It will relate to the critical framework and development of the media tests, it will be discussing literature findings and development of the project as a whole and the dissertation. Often the blog posts from AG1084 and AG1064 will referencing documents and details that can be found on this page.
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Looking at research for some music at this stage. I have recently just finished watching True Grit by the Coens' and came across this track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmhBUxUDPTA - leaning on the everlasting arms, the opening and closing song to True Grit, the latest Coen bro's film. This music symbolises the relationship between the young girl and what she is trying to do and he new found friendship with Rooster. With it being a church hymn it fits in with the esthetics's that the Coen's and Burwell were trying to set, with not only the time period but what the music actually symbolises for the characters.
I plan to use this song for the first test clip for Fargo. It's completely contrasting and leads to what I believe is, a totally different perception of the film to follow. The test will be to see if participants think the same.
A clip from T.V show louie, an excellent clip for the composed piece and what's on screen, not directly linked to my project but the skills used are certainly transferable: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubYGvKyrus8&context=C3d589b9ADOEgsToPDskKfxHDnH4exXgB75-HhbQmt - Audio begins at 4:10
Whilst this music is completely different it is a beautiful melody.
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Literature findings - Unheard Melodies
To judge film music as one judges “pure” music is to ignore the status as a part of the collaboration that is the film. Ultimately it is the narrative context, the interrelations between music and the rest of the film’s system that determines the effectiveness of film music
Three levels of listening modes in any film:
· Pure musical code - PMC
· Cultural Musical code - CMC
· Cinematic musical codes
PMC – If we are listening to a musical piece independently of any other activity
CMC – If a musical piece is playing in a location where people gather i.e. a coffee house, Music that is playing while credits role can reveal the detail of the narrative to follow
Cinematic Musical Codes – Music in a film that relates to the film, it bears specific formal relationships to coexistent elements within the film.
I still intend to continue researching and reading literature to support my project.
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Internet searching
Today I was led to Carter Burwells Website again- http://thebodyinc.com/main/home.shtml
Listen to any Burwells works - http://www.thebodyinc.net/radio/RadioBurwell.html
Kinsey - a film Burwell worked on, great acclaim for the score which is musically beautifully composed http://thebodyinc.com/projects/Kinsey.html. This also has the works of how the orchestra was set up and the arrangement came about.
Some more Burwell works/interviews/discussions/books/references
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/2009/oct/28/carter-burwell-and-maya-beiser/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-AOblKbszM&feature=relmfu
http://ebooks.cambridge.org.libproxy.abertay.ac.uk/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511615290
http://abertay.summon.serialssolutions.com/search?spellcheck=true&s.q=carter+burwell
http://thebodyinc.com/projects/NCFOM.html#Audio
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All of the notes I have written here are key in terms of Burwells approach to writing music and his relationship. he highlights how important it is that he gets on with his employer yet there isn't that level of separation between them. A lot of this information can be used in conjunction with my lit review.
I still intend to continue researching and reading literature to support my project.
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AG1084: Honours Project
Internet searching
Today I was led to Carter Burwells Website again- http://thebodyinc.com/main/home.shtml
Listen to any Burwells works - http://www.thebodyinc.net/radio/RadioBurwell.html
Kinsey - a film Burwell worked on, great acclaim for the score which is musically beautifully composed http://thebodyinc.com/projects/Kinsey.html. This also has the works of how the orchestra was set up and the arrangement came about.
Some more Burwell works/interviews/discussions/books/references
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/2009/oct/28/carter-burwell-and-maya-beiser/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-AOblKbszM&feature=relmfu
http://ebooks.cambridge.org.libproxy.abertay.ac.uk/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511615290
http://abertay.summon.serialssolutions.com/search?spellcheck=true&s.q=carter+burwell
http://thebodyinc.com/projects/NCFOM.html#Audio
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AG1084/1087
Beginnings of Critical Framework document
Critical framework
This document is the critical framework
designed to help create the media tests. It will highlight the important use of
film music within film and specifically throughout the scenes I will be testing
Discussion will cover the original scenes
and then the thought process used to create the new tests to use on the focus
groups and for questionnaires. It will also discuss specific directors,
composers and sound designers thoughts when it comes to designing the sound for
film, in turn identifying the critical framework required using the tests to
illustrate the validity of the framework created.
