An inspirational sound designer is Mark Mangini, born in Boston 1956 he grew up as a musician, specifically a guitarist. In 1976  he started his career in the industry “intended on becoming an interpreter at the U.N. until he could no longer ignore his love of film and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film.”

His first job in entertainment was a sound editor for a cartoon from Hanna Barbera Studios. soon after he had a twenty-five year run as owner and operator of post-production sound company, Weddington Productions Inc. Now as a Supervising Sound Editor, Sound Designer, and Re-recording mixer at Formosa Features, a Musician and Lecturer, Mangini continues to make his life’s work creating unimagined aural worlds and fabricated sonic realities for theatrical motion pictures.

And its one of his recent works that I would like to focus on: Dune (2021, Denis Villeneuve) has brilliant sound design. “Whereas many productions bring in sound designers after many of the visuals have already been finalized, supervising sound editor Mark Mangini (who worked with Villeneuve on Blade Runner 2049) began building the audioscape of Dune from its early days of production. As a result, the sound actually informs all sorts of things we see on-screen, and even fills in some of the conceptual gaps of the Dune series. (How can a giant worm actually burrow through so much sand? It vibrates with a low frequency to displace particles.) Mangini’s team set up in a hotel on the edge of Death Valley, and quickly learned that one of the tropes of the desert we know—the omnipresent howl of dry wind—was an invention of film, repeated by film. In fact, dunes are often still, silent places, and when they aren’t, they actually sing and groan much like an ominous soundtrack. The team sourced sounds from nature, dragging microphones through the sand to simulate a worm, hammering the earth with a rubber mallet to capture the sound of a “thumper” gadget that the citizens of Arrakis use to summon the beasts. While these sounds are post-processed by cutting-edge audio software to enhance various characteristics, the core is organic, and thereby believable.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/90697830/deconstructing-the-psychedelic-sounds-of-dune

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Mangini

A director determines the creative vision of a feature film, has complete artistic control of a project, should have a strong grasp of technical knowledge taught in directing classes, and/or a personal or emotional connection to the material. Pre-production duties may entail: assembling a team, creating a vision for the film and communicating it to the crew, discussing your vision with each of the key crew members individually and making casting choices. Duties during production include: guiding actors through scenes, ensuring every department is doing its job, communicating with everyone as much as possible and keeping your own artistic vision alive. Final duties carried out after production could consist of: giving notes to the editor, checking in with post-production teams and giving final ‘signoff’.

Wesley Wales Anderson’s (or ‘Wes Anderson’s’) films are known for their sharp and identifiable visual and narrative styles. Three of Anderson’s films – The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, and The Grand Budapest Hotel– appeared in BBC Culture’s 2016 poll of the greatest films since 2000.

Stating ‘There’s no story if there isn’t some conflict’, Anderson makes clear that he uses seemingly surface level techniques such as symmetrical Mis-En-Scene to display deeper or darker themes subtly. It could be said that the careful arrangements of the sets and costumes involved in his films suggest a suppressed chaos which is imaginatively presented through unique direction.

SOURCES (in order):

masterclass.com

wikipedia.org

inspiringquotes.us

vanityfair.com

A cinematographer is in charge of the camera and the lighting crew, responsible for creating the look, colour, lighting, and framing of every single shot. Usually, the director and cinematographer work closely together as the main job of the cinematographer is to ensure that they can work to support the director’s overall vision for the film.

Additionally, they may also act as the camera operator on more low-budget productions.

Some duties which might be expected of a cinematographer could be to choose a visual style for the film, to establish the camera setup for every shot, to determine the lighting for scenes, explore locations and to elevate the main vision of the director.

As inspiration for cinematography, I would probably choose to focus on Robert Bridge Richardson, winner of the Academy Award for Best Cinematographer three times, for his work on JFK, The Aviator and Hugo.

One of the most identifiable techniques is his famous ‘halo’ look. It can be seen in some of the most famous films the cinematographer has worked on, notably Scorsese’s Casino and The Aviator, and Tarantino’s Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds. The unique approach with which Richardson attempts to reinvent film is fascinating and arguably an efficient example to follow, stating: ‘On The Aviator, we did not attempt to re-create the choreography of period-style camera moves.’

SOURCES (in order):

masterclass.com

wikipedia.org

premiumbeat.com

theasc.com

Role 1:

Cinematographers are in charge of the camera as they film each scene, making sure the lighting isn’t too bright/dark, everything is in focus when necessary and that everything is in frame when it needs to be. They use a variety of camera angles and movements in order to make the directors vision become a reality. A cinematographer that I’ll be taking inspiration from is Linus Sandgren who worked on ‘La La Land’ with director Damien Chazelle. He mostly used naturalistic lighting with a boosted colour palette in order to keep the film looking as real as possible, however, in order to manipulate how each scene feels he used some artificial lighting, using contrasting colours in order to enhance what was happening on screen whilst still keeping the scene somewhat dark, allowing the lights to enhance the scene rather than take over.

“If you don’t have a contrasting colour, you can get a little too muddy with smaller lights or practical’s” – Sandgen

“Practicals are more there to give set decoration and a little more glow to a scene, and then from there you work in a little more lighting, but I don’t like too much light” – Sandgen

“You get a little less anonymous around award season, but for the majority of the time, you can be quite happily anonymous,”

“Although, I do get the person walk up to me now and say, ‘Wow, I follow all your movies!’ I’m always shocked.”

