In the ‘Golden Age’ of Cinema, there were roughly 7 cinemas operation between these years.
2. There are 10 public cinema screens, currently operated by Cinema.
3. The original Odeon building is available to hire, and many properties in Jersey have private cinemas.
4. The number of cinemas screens has declined because of the rise of at-home cinema: aka being able to rent or buy a film from your own home. As well, companies like Cineworld having a monopoly on local cinema has forced smaller businesses to shut down: such as ‘New Era’ in St Helier.
The role of sound in film can be split into two sections: the sound editor and the sound mixer. A sound editor records the sound required for a production. This can be done in a multitude of ways, including composition of music; Foley sound, the art of mimicking and creating new sounds for film pieces in a studio; as well as on set recording. The other side of this is sound mixing. A sound mixer makes sure all the sound recorded by the sound recorder are put together, layered and are cohesive within a production. Sound mixers can incorporate techniques such as fade-in/outs in sound; J and L-cuts; narration and scores into production.
American film composer, Nicholas Britell, is famous for his work on films such as 12 Years a slave, (2013), Cruella, (2021) and especially Moonlight, (2017). His work on Moonlight, directed by Barry Jenkins, in particular inspires me due to his confidence to create and utilise scores to enhance the power of some scenes. For example, there is the intense music that reoccurs whenever Chiron remembers his Mother screaming at him in the corridor; or the emotional track the follows when Juan takes Chiron to the beach and teaches him how to swim. In each scene, the score turns into a compilation and almost acts like a non-diegetic ‘needle-drop’ moment.
Role 3 – Cinematographer. I’d like to do this as I enjoy the process of creating and modifying shots.
Cinematographers operate and direct camera-work in a film, often expanding on a director’s ideas.
An example of a Cinematographer I would like to study and take from is Bruno Delbonnel, who worked on films like Amelie and Darkest Hour. He has a tendency to create moving shots with creative mixes of movement.
Role 2 – Director. I’d like to do this as I believe the role of combining elements of film together will be quite interesting.
A director leads creativity and ‘directs’ the film-making team on creating the film.
An example of a director I would like to study and take from is Wes Anderson, especially his work on Moonrise Kingdom, as it is a very obvious display of creativity and direction.
Role 1 – Sound. I’d like to do this as I enjoy the process of layering sound complex tunes together an immersive experience for the audience.
A sound editor records and chooses which sounds to record, whilst a mixer decides what sounds, where and when they should be used in the production.
An example of a sound Mixer and Editor is the lead of composition of the film ‘Moonlight’ Nicholas Britell. The film uses the music to create powerful scenes and I’d like to see how I can replicate this effect.
I think our filming in our Joker project could’ve been better planned out, as we found ourselves making up shots we needed and wanting to refilm lots of shots in order to help our editing come together.
My editing too could’ve been better planned alongside the filming, as this would’ve created a more thought-out production.
Here is an example of a match cut in ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998), where one of our protagonists ages as he changes from looking over his Best Friend’s Body, to looking over his Best Friend’s Grave in France.
A sound editor records sounds needed for a production, including post-production sounds too. A sounds mixer combines the sound editor’s work together with the film in post-production.
An example of a famous sound editor is Gary Rydstrom, especially for his work on Titanic, (1998), where he won an academy award for best sound.
Examples of Non-Diegetic Sound in Shaun of the Dead: The tense music as the first Zombie enters. The techno-music as both characters fight the pair of zombies in their back garden. Examples of Diegetic Sound: The smash of vinyl records against walls, the dialogue of characters and the TV presenter on the News.
A ‘needle-drop’ moment is where music is first played dietetically, then covers over a montage of clips , (typically). It is used to create continuity with music appearing in a film, and blur the line between diegetic and non-diegetic sound.]
A famous example of a Needle-Drop moment in film is in Elvis, (2022), during the final scene where Elvis begins singing, and the film moves into a compilation of videos of Elvis.
Examples of a film’s soundtrack being composed by a Foley artist: Star Wars’ Lightsaber Sound FX, footsteps in The Shining and vinyl smashes in Shaun of the Dead.
An example of a Leitmotif in a film that adds an ambience to a character is ‘Amelie’, where the song ‘L’Autre Valse d’Amelie’ reoccurs whenever Amelie gets up to her antics.
Bladerunner is an example if a film where narration is used to provide information to the viewer, similarly to Shawshank Redemption when one of the protagonists details his connections to the prison as the camera zooms over the facility.
My favourite film soundtrack is Pulp Fiction, primarily due to the use of ‘You never can Tell’ during the dance competition scene.
