Cambridge Portfolio Project Research

Brainstorming ideas on sound

So, my partner and I have narrowed down our genres further to only coming of age and drama/thriller. We eliminated fantasy because we didn't have any ideas coming to mind, and after looking at examples of fantasy movies, realized that they require a lot of effects and creative storytelling-- things we can't really do within our budget. But now, we have to come up with our stories for the coming of age and drama/thriller genres. Our plan is to brainstorm different stories for each one, and choose the best one (easier said than done). Now, we don't have concrete ideas as of right now, but we both have an idea of specific aspect we want to include in our opening. For example, we want to make use of the audio of the opening and use some unique sound effects. For the coming of age movie, this is how we picture incorporating audio:

'The main character is walking down the street wearing headphones, and we are able to hear their music. Then after an abrupt event (like them almost getting hit by a car), the music cuts out completely-- like their music pausing on their phone.'

This is just one example of how we want to maximize audio effects. Some other ways we can do so is by adding plugins on After Effects to make the audio muffled, or to boost the bass. We can also add reverb or distortion, though we most likely will stick to matching the audio with our plot. If we plan on doing a coming of age movie, we want to use these audio techniques because music is something that is universal, especially in the lives of teenagers. So, we figured we would stay on target by using audio effects-- in terms of using accurate conventions of a coming of age movie. With a thriller/drama, however, the audio would be a bit different. 

Opening scene of Shawshank Redemption (1994)

I watched the opening scene of Shawshank Redemption (1994) as a way to see the conventions of openings of drama movies, and how they use sound and audio techniques. In this, the director relies on non-diegetic sound. The narration is emphasized in the beginning, and this is followed by swelling music as we get to see the setting from a bird's-eye-perspective. Similarly, my partner and I plan to use background music in our opening, regardless of the genre. We want to find music that is already created, so we will either look for royalty free music online, or we will find another artist's music. But, we will have to email the artist's production company to get access to use the music, which is a bit of a challenge considering the possibility of them just not answering us. These are our two options, since neither of us can produce our own music. So, we are starting to look at music while we finalize our genre; that way we can plan accordingly if the company does not answer us, or if we cannot find any royalty free music we like.