A “needle drop” moment within a film is when music is played diegetically, meaning that the characters within the narrative can hear it, using a song that wasn’t created for the film’s soundtrack. An example of this is present within Sony Pictures’ 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, where the character of Miles Morales is listening to Swae Lee and Post Malone’s Sunflower in the opening scenes of the film.

Needle drops can also become non-diegetic and cut into a montage or another scene, which can be used to amplify the tone of each shot.

The sound could also be synchronous, such as in Edgar Wright’s 2004 film Shaun of the Dead, where, in the third act of the film, there’s a choreographed scene of the characters beating the Winchester’s owner with pool cues, synchronised to Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now.

At the beginning of this scene, Simon Pegg’s character, Shaun, and Nick Frost’s character, Ed, are watching a news broadcast after discovering a strangely-behaving woman in their back garden.

The diegetic sounds (that the characters can hear) in this part of the scene is the two characters sitting on the couch (presumably a foley sound to amplify the effect of them sitting down), the news broadcast’s monologue, the two characters communicating, the noises of the door opening as the zombie walks into their house, and the zombie’s soft groans as it approaches – which is quieter than it should be, of which I assume was done to display the character’s lack of self awareness.

The non-diegetic sounds include the low rumbling present through the scene, and the musical sting before Ed and Shaun notice the zombie in their house.

They then attack a zombie that walks into their home with various household objects, ranging from books to pillows to an ashtray. Shaun then shuts and locks the front door after they kill the zombie.

Diegetic sounds present within this segment include the cartoonish sound effects of the objects hitting the zombie – or the window behind them – the news broadcast still running in the background, more dialogue (panting and screaming), the sound of the ashtray breaking on the zombies skull, and, while amplified for effect on the audience, the sound of the door locking.

The use of non-diegesis here is present in the tense musical score and musical sting as the zombie is killed.

More examples of non-diegesis throughout the scene is the soundtrack, with a hip-hop track briefly playing as the characters throw vinyl discs, and whoosh sound effects accompanying scene transitions.

One of my favourite film soundtracks is in Marvel’s 2014 film Guardians of the Galaxy, where it’s main character, played by Chris Pratt, has almost complete influence over the tracks played throughout. The film features a soundtrack consisting mostly of songs from the 1980s-1970s, taken from Pratt’s character’s Sony Walkman – one of his last pieces of memorabilia from Earth that he had before being abducted during his childhood years in the same era. The soundtrack also often works diegetically, as the music is often needle dropped into the scene by Pratt.

Sound editing is the recording and creation of sounds for a film piece, to create necessary auditory cues for different features of a scene, such as foley sounds for different props or creatures, real or fictional.

Sound mixing is the process of blending each piece of audio media together into one piece that suits the tone of the scene, and amplifies it. It involves lowering and raising the volume of each sound, and making use of both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds to further immerse an audience.

Our Joker project was our first insight on how film production is done, with each different element being just as important as another.

As we didn’t have access to a Steadicam, it was a lot harder to shoot stable shots that didn’t have motion blur and we had to use things such as shelves to support the camera, and reshooting made it more awkward to get a similar angle that we wanted.

With the acting, it was a common occurrence for someone to laugh or something to go wrong, such as another member of our group being in the scene by mistake, so reshooting was often needed for each scene. There were also continuity errors such as clothing which made it harder to do reshoots, therefore we tried to get all of it done within one hour, and had a few errors that we couldn’t fix because of this.

Shots would also end up not focusing properly because of the camera’s lens, so it became a struggle to find the right distance to where we could focus on the actors, but still get the shots that we wanted.

When we started editing, it was also a struggle to hear specific parts of shots, as we didn’t have our actors hooked up with microphones. When filming, we tried using a recording on our phones using AirPods as microphones, but it wasn’t very successful and became time-consuming. In the final shoots, the dialogue is clearer and works pretty well, aside from one or two clips cutting awkwardly, however, certain sound effects such as the door opening and closing or the Joker’s laugh were amplified using sound effects found on the internet.

