Film Class DW Entry

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

At the beginning of the lesson, we started by getting into our groups - Elliot as editor, Louise as camera person and Ashley as writer. Basically, this lesson was an exchange of words - an engaged and intense discussion on a script generated by Ashley. Ashley's script is a fine piece - portraying a mystery regarding the protagonist's past, which features temptation, untamed lust and thrilling action. The script was still at a rudimentary stage and is not written in an official scripting format, hence we spent rest of the lesson making edits to it. As communicators of the IB learner profile, our discussions were fruitful and commendably constructive.

Basically, we started with the story being the protagonist half-sobered with alcohol in the bar, offered a conversation by a mysterious lady. At first he shows no interest, however she starts abruptly with a line "Have you wondered how your father died?", which peaked the anticipation of the theater.

From Ashley's script, I can already think of a few significant sounds that can express the pressure of the scene's atmosphere, and the hunger for curiosity and lust. Firstly, the background noise of the bar, which is karaoke music - with loud, echoed microphone tuning. Even though this noise would be loud in reality, but I will tone it down by making it a separate voice clip in the footage and reducing the sound levels, rather than blandly capturing the background noise. This is performed since plot progression is more important in Film-making, allowing the voices of dialogue to have major priority. Secondly, the classique ice-jiggling-in-the-beer noise, where the sound of ice clicking past each other as the drinker swirls the beer bottle is amplified. This particular sound is used in many adultery scenes where alcohol and seduction is involved. Hence, I am going to adapt that. Planning ahead applies the "knowledgeable", "risk takers" area of the IB learner profile. Modifying the script together also enhances "caring", "open-minded" and "communicators".

As for the seduction parts, I have also thought to myself the clicking of high-heels to show feminism, and soft sexy licking close-up(with sound) to express to further seduce the audience. As mentioned beforehand, seduction plays an important part in Film Noir. Juicing out all the knowledge I can offer as a sound director enhances my "thinkers" skill in the IB learner profile.

Our group is heading onto the right path - the path of success. Even though Ashley and I have very different views, I try hard to listen and interpret her ideas, and expand on them using my vast stronghold of experience and knowledge. This alone proves that we are becoming more "balanced" IB learners.