Soundtrack

"Godless" SOUNDTRACK:

INDUSTRY:

Its common in the film industry to use a films OST as a way to help market the film and earn extra revenue, most notably this was done with Baby driver.

You can see they offer the OST as a vinyl, probably as a nod to the films more retro style. This is a good marketing move as the people who are the most likely to enjoy retro music are older, so this was done to target an older demographic who are more likely to own a vinyl player.

You can also see how the OST was used in the marketing, you can see in this poster how the phrase "All you need is one killer track" was featured on the poster. This shows how music was used as one of the main draws of the film.

OVERVIEW OF MUSIC WE USED:

Track #1; Classic Rock

We observed how in baby driver the first track was rock with heavy blues influence. For this reason we chose to recreate "Sympathy for the Devil" by the rolling stones, not only because it had a lot of grove making it easier to dance to but because we thought it would play well into the antihero theme. 

Original:

Our Version:

Our Version With Vocals by Amelie Marchand:

We used this song as an audio bridge in the opening. 

The creation process/Use of technologies:

For this song I used the software Ableton Live 10, I then used and layered multiple percussion samples including one that was recorded for this project by a music teacher from our school. Then another teacher from our school generously helped us with the "woo" parts in the song.

I then added a bass line with the free plugin "Ample Bass guitar II". This plugin simulates a real electric bass guitar which is what was used in the song.

Then Bitsonics "Key Zone Classic" plugin was used for the piano chords as it simulates an acoustic piano, this is again in order to be faithful to the original song.

 

Track 2 and 3: Incidental music + Choir

We also created some incidental music, this music is very intense compared to our version of sympathy for the devil which helps the viewer feel the tone switch better. We then also created a Gothic sounding choir to create some verisimilitude in the church scene. The choir and incidental music were made so that they could be looped. The choir is also meant to be dietetic. 

Our song: (The incidental music is labeled "Riser" in the video) 

The Creation Process/Use of technologies: 

The software used was Ableton Live 10 agian;

The violin was created with the stock "string section" plugin from the software Cakewalk, this plugin is capable of simulating an acoustic violin/cello/double bass and comes free with the Cakewalk software making it almost essential for this project.

The percussion part was a stock "Tom" preset that came with the software which I found worked well in the track if you add some reverb.

The third aspect of this riser or piece of incidental music as a very simple synth I made which was made to imitate a brass instrument and played the same notes as the violin at a much lower frequency. The synth also had a very high attack, this was done to simulate a build up (or to have the volume steadily increase from zero).

 The choir section was done primarily with a plugin called "Spitfire LABS" which is a free preset loader that came with a choir patch, which simulated a choir singing in a church. Although the software was very good and we ended up with a result we were both satisfied with, it had some limitations as the sound it produced already had effects so it was almost impossible to edit or shape the sound in any way.

LABS Plugin:

WHY WE USED THESE SONGS:

Sympathy for the Devil remake:

• Sympathy for the devil is a title that is very fitting for our film as our protagonist is an antihero and even if he is a criminal, the audience can sympathize with the fact hes being forced into crime
• The song is very upbeat and accurately sets the tone for the first scene, the tone being happy and playful
• Sympathy for the devil is a very rhythmic song making it easy to dance to, and it makes it easier to make cuts in sync with the beat.

 

Incidental Music:

• Helps build tension when the tone switches (when baby picks up the phone)
• Reflects Babys emotions when he hears he has to do another job

Choir:

• The choir plays in the church in order to add verisimilitude to the scene
• It is also meant to signify that the church is occupied while the scene takes place 

OVERVIEW OF HOW WE USED SOUND:

We didnt really..

PRE-PRODUCTION OVERVIEW incl screenplay, shotlist, storyboard or animatic

CASTING, CHARACTERS, REHEARSAL/DIRECTING

You need to carefully and meticulously (the 3 D's...) denote each significant character. What are you trying to connote and how? How does this relate to your research? 

