Sound - Stormbreaker Part 2

So here are my notes from the 3 minute clip, note including the music at the very beginning as this is part of the production company brand.

• Diegetic dialogue setting the scene as a classroom – tone of voice and words before the images have come into focus. Topic – "What makes us who we are?" 
• Non-diegetic piano music underneath stops as he prepares to speak with a little scale upwards.
• Diegetic voiceover as characters are introduced accompanied by mysterious (quiet, low, long held notes) music.
• Sound of motorbike revving, heard a second time over the explosion sound.

 

• Match-on-action, dialogue complete opposite of visuals, element of comedy.
• Under motor bike sounds music is gathering in tempo and texture. Percussive drum kit.
• Music goes slightly quieter when on Alex in classroom vs. loud when with uncle in chase.
• Motor bikes revved on beats of music accented by strings.
• Juxtaposition (opposites) of what Alex is saying to what is actually happening “life in the slow lane” adds to comedy.
• Diegetic Puch & Judy dialogue – famous line “that’s the way to do it” as villain’s hit their own man with ridiculously big gun.
• Hyperbolic sea gulls, emphasises the comedy behind them looking at the action.
• Music pauses as Uncle goes under boat “not a very easy man to pin down”, begins again with bleeps from the car.
• Music ends as he drives off into the distance reflecting the end of Alex’s presentation.
• Boy yawns and school bell goes.

How does yours compare? This is quite a long list and you probably wont have time in the exam to talk about all of it so don't worry if you didn't get it all. If you have something on your list that I haven't, well done.

So the next step is how to put it actually into your essay. Firstly you need to remember the context of the question: "Explain how each of the following (camera, sound, mise-en-scene and editing) is used to create the effect that fits the Action Adventure genre."

Therefore the key is conventions..... how is the sound conventional?

I thought i'd help you have a go about deciding what to write.  

• To get me started I decided to begin with analysing how the sequence starts. I've tried to use
• both diegetic and non-diegetic elements
• quotes
• effects on the audience

"The extract begins with a diegetic voice over which sets the scene of a school room through the tone of the voice and topic being discussed "What makes us what we are?" As the camera pans around the room the audience's focus is drawn to the main character of the film, Alex. The slow camera movement is accompanied by non-diegetic light piano music which through the irregular melody, provides a mysterious feel to the scene. By doing this the producers of the film are bring the question of the main character into question because action adventure films conventionally have adult main characters due to the physical strengths they must go through. This music stops on a rising scale as Alex prepares to talk, leaving the audience with potential expectations."

• You don't need to describe the sound in the order in which it appears pick out the important bits and talk about them. So then I decided to concerntrate on talking about "match-on-action".

"Throughout the next sequence the narrative cuts from Alex in the classroom to his Uncle in a conventional high speed action chase. During the chase the sound uses both conventional diegetic and non-diegetic sound to exaggerate the action. There is a non-diegetic music track which has a fast tempo reflecting the match-on-action, using both a drum kit and string movement to emphasis the pace of the motorbikes as they revve their engines."

• Then conventional comedy elements...

"As is conventional for action adventure films there is an element of comedy and this is seen in a number of places throughout this sequence. Firstly the voice over from Alex juxtaposes the action of his Uncle, for example; when Alex says “life in the slow lane” his Uncle is actually in a high speed chase. The same comedy is used when Alex says "he's a hard man to pin down" when his Uncle his supposedly taking shelter under a boat from the gun men "pinning him down" although he's not there. At this point the music also pauses as the action has come to a stop, starting again when the car bleeps and pulls out from its hiding place."

• And finally hyperbolic sounds....

Hyperbolic sound effects are used in a number of places, for example the revving of the motorbikes and sea gull sounds, which again add to the comedy effect as a few birds then turn their heads to follow the action. Both of which are examples of how the film emphasises the drama through the use of sound.

This isn't a set structure. I just decided it based on the amounts of information I had. There are only 20 marks avaliable for this whole question so 5 marks for each technical element. They are purely assessing you on how well you can analyse a clip and link it to conventions,... so don't hang around.