For our next filming project, it would be smarter to have a fixed wardrobe to make it easier to reshoot, and to take multiple renditions of each shot, at least two of each – which gives us less chance of error. Overall though, I do like how our projects turned out, and think they make for a good start.

The art of cinematography creates perspective within a film.  Based on the use of different camera angles, the directors are able to choose what the audience sees, and form unique hierarchies between elements of the scene – including props, actors, and the setting (weather, location, etc.).  In Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film ‘The Shining’ – based on Stephen King’s original novel of the same name – Kubrick uses cinematography to amplify Jack Nicholson’s character’s developing insanity, and convey meaning.  

During the opening scenes of the film, Kubrick makes use of various continuous overhead establishing shots to cause a feeling of unease in the audience immediately. The shots are also almost unnecessarily dragged out, a typical convention of many scenes in the film, of which only increase the tense and foreboding tone, suggesting that the plot of the film progresses gradually and that an unknown, terrifying event is inevitable.

One of Kubrick’s most notable uses of cinematography within ‘The Shining’ are presented throughout continuous tracking shots where the camera follows Danny as he rides his bike around the labyrinth of corridors inside the Overlook hotel.  As the camera follows him, the winding halls gradually enhance the suspenseful atmosphere as they seem to ‘close in’ on the shot, creating a sense of claustrophobia and anxiety.  The camerawork also ingrains the idea that Danny and his trike are more-so stationary, and establishes the hotel as some form of spiritual entity, almost pulling him into the passageways toward an ominous fate.  Alternatively, it could be seen that the unsteady camera is the intra-diegetic gaze of the hotel, or the malevolent beings occupying it.  This conveys the idea that the characters are powerless to their fates; that their paths are already chosen.  

Another iconic use of cinematography within the film is during the bathroom scene, where Kubrick intentionally breaks the 180° rule when changing angles between Jack and a hallucination of Delbert Grady – a key antagonist in the narrative – to create verisimilitude between the two as they ‘trade places’ between shots.  This further establishes Nicholson’s creeping insanity as he reaches a tipping point before the climax of the film and leaves an audience questioning when he’ll ‘break’.  

Kubrick also uses cinematography to show a divide between Jack and Wendy during the typewriter scene, after a petrified Wendy reads Jack’s ‘novel’.  The scene presents various mid-shots of the couple individually as they exchange dialogue, never having the two of them in frame together – their separation evidently displaying their respective aggression and fear, alongside Jack’s disconnection from his family-oriented character at the beginning of the film.  Once again, this is used to heighten the suspense and tension moments before he becomes more bloodthirsty.  

In ‘The Shining’, Kubrick’s intent with his cinematography is crystal clear; to intensify the horror within the film.  This is prevalent with his use of dramatic, suspenseful continuous shots, his comparisons to the antagonists against the other characters by breaking the 180° rule, and the thin veil between ‘good and evil’ that he portrays throughout the film’s runtime.  In conclusion, Kubrick’s greatest tool in his camerawork was the audience’s anticipation, and using that, he created a horror masterpiece that still holds up today.

Mise-en-scene is key within film.  It helps develop atmosphere, builds up the world of the story, creates stronger characters, and adds realism to the narrative.  Within Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi cult classic, Blade Runner, mise-en-scene was imperative in manufacturing a realistic and expansive future in 2019 Los Angeles.  

