Sound

Despite the fact that Leanne was in charge of creating the sound for the short film, I worked closely with her to ensure that the sound produced matched the visual feel that I hoped to achieve as cinematographer. Sound plays an important part of portraying meaning to the audience, meaning that it was vital that the sound chosen reflected the overall theme of 'Flight' effectively. If the wrong sound was chosen, then the film would not be as professional as possible. As there is no dialogue within our film, the ambient sound and music used has to represent the progression of the narrative.

Dance Sequence

The first piece of sound that we produced was the sound for the dance sequence. The dance sequence is a very important aspect of the narrative for 'Flight', as it shows Sophie's struggles as a young dancer. The sound used had to reflect this effectively. As a group, we decided that classical sound should be used for the entirety of the sequence. Using classical sound reflects the classical ballet dance sequence that we were trying to portray. This will then contrast with the urbanised drug culture theme which is portrayed later within the film. Leanne then used the program on the Apple iMac GarageBand to create the potential choice of music for our film. She used two different sound files - 'emotional piano' and 'orchestra strings 2' to create an overall sound file. The sound created lasted for the desired amount of time the footage lasted for. Also, as Leanne created the sound herself, the sound is copyright free.

We then placed the sound that Leanne created over the footage of the dance sequence. Upon reviewing the sound with the footage playing, it seemed that the sound did not match the visuals effectively. It was clear that the sound was far too repetitive. Although the image of the dance sequence itself was repetitive due to Sophie's struggles, we all felt that it was too repetitive and would just bore audiences. The music was also not dramatic enough, meaning that it did not represent Sophie's overall struggle at wanting to become a dancer. Because of these reasons, we decided to find other music to use within our production. Hannah then found a piece of music on Youtube called 'Mozart - Requiem'. (As shown below). This was not as repetitive as the sound that Leanne produced, and had the desired dramatic feel towards the end of the sequence. The segment of the sound that we are going to use will be the 00:20 to 01:00. This is because this segment of the music matches the visuals most effectively. We played the sound alongside the visuals once they had been filmed, to ensure that they worked effectively together. Once we were sure that this worked, we went ahead and added the following sound to our production. We then decided that this sound should re-appear later within the film to ensure that the two sections of the production link effectively.

Ambient Sound

When we re-watched the dance sequence, although the music we added was effective, we noticed that there was a significant lack of ambient sound within the scene. This was evident upon looking at the door shut, and the lack of foot-steps walking across the hard wooden floor. We re-filmed some sound that we could then place within the scene, as it would make the film more realistic and would lower the risk of alienating viewers. We ensured that the sound matched the visual effectively. 

Nature Scene

As a group, we spoke about which type of sound to use. As we watched the footage play, we decided that the music added show be low, reflecting the tone of Sophie's mood as she reflects on the possibility of turning to drugs to help her career. We then found a 'Bach Classical Dubstep' video on Youtube, which we implemented into the scene. This complimented the themes within out film, as the beginning of the music had elements of the classical dance music which was shown earlier within our film. However, as the song progressed elements of the genre of music 'dubstep' began to get introduced. The dubstep music had elements of a more urbanised atmosphere, which effectively contrasted the images shown on screen. This made for an effective couple of conflicting themes being portrayed to the audience - showing the dual lifestyle that Sophie could choose to lead and her conflicting ideas about her identity. We ensured that when we added this sound to out film that it was relatively quiet, so that the ambient sound of the nature scene could still be heard. The music chosen for this particular scene is shown below:

Flashback Sequence

The final piece of sound left to be added to 'Flight' was the sound for the flashback sequence. The flashback sequence shows the linkage of the reflection scenes, and hints that Sophie will turn to a life of narcotics in the future. As a group, we decided not to use music for this scene, but instead find a slightly surreal sound effect to portray Sophie's confusion at which path she should take. I found a whispering sound file, which I then uploaded as a Youtube video. Then, Leanne experimented with layering the whispering sound. This looked effective, particularly with the harsh colour of the flashback sequence, so we decided to keep the multiple layers. The sound then faded out, linking the following scene (which featured silence) effectively. The whispering sound file (without being layered) can be seen below:

Silence

We used the use of silence frequently throughout the short film 'Flight'. This is because it was shown to be a popular convention of the social realist genre, as it makes the audience feel slightly uncomfortable and allows them to gain an insight into the thoughts and feelings of the character shown. Silence was primarily used when Sophie was the focus of the shot, as it shows the viewer her confusion as to whether she should purchase/take the drugs or not. However, when we showed the silent scenes to our tutors they said that it felt out of place. Because of this, we deleted the ambient sound in the final scene of the sequence to make the two scenes link effectively.