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Describe each of the three basic categories of sound (dialogue, sound effects, and music). Dialogue: “Spoken words by two or more characters in a scene” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs 2014) Sound effects: sounds other than speech that enhance the productions illusion of reality (Merriam- Webster) Music: Is very important for the success of films and is played at specific times during specific scenes. The score and the soundtrack of the movie are two entirely separate things. The score is music “played in the background of a scene while action is taking place.” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs 2014) The soundtrack a collection of songs used in the film sometimes inspired for the film specifically, and is on the CD, but not heard during the film. (Goodykoontz & Jacobs 2014) Explain how the different categories of sound are being used in your chosen film. Throughout the entire film of The Godfather has spoken dialogue between any of the characters throughout the film. There are numerous sound effects during the film, gun shots being fired when Vito is being shot, cars passing in the street, babies crying because of the sudden disturbance in the street when Vito is shot. You can hear cars and car horns going off in the street indicating a busy congested section of traffic in New York. You can hear the difference in the music that is played during the film. During the wedding you hear the band playing music that sets a happy/ celebratory mood to what is happening in the scene. Nino Rota composed a piece that became the theme song for The Godfather movie. This can be heard speed up or played at the original speed during dramatic and violent scenes, either during or leading up to them. Assess the impact of sound in establishing the theme. Sound becomes an association with something that is about to happen in a film. Nino Rota’s theme is one of those. After a few minutes of watching the film the viewers gain a sense of association of what is about to happen in the scene. Something serious is about to happen in the film when Nino Rota’s theme for The Godfather is played throughout the film. It prepares the viewer for what is about to happen. How does the use of sound inform the mood of the scene, or the film overall? As discussed earlier during the wedding scene in the beginning of the film, the band is playing songs that are happy and have a celebratory feel to them. The audience is meant to be in a happy optimistic mood during this time, a way of joining in the celebration of the wedding through feelings. When dramatic music is played the audience mood changes to expect something saddening, or sense something terrible is about to happen to one of the characters. Can you identify specific sounds in your film that allow you to infer a particular genre? When gunshots are heard you think of someone being killed or seriously injured. The gun shot sound depicts violence either in action films or gangster films. Gangster films have a high rate of violence and are usually acted out in gunfire. Since each category of sound may produce a range of effects, how might you characterize the effects in your film? For example, realistic and expected sound effects may have a different effect on a viewer than exaggerated or unexpected ones. I would characterize the effects in the film has acts of violence. Most of the sound effects have a negative connotation to them throughout the film. Some of them are expected sound effects and some are exaggerated. To refer to the scene where Vito was shot in the street again, you hear expected sound of a gun shot, then you hear one exaggerated gun shot go off that sounded like it ricocheted off of an object. The ricochet is an exaggerated unexpected sound. If you hear an actual bullet ricochet off an object it does not sound like what is depicted in the film. For a brief second I am reminded of an old western style movie where you hear that distinct ricochet sound, and it throws the mood of the scene for a quick second. Assess how the scene or sequence would play differently if you changed or removed a key category of sound. If they were to take out the gunshots, and all you saw was a gun and a person falling to the ground or clenching the area they were shot, the scene wouldn’t be as dramatic. The audience would not feel as strongly for those characters being shot as they would if they could hear and see it at the same time. References: Goodykoontz, B. & Jacobs, C.P. (2014). Film: From Watching to Seeing. San Diego, California: Bridgeport Inc  sound effects. 2015. In Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved March 14, 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sound%20effects  

Title: The Godfather

Writer: Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Released Year: 1972

Major Actors: Marlon Brando, Al Pachino, James Caan

Identify the type of lighting used in the film?

