Sound and Vision PowerPoint

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Buffy The Vampire Slayer has always been a dark program. And so choosing the right music soundtrack for this would be very important. Throughout the entire series the program always has a use of a violins and pianos to give it a dark sadness feel to the program. A popular place within the series has always been a bar called ‘The Bronze’ which always has rock or indie bands playing in there, they always have these bands playing different genre’s of music depending on the mood of each program. Sometimes they will dark soft rock when the feelings are sad in other cases they will play upbeat rock to go with a dancing scene. Throughout the series there is two particular episodes which contrast each other. One episode has nothing but non-diegetic music to set the tone of everything as there is no dialogue or diegetic sounds in the episode and so different music and sounds where used to emphasize different moods. But another episode which is in fact a emotionally sad episode is all diegetic sound and only uses dialogue and no music or soundtrack. This completely emphasizes the emotion going through the main characters mind and shows the real intensity of the episode. When watching Buffy it is very clever it being a single camera drama as it looks like it is multi camera but Buffy has won awards for it being a single camera drama.
Although Buffy is aimed at a darker young audience it's storyline is set to attract a wider audience. But this is also done through different camera techniques, close ups are used often throughout the series to bring certain emotion to the screen to attract an audience to certain characters. The mise-en-scene is very clever throughout the series a great example of this is of a character named 'Spike' he is a bad guy in early series and is always found in dark areas and dresses in all black and dark, but as the series progressed he is seen more frequently in lighter shots and is dressed in brighter colours, this plays on the audience so they know his character better and it helps the audience choose which character to like and not like.

Most of Buffy is filmed at night time due to its dark genre and set in graveyards, caves and rundown buildings to effect. The lighting is used well so that its clear to see what's going on but always set at night time. 

The Office

The Office is a documentary based comedy but is scripted. It is mostly set within the office they all work and is set out like a documentary with interviews and seeing how they all go about their day. Lighting in this program is all normal so it looks and feels like an office. The idea being to make the program look as real as possible and so it doesn’t look and feel like its scripted.

The Office is a well known program in the UK and has won many awards when it was aired. The main character called David Brent played by Ricky Gervais still makes off screen appearances to promote the program even now when it has finished.
The techniques in this single camera drama are very different to the ones in Buffy, the whole set up is like you are watching a documentary but its all fictional characters and scripted. Its setup like so the audience assumes its a documentary but realise its a parody of one which is what gives it its comedic value. The office also had a remake in the US because of its popularity and has been successful to American audiences to. 
There is no Non-diegetic sound in the program which gives it more of a feeling that its real and to help the audience feel as if they are their with them. They don’t use much sound effects they use foley often when in the main part of the office of people mumbling to make it sound like its more busy and more people there which makes the office that you cant seem feel larger then what it already is.

Gavin And Stacy

Gavin and Stacey a comedy drama based around two characters meeting for first time. One from Wales the other from the South of England. The program is mainly based on its dialogue to keep it funny and entertaining. Non-Diegetic sound is rarely used throughout the show only in different cuts to introduces characters for example soft music is used when introducing Stacy and Upbeat music for Gavin. The main them for the show is piano which is also used often throughout the show to set different tones. The main tone of the program is humor and this is shown through its dialogue rather then through use of soundtrack.

Being set in all different locations such as pubs, houses and the seaside foley is used often throughout the show for example and the seaside in Wales you’ll always hear the sea and seagulls added in through foley. Where as in the pub scenes foley will be used for noises going on behind the bar and for people around the bar to make it seem busy.

Most of Gavin and Stacey is filmed in the day with lighting due to its upbeat tone and comedy genre, the use of daylight and light is used to keep in tone with the program so it doesn’t confuse the audience. It uses very standard techniques for a drama, all sorts of shots mainly medium, close up and wide shots to present the characters evenly and to help the audience gather the main characters. 

Little Britain

Little Britain is a comedy sketch program mocking people in Britain. Written and starring comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams. Non-Diegetic and Diegetic sound are used well within this program to make it humorous.

First off the Voice Over narrator always introduces the show talking about pointless things and doesn’t make much sense, The voice over is posh voice to mock the posh people of Britain. When ever new sketches come in different soundtrack music is used depending on the character for example a chavy school girl called Vicky is always introduced using upbeat pop music and then a Scottish hotel owner would be introduced with a flute or bagpipe playing.

