Field Trip to the Museum of the Moving Image

During our visit to the Museum of Moving Images, the class got the opportunity to view different aspects of post-production. Many of the exhibits I got the chance to view involved the manipulation of sound effects and the breakdown of all the audio involved in making a scene. One exhibit our tour guide took us into, we had the opportunity to break down a scene in the Titanic, specifically the one when the ship is starting to sink. We were able to view the scene with selected audio, ranging from sound effects, dialogue, and music separately and together. The part that interested me the most was learning how the sound effects were originally made. For example, Cal was seen going through a window onto the deck of the ship. The sound for the water running through the small hole was created using a vacuum sound and a lion’s roar played backwards. Normally, I would not associate these sounds together, but they did make a believable suction sound. Also when one of the smokestacks snapped in half, an elephant sound was used. Hearing the elephant sound by itself, it’s easy to recognize the animal’s sound. Placed with the image of metal bending, the sound is less recognizable as an elephant which shows how important context is when putting sounds together with the scene. The musical score also adds a very strong emotional component to the scene. When listening to dialogue or sound effects separately, it only sounds awkward and scripted. The orchestral music adds more dimension to the scene by adding crescendos to more dramatic points of the scene such as when viewers watch a long shot of people running haphazardly across the deck. The music helps emphasize the important points of the scene the director wants people to notice and adds an emotional charge to very intense scene. I feel that the music is what makes people more invested into the movie they’re watching and enhances how they experience viewing it. 

Relationships Between Shots

For this assignment, I decided to analyze a clip from the series Once Upon a Time, which I started to watch a few days ago. This television show brings a new twist to fairy tales as the characters are thrown into reality with no recollection of their true identities due to a dark curse. In this episode, the main focus is on Snow White and Prince Charming’s first encounter before the curse.

Their first meeting wasn’t the most pleasant, especially since Snow White was portrayed as a thief. She stole from the prince and traded his possessions, including an engagement ring, for gold and after much arguing she agrees to help the prince retrieve it. The scene starts with a medium shot of both Prince Charming and Snow White walking away together and they exchange the possessions they recuperated, Snow White’s gold and the prince’s ring. They both seem more amicable compared to their first meeting. The music throughout this scene enhances this easy going mood by providing a slow paced soft instrumental. The next shot shows a close up of the pouch holding the ring, which Prince Charming takes out and examines. He playful comments to Snow White, “I know, not your style,” to which she impulsively responds, “Well, there is only one way to find out,” and she takes the ring away from him. The camera follows her hands and a shot of her placing the ring on her finger is shown. Then the cameras follows her hand as she lifts it and the viewers are given the opportunity to view her smiling face as she observes the engagement ring on her finger. The next shot is then reversed to show Prince Charming’s face, who is staring at the ring and at Snow White in wonder. This close up allows people to view the many conflicting emotions the prince seems to be facing at her actions. At this part, high pitch piano notes are played to give the moment a more reflective mood, which begins as the prince stares at Snow White, showing a change in his thoughts about Snow White as a person. Unfazed, she continues to ramble on about his future fiancé as the prince remains flustered and silent, and the camera proceeds to go back and forth along with the dialogue with close ups of Snow White and Prince Charming’s faces as they talk. The cuts seemed seamless since they followed the dialogue and the camera’s perspective changed according to whoever was speaking at the moment. It was as if the viewer was there in front of them, watching them go back and forth with their conversation as both hesitated with saying goodbye. These also edits helped bring more attention to Snow White and the prince’s subtle reactions to one another, like slight pauses in conversation and lingering glances.  

At the end of their banter, the camera continues the reverse shots, but now Snow White walks away from the camera as it reverses the shot to show the prince staring after her. Then Snow White begins to turn around to watch the prince, which cues another reverse shot to show the prince walking away. The music at this point also becomes very low and less dynamic than before since their meeting is slowly coming to an end and draws the viewers’ attention more towards the characters’ actions.

This emphasizes how they’re parting ways, similarly to their present situation of separation. As the flashback fades, the next scene is revealed which brings the reader back to the present, at the hospital where Snow White waits outside of the emergency room for the prince and she learns that he apparently has a wife.

This scene helped add more depth to the story by contrasting Snow White and Prince Charming’s first meeting to their first reunion after the curse. Even without their memories, it seems as though the past is repeating itself by including a third woman into the situation. Later in the show, a close up of Snow White’s hands shows her twisting the engagement ring she played with it in the flashback. Without the previous scene, viewing the ring later on in Snow White’s possession wouldn’t be as significant without a backstory.

Assignment 2: Audio Portrait

https://soundcloud.com/yessenia-somerhalder/audio-project

For our second project, I was required to conduct an interview and create an audio portrait of a fellow classmate. I decided to focus on my classmate, Michelle and her love for photography. I decided to portray how she began to explore the medium and how she feels about cameras and its dominant role in her life.