This will be a continuing updated process throughout the next four weeks.
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Beginnings of glossary of terms
AG1084/1087
Glossary of Terms: Terminologies used to describe aspects of the project
Sound Design – The placement of sound within a scene
Composition – The arrangement of instruments played to create a specific sound for the on screen visuals
Sound Effects – The sound heard when seeing an on-screen action that requires and accompanying sound. Often heightened
This is to be continued for the next few weeks at least, most likely until I start writing up the dissertation and finished research literature.
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Chapter
of notes taken from – Carter Burwell in conversation: music for the films of
Joel and Ethan Coen. Everything here is written in note form that I have taken
from this chapter and will be used for my lit review.
The Coens films are acutely aware of an
audience being conscious of the story telling manipulations that drive
contemporary cinema. To this end, the Coens’ use of Burwell’s music always
seeks ways to sidestep conventional methods of “emotionally cueing” an audience
with snippets of mood music. Burwell’s prime eclecticism lies in a strange mismatching
whereby his cues at first appear to not fit – but eventually reveal a depth that
is rooted in the complex story telling craft of the Coens’ narratives. Phillip
Brophy
Process
of film scoring – J and E write a script then give
it to me, we’ll talk about what type of music might be appropriate, a convo
that continues through the shooting process, I usually go and watch some of the
shoot – partly to see what visual environment is involved. I don’t really start
writing until they finishi shooting. Prior to that the most specific we’ll get
about the music is to consider the type orchestra that might be involved so
they can budget it properly. Once they have a rough edit of the film, we have a
meeting called a “spotting session” where we decide on the most elemental level
where each piece of music begins and ends.
Of course, more important that that is the
question of what the music is actually supposed to say: what the point of it
might be. One of the most enjoyable thing about working with J and E is that
they don’t have any preconceived answers to these questions. Occasionally they might
have an idea about the scale of music, but I don’t think they’ve ever come to
me and said, “yes this is the type of music we need.” In fact, that is more
typical of situations in which a director is uncomfortable with some aspect of
the movie. Conversely J and E are very thorough, so it it is rarely the case
that when the film is finished, something they wanted has not already been
taken care of.
After the spotting session I go back and I
do some writing. Initially, I try to think for myself what the music needs to
do for the film: what it can contribute, and how I can translate that into
melodies. Im a bit of a sucker for melodies, so usually there are melodies
involved – but at this early stage im also considering what “sound palette” im
going to use. I’ll use synthesizers to put together a sketch of my ideas –
partly for J and E’s sake, any director’s sake, so they can come and hear what
I want to do. This is because its terrible to be at a recording session with an
orchestra of a hundred musicians and have the director hears for the first time
and say, “that’s not what we’re talking about.” Also, using orchestras is very
expensive on a minute-by-minute basis. I always produce synthesized versions of
my musical ideas –not only for the director but for myself. It’s a great luxury
to use synths and samplers for orchestration. I can hear a version of what the
score is going to sound like before conducting a real orchestra. Of course,
real humans playing real instruments, which will always be an improvement, will
replace most of the synth and sampler sound. As good as synth demos are, the
real thing always sounds a lot better. So, finally after these periods of
discussing, sketching, testing and orchestrating come the recording session.
Solving
problems
Solving problems in film composing is part
intuition and part intellect. For everyone who does something like this, its
mostly their intuition which tells them what is appropriate. I’m not in a
position to theorize about what I do, nor would I want to. It would be
inappropriate because there are people paid to do that, and it would distract
from my real job, which is to be intuitive about composing.