The lighting throughout the show remains the same as no scenes throughout the series are filmed in the night time and are always filmed in the day and well lit to go with the tone of the program.
Little Britain again is very different camera techniques to all the others. They use techniques from Gavin and Stacey as well as the office. Little Britain uses opening wide shots in every new scene with a voiceover to give it a documentary look and feel to it but doesn't have the documentary look like the office with interviews and questions, it just goes straight in as if you are watching someones normal life like Big Brother but the scripting and set out is to be a parody on how Britain's lifestyle is. Little Britain also went over to America like the office but not as a remake or reboot, but to be a parody on the lifestyle on the USA and also to be formatted and sold to them as well as aired, and became successful in doing so.

Like Gavin and Stacey Foley is used a lot throughout the program to give a sense that it is real as it is filmed in many locations like pubs, countryside, homes so things like a kettle, the public are added in through foley.

Experience

The viewing experiences of films and TV has changed dramatically over past 50 even 10 years with video piracy becoming so popular in the modern age. The best possible experience to see a film still remains to be the cinema but due to video piracy people would rather download films for free then to see them in the cinema. The cinema experience remains to be the best due to large scale screens, imax screens and the surround sound systems in which they use in the cinemas. But cinema experience at home has caught up massively with the introduction of HD TV and Blu Ray films allowing people at home to see films in the highest quality with up to date sound not only this home cinema systems are also popular allowing people to get the best sound out of their movies and making it closer to the cinema experience. Not only this people can now watch films ‘On-The-Go’ with hand held devices such as phones and ipads allowing people to buy and download films to these devices and allowing to watch them anywhere in the world.

The difference between cinema and home is still massive as now sound system and screens are bigger and more powerful and perfectly placed to beat that. Video Piracy is slowly ruining the cinema experience and people are starting to prefer poor quality sound and visuals then cinema.

Audio Components

Foley – this is recorded sound after the film is filmed. Their job role will be to watch the film and find areas in which they can certain sounds for instance a horse galloping they will try to add emphasis on this by making the sound themselves in a studio by maybe getting some shoes and hay or mud and simply galloping in time with the horse and then edit this in. So Foley is sounds recorded by using certain objects.

Studio Recording – Is used for adding in voice overs and narrators to the film or TV Show. It can also be used for when filming a musical so the cast will pre record them singing then mime when filming and then just edit it all in. Programs like The Frozen Planet is Narrated by David Attenborough he would record all he needs for the show then go into a studio and put in his narrative when needed to tell the story.

Location Recorded – This is simply recording sound on site for example dialogue recorded between to characters. And recording in certain location to get the right sound effects as well. If you was to have a scene in a Restaurant they may go to a Restaurant and record the noise of the gave then edit this in to the film or show to make it feel real.

The impact this will have the audience wouldn’t be massive as they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference on these different uses of sounds but it will have a big impact on the fact it will make what they’re watching feel more real.

Diegetic & Non-Diegetic

Diegetic – Diegetic sound is live sound so the characters in the show or program will be able to hear it for example dialogue with another character or music playing from a stereo

Non Diegetic – Non Diegetic sound is the opposite to diegetic in the fact that the characters cant hear it and the audience can for example soundtrack playing over the characters or a voice over/narrative.

Sometimes they can crossover though for example a song playing on a stereo that song could then play through and crossover to another scene and become non diegetic.

These sounds are used very well in order to created different ambience, especially non diegetic. This is because different soundtracks can form different emotions. For example a sad scene can be made more emotional by adding in a soft violin or piano to emphasis on the sadness of the scene.

Comparison

I believe single camera is a better way to film then multi camera for few reasons. I think when filming single camera because it is one shot at a time the director is able to get a much better feel to the shot and have it exactly how he wants and watch it, where as a multi camera their will be multiple shots and angles and the director can't make sure every shot is exactly how he would want it. I also think multi camera may sound easier to film in front of but for an actor i think it makes it more difficult having to know where too look for 3 or 4 different cameras at the same time and so I think a single camera would be far more efficient then a multi camera.