 “They’re all embedded deep in my subconscious. … I have a pretty good memory for films. … I can see something 20 years ago like I saw it yesterday. … So I could be an idiot savant.”

 “My main job was making tea and sweeping around the place, but that’s the way to learn. You start at the bottom.”

“I concentrated on sound for the first part of my career, then I did a transitional thing where I was working quite a lot with Peter Weir’s films as like a junior editor. Then I would be the sound supervisor or sound designer on his films, then eventually I became his editor.”

“Sound is an incredible way to control people’s emotions and pace and rhythm,”

“It’s amazing what you can do subtly and subliminally. … I have an enormous sound library in my picture-editing [software] Avid that I draw on continuously as I’m cutting.”

“Chris does make very complicated films and I think my job in the whole process is to try to keep it as understandable as you can, because there’s nothing worse than a film where the audience gets lost to the point of being disappointed.”

“The secret that we were always trying to do with Chris’ films, ‘Inception,’ ‘Interstellar,’ and ‘The Prestige,’ was being faithful to Chris’s original idea … but never getting into a point where you’d be sitting there as an audience member feeling that you’ve been left out.”

The Shining (1980) is a great example of cinematography because of the use of symmetry and one point perspective. For example the many corridor scenes. These demonstrate how even with all the alternate paths in the doors, there is only one way to go. This contributes to the implication of the hotel itself being alive, as if the characters being in the jaws of the beast and the only way forward is down the gullet.

An inspiring practitioner of cinematography is John Alcott who worked on The Shining (1980) with the director Stanley Kubrick

John Alcott, was an English cinematographer known for his four collaborations with director Stanley Kubrick: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), for which he took over as lighting cameraman from Geoffrey Unsworth in mid-shoot, A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), the film for which he won his Oscar, and The Shining (1980).

sound

Sound can help create an atmosphere in the film with the use of non diegetic sound and diegetic sound. By using these different types of sound in different scenes it can change the meaning and the story behind the scene. This shows the importance of sound and how it is needed in a film and with the sound being good it can change the meaning of the film. The sound team are split into sound designers, Foley artists and sound mixers. The sound designers are responsible for all aspects of a films audio track from dialogue and sound effects recording to the re recording of the final track, the Foley artists who are in post production and add in many different subtle sounds such as footsteps and doors shutting which might not be picked up in recording. The sound mixers are responsible for recording all sound on set during filmmaking. This requires them to make the choice and deployment of microphones. A sound designer who in my opinion uses sound to convey meaning well is Ben Burtt who has worked on many films as the sound designer such as Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Wall E, ET and much more Ben Burtt shows his talent as a sound designer by using these sounds for sci fi films. He can test what sounds are possible to create by combining a multitude of different sounds to create specific sounds. In an interview he refers to being a sound designer as “being a librarian” as there is so many different sounds he creates and referring to having an “encyclopaedia of sound”. This interview took place when he was the sound designer for Star Wars which has a vast variety of sounds that do not exist.

Cinematographer – The cinematographer’s role occurs during the production phase of the film and are responsible for the set up and use of any necessary equipment needed for the capturing of the image. The cinematographer will need to work closely with the director in order to fully recreate the directors ideas for the film. The cinematographer is responsible for the shots, colouring and angle of the film

My inspiration for the role of cinematographer is Andrew Lesnie who is most known for his work on The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy and its Prequel The Hobbit, Andrew Lesnie has also worked on The Lovely Bones (2011) as well as Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011). He also received the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2002. Andrew Lesnie often used wide angle shots in The Lord Of The Rings to show the vastness of the world as well as long tracking shots when the action has been built up, for example when Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are tracking down Merry and Pippin.

Wide angles are a common feature in Andrew Lesnie’s cinematography and this is shown in The Lovely Bones (2011) when Susie is running across the field.

Cinematography:

Linus Sandgren is a Swedish cinematographer who has worked on many films such as ‘La La Land’ and ‘No Time To Die’. He’s best known for his work with director Damien Chazelle, having won a handful of Grammy’s due to his incredible work on ‘La La Land’.

Sandgren’s work on ‘La La Land’ uses a variety of different lights, often using contrasting colours in order to enhance what’s happening on screen. “If you don’t have a contrasting colour, you can get a little too muddy with smaller lights or practical’s. Cyan’s kind of nice to counter with some reds, for instance”. He did research into what the director wanted before choosing a camera to help achieve the saturation and old Hollywood style that the director wanted. Sandgren also made sure to make everything as realistic as possible, filming most of the film in real locations rather than using a green screen,

La La Land Linus Sandgren

A cinematographer, also known as a Director of Photography, is in charge of the camera and the lighting crew. They’re the person responsible for creating the look, colour, lighting, and for framing of every single shot in a film. The cinematographer may also act as the camera operator on more low-budget productions, they work very closely with the director in order to achieve their visuals.  My inspiration is John Alcott, who closely worked with the director Stanley Kubrick, being the cinematographer for 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon (which he won an Oscar for) and The Shining. Three films worked on by Alcott were ranked between 1950–1997 in the top 20 of ‘Best Shot,’ voted by the American Society of Cinematographers suggesting his great skill. He believes ‘how to use angles, set-ups, lights, and camera as a means to tell the story’ implying the importance of cinematography and how it is used to create meaning.