When I se a film, I’m usually thinking
about what I would like the music to do, what |I would do to make it a richer
experience for me, make It somehow more dramatic or emotional. But once I've
decided what that should be, it becomes an intellectual problem. This is what I
think the music should do in this scene, but how will I achieve that while
faced with constraints like the films budget and schedule, the actual piece of
film I’m looing at, and my own abilities as a composer and conductor? So,
intellect takes me through that maze to find a solution to the question that
was really an intuitive one at first. The types of question that I answer in
these situations are: what kind of melody is required? Or, should my
composition even be melodic? Should it just be sound construction integrated
with the films sound design and editing? If melody is needed then what would be
its instrumentation? To some extent instrumentation is dictated by budget,
Hollywood films can get symphonic orchestras but that does not necessarily mean
it’s appropriate. A symphony orchestra is a wonderful instrument, but I find it
much more interesting and fulfilling to have smaller ensembles and choose
quirky instrumentation.
Another composing question I search to
answer is: to what extent will my score either refer to the picture or live in
a world of its own? Some of my scores seem to be in a world separate from the
picture. I don’t really think they’re separate from the picture, but often they
aren’t referring to the action on screen. This is partly because I am
personally not concerned with the incidents going on. I watch the films plot,
but its one of the last things that interests me. So the question for me as a
film composer is: are there places where the music really needs to refer to the
film?
The work I have done for their films
contains moments where music, having ignored most of what is happening in the
film, suddenly begins to pay attention to the action on screen. It has an
interesting effect.
Yet another question I often grapple with
is what should define the scores musical themes – to what should I attach them?
Each character to have a theme. Certain situations can have a theme. Parts of
the storyline can have themes. J and E films are very character based so I
attach themes to them, we see the film through those characters eyes.
The Coens’ central character is typically a
relatively normal, average person, without any extraordinary qualities, who
finds himself caught up in extraordinary circumstances, which are generally of
a tragic and cruel nature. Pathos, then, is one of the theatrical effects that
the music is required to deliver. And at the same time, the cones’ movies are
almost always comedies on some level, and by far the most interesting aspect of
what I do is that it has to be booth of those things.
On the subject of comedy, the Coens’ films
are often referred to as ironical. I don’t think this is true for any
intellectual or objective reason. The reason J and E get along is simply
because we view life that way. The first I saw the footage for blood simple, I
went home and wrote some melodies and brought them in the very next day. J and
E liked the music I composed ever since then its been a seamless collaboration.
We see life in a similar way, which is to say that the paradoxes in life make
it so much fun, and the horrible thins in life are what makes life really
funny. So, the irony in the work is not there for any intellectual reason: its
just the way we see life.
But when this type of irony appears in
music it also has an additional effect in that the music is telling you
something different to what you are seeing on the screen. It tells you that
something is happening which doesn’t not meet the eye. Yet because music is
such an abstract art, it does not tell you what that “more” is. That’s a little
unsettling – which is another typical adjective that we ascribe to the music in
J and e’s movies…
FARGO
I think Fargo probably represents one of
the more subtle and interesting musical choices I have made in my film scoring
because it is an unlikely combination not only of comedy and tragedy, but also
of dramatic writing based on a true story. None of the other Coen films do
this. I was never distracted by whether it was true or not, but I was aware
that the audience would need to believe that it was true. It would help the
story to believe that and if you pushed the comedy too much people might stop
believing it. If the filmmakers become to arch and go for comedy in the middle
of killing and other violence I think the believability of the story then
suffers. It was a fine line to walk in Fargo. (Important approach for No country for old men, second test.)
There were many roles for music in Fargo.
The music has to play a crime story, it has to be believable, it has to seem
like its representing an historical event and it has to simulate a true crime
story, which is very melodramatic genre. But in this particular true crime
story, the two people who do the killing are buffoons. They are ridiculous in
almost every scene. So the music has to accommodate their comedy but you still
have to believe they are going to kill someone. As the characters are written
in the script they have a desperate cheerfulness and despair behind a lot of
that cheerfulness. They live in a dark cold climate, so hopefully that
undercurrent to their cheerfulness can be played with the music.