Video and/or Ppt with plentiful illustration is vital.

Outline your ideal look/vision, then show who you've cast and in what ways you're planning to control their look to create the character you desire for a successful encoding of a preferred reading.

Are your cast expected to magically understand what is in your head? Evidence how you directed them to give them guidance on what to do. Actual rehearsal footage would be great - that can include Zoom (etc) recordings.

Characters:

• Villain/Kevin Spacey 
• Protagonist/Baby
• Deaf Brother

Casting:

CZM Godless cast czm from DB3igs

LOCATIONS, MISE-EN-SCENE, HEALTH AND SAFETY

What locations did you consider? Why these? Is there any link to your research findings? What factors were involved in your final choices?

Be very clear, with very clear evidence, of anything you've done to 'set dress' - basically, control the mise-en-scene to help steer audiences towards your preferred reading. Were you organised enough to gather props in good time? Were you ambitious enough to ask multiple sources to find these ... or did you look no further than what is already in your house?!

Did you review each shoot for health + safety concerns, summarising these + what cast/crew needed to be aware of + avoid doing? That currently must include covid considerations.

Draft 1:

We chose to record in Eduardos house, in the basement

Then in a parking lot near my house

Draft 2 and 3:

• We filmed in my kitchen

• And in a public church

EQUIPMENT + LOGISTICS

What equipment have you used?

• Panasonic lumix camera

• amazon basics monopod

• DaVinci Resolve

• SanDisc SD

• FCPX

• ZOOM Handy recorder
  
  
  
• Amazon basics cam bag

• Stabilizer Tool 

We transported most of the equipment in the "Amazon basics camera bag"

STORYBOARD

Draft 1:

SCREENPLAY

Screenplay draft 3: 

Eduardo, christian godless screenplay from DB3igs

THEORIES and KEY TERMS I've learnt

SHOT TYPES:

Extreme Long Shot (ELS): A shot from a very long distance away, any person on screen would be small, the main focus is on the surroundings.

Long Shot (LS): A shot from a long distance away, if a person is in frame, they should take up the whole height from the top of their head, to the bottom of their shoes; they are fully visible, this is often used as exposition for the clothing, and thus, the age, job, or ethnicity of the character.

Medium Long Shot (MLS): A shot from a slightly long distance away, if a person is in frame, they should take up the whole height from the top of their head, to the their knees.

Medium Shot (MS): A shot from a medium distance away, if a person is in frame, they should take up the whole height from the top of their head, to the their waist.

Medium Close Up (MCU): A shot from a slightly close distance away, if a person is in frame, they should take up the whole height from the top of their head, to the their chest.

Close Up (CU): A shot from a close distance away, if a person is in frame, they should take up the whole height from the top of their head, to the bottom of their head.

Big Close Up (BCU): A shot from a quite close distance away, if a person is in frame, they should take up the whole height from the top of their head, to around half way up their head.   

Extreme Close Up (ECU): A shot from a very close distance away, if a person is in frame, they should take up the whole height from the top of their head, to less then half way up their head.    

  

MORE CINEMATOGRAPHY TERMS:

Over The Shoulder shot (OTS): When the camera is placed roughly over the shoulder of a character showing their perspective, without having the creepiness of being first person.

Two Shot: When there are two people on scene, often connoting a relationship, or a lack of focus on them as main character.

Rule Of Thirds: The characters are in the center all 3rd from the top and from the side, but not quite in the center.

Dutch angle: Rotating the camera, connoting weirdness or sickness.

Low Angle: Looking upward towards the character, signifying power, or that the character is threatening.

High angle: Looking downwards towards the character, signifying weakness, or that the character is vulnerable.

Worms eye: Camera is placed on the ground, as if it was a worm.

Birds eye: Camera placed in the sky as if it was a bird.

Drone/Helicopter shot: Convergence, Disruption and Digitization, mean that its often now a drone shot, this shot is often also a tracking shot, a shot that is from the sky taken from a drone or helicopter.

