark.

Harry Morgan, a cop and Dexter’s dead adoptive father, will interfere with Dexter’s life and remind him about the code they set up so he will not get caught. Whenever Dexter sees him the scene gets a little blurry and the lighting becomes brighter, especially around Harry. This could be interpreted like Harry is Dexter’s guardian angel, a mystical figure coming back to help Dexter when he needs it the most.

One of the greatest aesthetic pieces of Dexter is seen every week in the opening credits, which is Dexter’s morning routine. There are many close ups and extreme close ups that show Dexter getting ready for the day. All of these show his precision and his eye for details. It is also edited in a unique way. First it is edited into “choppy” segments (pun intended) and like a horror movie the killer is not revealed until the end (Dexter is finally visible in the last few seconds of the video). These shots, especially in extreme close ups, also look very scary and brutal. For example when he tightens the lace on his shoe or cuts into a piece of meat, it looks like he is strangling someone or cutting into a body. It’s practically his killing cycle! The audience will definitely know what they are getting themselves into as they watch these credits! Finally despite all of these scary images his morning routine is very similar to ours and is supposed to show no matter how crazy or demented Dexter is, he is still human. He shaves, flosses his teeth, and locks the door to his house as he leaves just as we all do every morning. In a way he is just like all of us (except he finds very different ways to use his free time).

For more information on Dexter, check out it's Showtime website. The new (sixth) season premiere is October 2nd!