My solution to this complex set of problems
was to direct the music to always take itself seriously. In other words, the
music is going to say “yes I am a crime drama and I’m going to take myself
seriously”. This allowed me to play the drama and make that believable, but, by
the music taking its elf too seriously, I I was able to push the comedy.
Particularly as there is not much action in the film: when it does occur the
music is often over the top with bombast, and hopefully that helps with the
comedy. I felt a smaller orchestra was appropriate – the exact kind of
orchestra that was often used for low budget crime movies.
Another element of the score is that there
is a personal story going on. Bill Macy plays the male protagonist who sets the
crime in motion and the character played by Frances McDormand is the female
protagonist, who is the police chief on his trail. She also happens to be
pregnant. I wanted the music to play on intimate scales for these characters
and especially for the pathos of Bill Macy. I think he defines the archetypal
pathetic character.
I do some research for most of the films,
and for Fargo I was listening to Scandinavian music. This was before they were
even shooting the film, because all the characters have Scandinavian names and
their accent is derived from a Scandinavian accent – although why that is so
remains a mystery to me. There is a lot of coldness in Scandinavian music, not
so much with the melodies, but with the way the instruments are played. Their
folk music usually revolves around a fiddle called the hardanger fiddle, which
has 5/6 strings that are played, but underneath them are a group of sympathetic
strings that are not directly played but which vibrate in sympathy with the
strings played. This approach seemed
right for the instrumentation for the coldness theme I composed for Fargo. The hardanger
fiddle is also a solo instrument, played in a mid scale, so I used a small
idiosyncratic ensemble for the personal scenes comprised of the hardanger
fiddle, harp and then just let I grow bigger from there. For example, the very
opening scene, we see a commonplace action: a guy driving a trailer with a car
on it through the snow. But the music begins with this extremely delicate
intimate melody, gets a little bigger and then grows to a ridiculously large
scale.
Fargo gave rise to the question what is
comedy and how exactly does one play it musically? For instance how should the
music play to the 2 bad guys? I would say that the killers are essentially buffoons,
but the do ruthlessly kill people through the film. They can be played for
comedy, but the question is how to do it.
Rewriting cues does not often happen with J
and E, we are generally in agreement as to what type of film we are making, and
at what level the humour exists, as in this last example Fargo. J and E also
place their faith in me because we have been through this so many times, that,
if we have a disagreement and I feel strongly that I am right, they will
generally give me the benefit of the doubt.
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All of the notes I have written here are key in terms of Burwells approach to writing music and his relationship. he highlights how important it is that he gets on with his employer yet there isn't that level of separation between them. A lot of this information can be used in conjunction with my lit review.
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AG1084: Honours Project - update
Glossary of Terms: Terminologies used to describe aspects of the project
Sound Design – The placement of sound within a scene
Composition – The arrangement of instruments played to create a specific sound for the on screen visuals
Sound Effects – The sound heard when seeing an on-screen action that requires and accompanying sound. Often heightened
Dialogue – Spoken word on screen by the actors
Silence – When nothing is heard by the audience or characters, on-screen or off-screen
Ambient sound – Audio used to set the tone within a room
Film Music – Sound Effects, Composition, Dialogue, Silence and Ambient Sound fit under this umbrella
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AG1084: Honours Project - update
Glossary of Terms: Terminologies used to describe aspects of the project
Sound Design – The placement of sound within a scene
Composition – The arrangement of instruments played to create a specific sound for the on screen visuals
Sound Effects – The sound heard when seeing an on-screen action that requires and accompanying sound. Often heightened
Dialogue – Spoken word on screen by the actors
Silence – When nothing is heard by the audience or characters, on-screen or off-screen
Ambient sound – Audio used to set the tone within a room
Film Music – Sound Effects, Composition, Dialogue, Silence and Ambient Sound fit under this umbrella
Soundtrack – Composition, Dialogue and Sound Effects fit under this umbrella
Diegetic- Visible sound that can be heard due to an on-screen/off-screen action
Non-Diegetic – Non visible on-screen sound that can be heard from outside the story space, not implied to actions happening on-screen
Psychoacoustics - Psychoacoustics explains the subjective response to everything we hear with the physiological responses evoked by them
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AG1084: Honours Project - Current Terms table. Still to updated at a later date.