Panning: Rotating the camera without changing take, rotating left or right.

Whip pan: Rotating camera quickly, is an action code (Barthes).

Tilting: Rotating camera up or down.

Tracking: Camera is following a character, can be hand held, is an action code (Barthes).

Dolly shot: Tracking shot, but the camera is mounted on wheels.

Push/Pull focus: Shifting the focus from deep to shallow or vise versa in a single take.

Shallow/Deep field of focus: Having close (shallow) or further (deep) objects in the field of focus.

Mise-en-scene: Everything in frame, including buildings, clothing, and everything that creates verisimilitude. 

Establishing shot: An extreme long shot as the first scene, used to establish the location, and can ensure there is at least some narrative enigma

Shot reverse shot: when a view is recorded, and then the next shot is the revers, as in what the camera would see of it turned around, this is often used in conversations to show both of the POVs of the characters.

180 degree rule: having all shots from a single side to not cause confusion as to why the characters flipped side, this can be circumvented, if you have a BCU or an ECU.

 

SEMIOTICS:

Signifier: A single detail that is used to convey what the preferred reading is, or to inform us about something. 

Denotation/Denote: Obvious meaning, e.g. "this school is the best school i have ever been too" denotes that they are in a school.

Connotation/Connote: Deduced meaning, e.g. "i have to get to class", this connotes that they are in a school, as its not certain, but probably that that's what is meant.

Anchorage: When a lot of signifies point to a certain idea, the preferred reading, this is known as anchorage.

Polysemic: Has more than one possible meaning.

Verisimilitude: It is the success in creating realism, this is created with small details in the mise en scene, and with sometimes major parts of the film, having it credible enough, without being real. 

Serif, Sans-Serif: This has serif: Georgia, this does not: Ariel.

EDITING, SOUND:

Transition: Instead of a normal cut, a transition is put over the takes, to transition from one take to the next e.g. a cross-fade.

Take: The time the between a switch in camera's perspective and another, roughly 5s long takes, depending on the target audience, and the genre of the film.

(non-)diagetic: Sound that is in scene, as in it is diagetic, so can be heard by anyone around, this is shown, when you see a radio, or maybe birds, who are chirping, non-diagetic sound is simply sound that is played over what is happening.

Voice-over: A recording of a voice normally recorded after the recording of the film, used normally as narration, or in some rare cases in situations where the audio quality had failed.

Audio leveling: Setting the audio levels to be fairly similar to each other, so that there is no random decrease or increase in volume.

Shot variation: A variation of shots, and not only having, for example, only close ups.

Continuity Editing: showing similar shots one after the next in a sequence, without showing unrelated information that would confuse the audience.

 

NARRATIVE:

Exposition: providing information to the audience.

Intertextuality: the preferred reading is linked to that of another.

Primary, Secondary audience: The primary audience are the people (young, old, male, female) which the film is created for, and will then attempt to attract. secondary audience, are the people who the film is also meant for, but is not focusing on.

Narrative Enigma: A lack of knowledge of what is going to happen, often in the first shot, the hero (Propp, Campell) of the film is not shown, this creates narrative enigma.

Ambient sound: Sound that is not diagetic, but is placed to seem diagetic in an attempt to have verisimilitude. 

Audio Bridge: Sound carrying from one scene to the next, or starting in the previous scene. 

Preferred Reading (Hall): The preferred understanding of the film that was carefully created by the director.

Vertical Integration: a company that owns more than one (usually all) parts of the film cycle (production, distribution, exhibition/exchange)

Quota System: China has a quota system in place that only allows a few non-Chinese films per year to be shown in china, last year it was 42 films, chines films are now getting bigger then American tent-poles (DB post) (tag)

Conglomerate: A company that owns many smaller subsidiaries, such as NBCUniversal, is a Comcast company, and has universal and working title amongst others as subsidiaries

Subsidiary: A company that is owned by a larger company

blockbuster/tent-pole: a film that is a tent-pole to conglomerates success, the budgets are roughly 400m. Elberse argued that conglomerates should focus even more on their blockbuster films

Art-house vs Multiplex: binary opposite, multiplex will have only have hit movies, art-house might have some too, but mainly smaller films, only multiplex can get 3D films, and the cost is higher than what indie companies such as warp could ever afford, Imax is a huge screen, like 3D, is only for multiplexes.

