Movies without background music would be boring. The music score (the written plan of what instruments play what note at what time) preforms a special function. The music plays in the background and prepares your mind for what is happening in the movie scene.
An exotic style of music will help the viewer believe that the movie is in an exotic location. To build suspense the music will start slow and mysterious and then build up by increasing the tempo (speed) and volume. During exciting action scenes the music will be exciting and quick in tempo. During a love scene the music will be romantic. In a regular movie when the director is using a wide angle shot of a landscape the music will be 'majestic', slightly slower in tempo but with great changes in the tone of the notes.
All of these are called musical themes. The idea of a musical theme is to prepare the viewer for the visual action occurring in the movie and to reinforce that action emotionally using music. Many of the great movies had fantastic movie scores!
Even simple movies can use music to help set the mood. Think about our movie project, "The Door".
There are three shots, or parts, to "The Door". First, the part where they walk up to the door and hear a mysterious sound. This sound, by the way, is an effect, not part of the music score. Then they are scared and can't open the door right away, getting even more scared when they hear a second scarier sound. Last they are relieved when they get inside and close the door. (I know our actors don't really act that way--that's why we are learning about scripts next.)
What type of music should you use for each of these parts? How would the music "help" the viewer believe your story on the door?
Friday, September 26, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Creating a Movie
Many people don't realize what all is involved in changing video into a real movie. It takes a lot of work. A good movie has three steps; Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production.
Pre-Production involves planning out what will happen in advance. To do this many people use a script and a storyboard. A script is where everything that will happen is written down, what the people say, what they do, what the props are, etc. This can take a lot of thinking!! A storyboard is like a comic strip. You sketch out an image of what the video will be like one shot at a time. A shot would be each action that takes place in the film. Then once you have the script and storyboard you have to share it with the people in the movie and the people that run the camera and microphone. Another person has to get all the material (props) together so that you are ready.
Production is when you make the video. The actors say their lines and move according to the script and storyboard. This isn't easy and normally takes three or four times to get each shot right. The cameraman follows the directions on the script for zooming in and out and the direction the cameraman moves. The soundman records the sound and tries to cancel out unwanted sounds.
Post-production takes a lot of work. This week you learned how to do some post-production actions. Editing a film, putting together different cuts (edited video clips), adding titles and credits, adding a soundtrack and sound effects, exporting the video into a finished movie; these are all steps in post-production.
What did you think about the skills you worked on this week? We started off doing a very simple movie version. Most of the ones you are doing later will take ten or twenty times the editing and use more types of sound effects and music, plus people talking. Think about what that means in terms of your effort you will need to put into the video.
Pre-Production involves planning out what will happen in advance. To do this many people use a script and a storyboard. A script is where everything that will happen is written down, what the people say, what they do, what the props are, etc. This can take a lot of thinking!! A storyboard is like a comic strip. You sketch out an image of what the video will be like one shot at a time. A shot would be each action that takes place in the film. Then once you have the script and storyboard you have to share it with the people in the movie and the people that run the camera and microphone. Another person has to get all the material (props) together so that you are ready.
Production is when you make the video. The actors say their lines and move according to the script and storyboard. This isn't easy and normally takes three or four times to get each shot right. The cameraman follows the directions on the script for zooming in and out and the direction the cameraman moves. The soundman records the sound and tries to cancel out unwanted sounds.
Post-production takes a lot of work. This week you learned how to do some post-production actions. Editing a film, putting together different cuts (edited video clips), adding titles and credits, adding a soundtrack and sound effects, exporting the video into a finished movie; these are all steps in post-production.
What did you think about the skills you worked on this week? We started off doing a very simple movie version. Most of the ones you are doing later will take ten or twenty times the editing and use more types of sound effects and music, plus people talking. Think about what that means in terms of your effort you will need to put into the video.
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