Glossary of Terms: Terminologies used to describe aspects of the project
Sound Design – The placement of sound within a scene/film
Composition – The arrangement of instruments played to create a specific sound for the on screen visuals
Sound Effects – The sound heard when seeing an on-screen action that requires and accompanying sound. Often heightened
Dialogue – Spoken word on screen by the actors
Silence – When nothing is heard by the audience or characters, on-screen or off-screen
Ambient sound – Audio used to set the tone within a room
Film Music – Sound Effects, Composition, Dialogue, Silence and Ambient Sound fit under this umbrella
Soundtrack – Composition, Dialogue and Sound Effects fit under this umbrella
Diegetic- Visible sound that can be heard due to an on-screen/off-screen action
Non-Diegetic – Non visible on-screen sound that can be heard from outside the story space, not implied to actions happening on-screen
Psychoacoustics - Psychoacoustics explains the subjective response to everything we hear with the physiological responses evoked by them
Tone – The style in which the film is set in relation to how the sound has been composed to create a bond between the two. Can also be used to set a scene.
Pitch - the position of a single sound in the complete range of sound, the psychological perception of frequency
Loudness - intensity of a sound, in terms of which sounds may be ordered on a scale extending from quiet to loud
Timbre - Timbre is that attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which a listener can distinguish two similar sounds that have the same pitch and loudness
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Framework update -
Critical framework
This document has grown from discussions with lecturers, research and supervisor meetings. It has changed through the progression of the project to the testing stage and handing in the dissertation.
It will cover how, what and why I am doing this project, what I feel will be the outcome and the rationale behind it. It essentially underpins the dissertation as a whole.
Discussion will cover the original scenes and then the thought process used to create the new tests to use for questionnaires.
It is of the author’s firm belief that sound design and film music is undervalued & misunderstood tool within the filmic world. To put this into data and test people this document has been created. It will discuss the importance of sound within two specific films. The reason for two films as a comparative study allows for greater depth into specifics of there:
- Relationships between director, designer and composer.
- Music and its role
- Sound effects and its role
- How, what and whys of testing
- Determining the validity of this document
Objectives
The first objective of this dissertation was to first examine Fargo and No Country for Old Men. These films were specifically selected due to the close relationships the directors, Joel & Ethan Coen have with the composer and Sound designer, Carter Burwell and Skip Lievsay respectively. They have worked together on every single Coen Brothers film Dating back to 1984 Blood Simple.
The reason for picking these two films from their catalogue was due not only to the ten-year gap between them but the traditional orchestral score ever present in Fargo and the use of silence and ambient tracks in No Country for Old Men.
The research then would lead to techniques in capturing the sound and creating the music to go with the scenes chosen for testing. Lastly was the investigation and theory being how narrative can be driven leading human perception. This would lead to understanding what style of music would be suitable for the tests.
By creating a case study of the two films, it aided in creating this critical framework, designed to create testing for focus groups which will in turn lead to evaluating the results determining to what extent the framework is valid. Exploring this in practice it is hope this study will lead to a greater understanding of the sound design within film.
The critical framework is the document containing the information that underpins this whole project. It outlines what was tested, why it was tested and how it was tested. Thus leading to transparent un-biased answers to the research.
These are the critical framework key elements to helping the author to determine the validity of the media tests once the testing is completed, therefore a conclusion and reflection can then take place.
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