 

EQUIPMENT:

Mono-Pod: A stand for a camera with a single leg, used for stability, and to decrease the shakiness of hand held.

Tri-Pod: A stand for a camera with three legs, used for stability, and to decrease the shakiness of hand held, but can be annoying when moving the camera.

Hand Held: A way of holding a camera which can be shaky at times, but increases maneuverability.

OTHER:

Feature Film: A film that is longer than 40 minutes according to BFI, but longer than 75 minutes according to Screen Actors Guild.

Short Film: A film that is less than 40 minutes according to BFI, but less than 75 minutes according to Screen Actors Guild.

THE FILM INDUSTRY

 THE BIG 5 AND GLOBAL MARKETING/DISTRIBUTION - GANT TEST AND RISE OF CHINA

The big 5 are a group of conglomerates that hold an oligopoly over the film industry, these companies are Disney, NBC Universal, Paramount, Sony Columbia and Warner Bros. It is said that they have complete dominance over the film industry and hold an oligopoly of sorts. This is because they can afford to spend much more money on marketing their films. They also own alot of the companies that produce their films and ones that distribute them making the process much cheaper for them.

It is also worth talking about the 'Gant Rule' a theory (that so far has proven itself to be mostly right) that any American film distributed in america will make 10 times the box office of a Brittish film released in Britain. This is because the American market is so much larger than the Brittish market.

CAST/STARS

...  said that the best way to ensure a films commercial success is the featuring of an A-list celerity. Although in recent years that theory has been shown not to be as true as once thought, with movies that prioritized spectacle or films that where part of an IP achieving the same level of success as films that featured stars. It still remains an important aspect of a films commercial prospects.

Most production companies look to use stars as a way to draw people to their films and create substantial buzz around a given project. However some indie studios, while benefiting from marginal attention generated by the cast for the project will still make the artistic merits of a film the main focus.

One good example of this is Warp film's 'Ghost Stories'. You can see that they chose to cast Martin Friedman in an important role and even featured him in the poster. However the film Martin Friedman is known for is 'The Lord of The Rings' franchise, which is a good example of what was previously discussed, this is because that films main draw was the IP. This meant that warp wasn't able to receive the full benefits of a star.

GENRE, HYBRIDITY

Genre hybridity is when a film borrows/mixes elements from two different genres. A good example of this is Warps "'71" which mixes aspects of the action and social realist films.

Genre hybridity is an idea that can generate commercial success for a film. This is because the film can appeal to a much greater audience. This makes sense when you apply the uses and gratifications theory and the representations theory. This is because by mixing genres that appeal to different demographics they can cover more of the 4 quadrants, and include a wider range of characters.

An example of a hybrid film is Working Titles 'Paul' (2011). This film is a sci-fi/comedy hybrid film. This means that their able to tap into both markets at once. The films box office was 100 million dollars world wide, while the budget was 40 million dollars, meaning it was an overall success.

Another good example of a hybrid film is Working Titles 'Baby Driver' which is a Action/Thriller hybrid film. When this films was released it ended up doing so well that Sony ordered a sequel.

It is also however important to mention that genre hybridity does not guarantee commercial success for a film. A good example of this is Working Titles 'Green Zone', a tentpole/blockbuster War/Action film with a budget of 100 million dollars. The film flopped making back only 94 million dollars in global box office, which considering all the other costs of the film probably rounded to 300 million dollars its safe to say the film was not a success.

You can see there are now more and more hybrid films being produced by big 5 conglomerates, this is likeley because genre hybridity has shown itself to be a highly profitable way to make movies.  