Early into the film’s runtime, a key scene showcases the vast futuristic cityscape as a lone flying police car escorts Harrison Ford’s character, Rick Deckard, to the police station.   Before the police pick him up, the car is shown gliding through a large open area between towering skyscrapers, which feature buildings that bear several iconic company emblems on holographic signs and billboards, such as Pan American World Airways, advertisements for Coca-Cola, Cuisinart, and “Off-World” – a fictional company within the franchise that plays an important role with the human space colonies, a topic left untouched throughout the film. As the officers arrive at Deckard’s location, a Japanese noodle stand named “White Dragon”, some dialogue is exchanged between both officers, Deckard, and the presumed owner of the stand.  The dialogue consists of a mixture of languages spoken by the officers, and the stand owner translating it into English for Deckard before he is taken away.  A building for Koss Stereophones can also be seen in one of the opening shots for the noodle stand, another example of brand placement.  The shots of the police car once again floating above the city follow similar conventions as they did before, the only difference being the changes in camerawork, swapping between short-lived, handheld shots of Deckard and the driver/pilot of the vehicle in and around the cockpit, static shots and panning shots of the scenery, finished by overhead shots that pan over the police station as the car comes into land. 

The implementation of this scene so early into the film establishes the foreign world that the audience has been placed into and grounds it into our own reality as a potential, but attainable future.  Although now, as the year 2019 – the year the picture is set in – has since passed without any of the extreme technological advancements depicted, during the 1980s, this use of set design doesn’t make it seem so impossible, especially with the rapid boom of improvements in technology across the planet – mainly inspired by Japan.  Embedded marketing in this scene also helped anchor the film’s world into our own, consistent with brands such as Coca-Cola and Cuisinart, which are still active today.  Placing these brands onto futuristic mediums for advertisements, such as holograms and digital billboards, also aids in continuing to immerse the audience.  Furthermore, the increased mix of cultures displayed in this scene’s setting, costume and prop design presents sociological advancements to display a more “advanced society”, or at least a higher tolerance of other cultures, evident in the shots of the White Dragon noodle stand, its owner and the various languages exchanged in dialogue.  This could be linked to the ongoing Cold War, ending in 1991, and the United States’ conflict with Asia, Japan in particular preceding WWII.  Douglas Trumbull’s use of practical effects work to create what seems to be a functional flying car, using smoke machines to cover some of the apparatus used to raise it, and later displaying the cockpit with various props such as controls, digital screens and buttons that the pilot actively uses, which adds to the authenticity of the scene.  

Mise-en-scene and its role in the world-building of the film provides an audience with a more believable concept of what they’re watching; an unforgiving, dystopian world much like our own, where each individual has their own unique identity and culture and their own struggles regardless of the time period.

Match on Action

A match on action cut is a technique where the editor cuts the shot to another that matches the movement/action of the first shot. An example of this could be within Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, where this technique is frequently used to show Miles Teller’s character playing the drums, reinforcing the idea that he is working his hardest to achieve his dream as a drummer, with abrupt, violent movements throughout each shot that work almost as a montage.

Graphic Match

A graphic match cut is a technique that uses similar elements of two scenes to transition between them – using a visual match for scenes that could be in different locations or following different plots. A popular example of this would be within Randal Kleiser’s Grease when the boys are dancing on the car, displaying their bond as a group and the idea that they will follow each other anywhere.

Eyeline Match

Eyeline match cuts are used to show the audience what a character is looking at. It can create the effect that the audience are looking through the character’s eyes themselves. An example of this is in David Yates’ Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix, where Daniel Radcliffe’s character looks up to a darkening sky, and the camera cuts to what ominous sights he’s seeing. This creates suspense and tension and leaves an audience wondering what’s behind the camera.

As a group, we filmed, acted, and (on our own) edited our own version of an early scene from Todd Phillips’ The Joker, using a script from a deleted scene.

We edited the project on Premiere Pro, and used it as an exercise to help with our editing and filming skills.

Watch it here – https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/5bc111c1-8786-44e6-aab4-9632e8818eff

In my opinion, this film is a 9/10, for strong editing that follows the pace of the music and movement. The most memorable scene was the 11-minute finale at the JVC competition, where Fletcher gives Andrew the wrong music in an attempt to destroy his career before it starts.