FRANCHISE, IP

Although for a very long time it was thought that the most important part of marketing a film was the feature of an A-list celebrity, however this was shown not to be the case with some films, most notably for this example is 'The Lord of The Rings' franchise which was a massive commercial success and featured no A-List celebrities.

It is safe to conclude that films based on a pre existing IP or films that are a part of a franchise also have a decent chance to find large commercial success. 

SOUNDTRACKS/OSTs

Its not uncommon to see the soundtrack or OST to appeal to a certain demographic (or one of the 4 quadrants).

A good example of this is how Working Titles Baby Driver features retro or older songs in order to appeal to a more mature audience however also includes some more modern songs in order to appeal to a secondary teen audience.

DIGITISATION, DISRUPTION,

CONVERGENCE ... HAS THE RELEASE WINDOW BEEN SMASHED? PVOD, NETFLIX et al

Disney +, PVOD, Cinema Chains devastated by Covid, Pressure from cinema chains is temporarily lifted.

One of the main ways cinemas attract customers is through the release window, this is the period of time where new films can only be seen at the cinemas. However recently because of the Covid 19 crisis cinemas have been unable to open meaning the big 5 distributors have been seeing if they can undermine the release window by releasing films via VOD or PVOD ('video on demand' and 'premium video on demand').

Because of convergence more and more households have access to a high quality television, meaning there is overall less incentive to go to the cinema although most still find it preferable. The big 5 distributors have taken advantage of this fact and have rolled out a VOD/PVOD scheme, where a household can pay a fee of 9.99$ or 19,99$ for a PVOD to view a film online.

One of the distributors that has put major pressure on the release window is Disney with their rolling out of Disney +, a service similar to Netflix where you can watch films distributed by Disney or any of its subsidiaries. Disney then releases films on their platform instead of the cinema, under normal circumstances the cinemas would be able to prevent that from happening by threatening to boycott Disney but because of covid Disney is able to largely omit the release window. 

It is however worth mentioning that in the case of Disneys Mulan (which was offered as a PVOD when it released and was priced 19,99$) was largely considered to be a flop. This is an important example as 'Mulan' was a way to test the PVOD scheme, and Disney didn't make alot of money back from it. Both Disney and other distributors were observing this test very closely and it failing means that the big 5 wont be rushing to push VOD/PVOD.

DIGITISATION, DISRUPTION, CONVERGENCE ... MICROBUDGET MOVIES, SELF-DISTRIBUTION + MY MEDIA EXPERIENCE!

Because of convergence and digitasion it is now easier than ever to create and distribute your own films. This is because due to technological advancements both filming equipment and editing software are becoming cheaper and cheaper... One of the facotrs that largley contributed to this was digitisation, which is the process of transferring things to a digital format. This made filming much faster as you no longer needed to physically treat the film and much cheaper, as you no longer needed to buy an expensive camera and lots of roles of film.

AGE RATINGS

Age ratings can have a huge impact on a films commercial prospects. The age ratings I will be focusing on are the ones given by the BBFC (the Brittish Board of Film Clasification). For producers looking to make films for the teen demographic this is particularly important, as the film needs to be accessible to their intended audience. However getting a low rating on any film can help increase its commercial prospects, even without having to consider the intended audience as it makes the film accessible by a larger audience.

The BBFC is important because its an organisation that has show a clear bias when ratings films. What I mean by this is that they have shown a trend of allowing a great deal of leeway when dealing with big 5 films and being relatively harsh when dealing with smaller local indie film producers

FILM FESTIVALS, CRITICAL ACCLAIM

It is unlikely to see most big 5 distributors trying to get their films into film festivals or to onto newspapers, because they have alot of money they can spend on other forms of marketing. However for small indie producers its imperative that they get their films into film festivals as they dont have alot of money for marketing and this is on of the best chances they have to get their films seen by distributors or cinema owners.

You can also see that on the cover of many social realist or indie productions you have positive reviews, this is also instrumental for the marketing of smaller films. 

REPRESENTATION ISSUES: BECHDEL TEST, MALE GAZE, GEENA DAVIS, WHITEWASHING

The film industry has been criticized for a very long time because of their representation issues. The main issue being the highly normative representation that has become the stereotype. This can be seen in countless works, indie or commercial. The main reason the film industry seems to be so normative when it comes to representation is mainly because its the best way to sell/have the movie appeal to the largest crowd possible, so there is a real commercial incentive to film producers to continue writing highly normative and stereotypical films.

American cartoonist Alison Bechdel saw that women werent getting any meaningful roles in most of the films she watched, then after further researching the topic she found that it was much worse than she originally anticipated (her research was primarily conducted on films in the slasher genre), she ended up finding that it was hard to find a film where you had two women talking about anything that wasnt related to a man. So she devised a test to see if a film was made with fair representations of women in mind and called it the 'Bechdel Test' (you look to see if there are at least two woman characters who speak about something that isnt men). I bring this up because this theory is still relevant today, you would expect that media has become more accepting but what we actually see is that many modern films wouldnt pass the bechdel test.

Whitewashing in films has been a problem for a long time and is still ongoing. A good example of whitewashing done in a modern film is Marvels 'Doctor Strange' where Tilda Swinton plays the character 'The Ancient One' who was supposed to be Tibetan monk. It is said that this was done so that they could distribute their film in China where it is ilegal to acknowledge Tibet as a separate country as they believe it is part of China.

OUR TARGET AUDIENCE

OUR TARGET AUDIENCE:

AGE:

We are aiming to target a primarily young adult audience (18-25) as we are both still teens making it easier to film. However we will also aim to make the nature of the films premise (that being crime) makes it more suitable for a young adult audience. We think that because we are still teens our audience will be able to relate to a younger character. The age of the character will be emphasized through clothing and mannerisms (getting bored easily, texting in slang) and will be , unemployed, clean shaven, no gray hair trying to make him pass as the accepted convention.
We could also use intertextuality. This would be done through the inclusion of retro or old fashioned music tastes and possibly by having the protagonist wear band merch.  

BBFC:

We will look to get a 15+ rating and will be judging that by the BBFC standards. This is to ensure that our target audience is well accounted for, this also serves to add commercial incentive to our coursework.

We plan to achieve this by avoiding the use of any blood or even violence as well as any sexual imagery.

GENRE APPEAL:

We are planning to make a heist movie that is heavily inspired by Working Titles Baby Driver.

Heist movies are in a unique position when it comes to targeting an audience as they can be enjoyed by most ages below 60. I came to this conclusion by observing the age ratings on heist movies (most being rated 16 or under by the BBFC) and by looking at the marketing for Baby Driver and Oceans 8.

Another reason is that even though the film centers around a crime, it is not violent or extremely dark like murder or drug addiction, meaning you can get away with a lower age rating and can market the film to a wider audience. 

The protagonist "Baby" is the primary focus of this poster which shows an attempt to market to a younger teen audience, the poster features lots of pink and blue coloration along with a cartoonish background. This could be seen as an attempt to invoke a sense of nostalgia in more mature viewers as the 80s was very much dominated by comic books and neon blue/pink lighting. We will try use these aspects in the film title and possibly in the idents as a way to appeal to a generally older audience.

The film Oceans 8 actually got a 0 rating from the BBFC but markets itself as a more adult oriented film. This can be explained by its mostly comedic nature and how it avoids showing any violence making this a possible candidate for a Family movie. 

SEXUALITY:

We are planning to explore this aspect of representation by featuring a homosexual protagonist. We could get away with this even though the film industry is very heteronormative because the focus is on the heist aspect of the film.

We plan to do this by avoiding the use of any stereotypes that could be harmful to the LGBT community, as we feel there isn't enough positive representation of this kind in the media.

In our coursework our protagonist will receive a text from his romantic partner so we can let the audience connote his sexuality and appeal to members of the LGBT community.