The film used low-key lighting by using just a “single source of light causing an extreme use of deep shadows with a high contrast between the brightest parts of the scene and the darkest parts, which were obscured in shadows.” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs 2014) For example all of the office scenes are very dark throughout the movie and the characters move in and out of the shadows. The low- key lighting cast a shadow over Don Corleone eyes when he was in his office that made him always look deep in thought through out the movie. As you can see in the following clip

What are the benefits of the style of lighting used?

Benefits of using low-key lighting in films is that it creates a serious mood, makes everything very intense, and draws the viewer into the scene. Since the lighting is so low it’s hard to see the scene so they are paying attention more to the characters that are speaking at the time.

How did this technique contribute to the theme?

The film had a very serious tone to it with it being a mob movie. All the meetings with the Don and the heads of the family are over very serious matters, and the low-key lighting set the mood for their meetings. The movie has a very dark vibe to it and a lot of violent scenes and the lighting plays into that.

How was the lighting technique suited to the genre of the film?

The film is a gangster movie and is very violent, so the lighting needed to be low- key like other gangster movies in it’s genre. It also helped with the seriousness of the meeting scenes. The Don always looked to be in deep thought because of the shadows that were cast over his eyes.

Compare how the scene would play if different choices had been made.

If this scene was shot with high-key lighting or three-point lighting it would not be the same at all. There would be no seriousness to the scene. It would never give off the impression of how important the Don is and what his role as the Godfather is, or the asking of the favors that people come into his study for. It would have not have been as mysterious and thought provoking if they used any other type of lighting.

References

Goodykoontz, B. & Jacobs, C.P. (2014)  Film: From Watching to Seeing. San Diego California: Bridgeport Education, Inc

Hamza Nazzal. 2013 Apr 25. the godfather the best scene [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i96VS_z8y7g

Official Trailer:

Title: WALL·E

Writer: Andrew Stanton (original story), Pete Docter (original story), Screenplay: Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon

Director: Andrew Stanton

Actors: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, and Fred Willard, MacInTalk, and John Ratzenberger

Year Released: 2008

Story: WALL·E is a 2008 movie based far into the future about a robot named WALL·E who was created for the sole purpose of cleaning up a now waste covered Earth. He falls in love with a robot named EVE who was sent to Earth to search for vegetation. He follows EVE into space on an adventure that ends up changing his destiny as well as the destiny for humanity.

Plot: The movie starts off by showing a waste covered Earth far in 2805 with a robot named WALL·E rummannging around the waste. WALL·E is a Waste Allocation Load Lifter designed to clean up trash on the planet created by the mega corporation Buy ‘n’ Large. Buy ‘n’ Large decides to abandon their plan of using the WALL·E robots and decides to shut them all down except for one. After living on the planet for so long by himself WALL·E begins to develop feelings and a sense of curiosity. He survives by replacing his own parts with units that he comes across while out roaming the planet.

One day while out roaming WALL·E discovers a small tiny plant in a refrigerator. Later on in the day as he is returning home from his day of work and rummaging a space ship arrives dropping off EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) who is sent to Earth by Buy ‘n’ Large to search for vegetation on Earth. WALL·E quickly falls in love with EVE who doesn’t want to give him the time of day, but eventually befriends WALL·E. WALL·E takes EVE back to his home and starts showing her all of his trinkets, while inside EVE spots the plant, grabs it, and places it inside of herself which sends her immediately into stand-by mode. While doing so this sends off a homing beacon to her ship that will come and retrieve her. WALL·E can’t understand why EVE shuts down and frantically tries every method he can come up with to wake EVE up. EVEs ship descends from the sky and picks EVE up and WALL·E clings to the outside of the ship and starts his adventure into space.

The ship lands at a space station called the Axiom where WALL·E follows EVE as she is taken from one location to the next through the Axiom. The Axiom is full of all different types of robots and it is discovered that the inhabitants who are the decedents of the original crew have become morbidly obese. They have relied on all the robots and never leave their hover chairs which come equipped with screens that they can view and communicate with others. The humans can not even get up by themselves and rely on the robots to pick them up and put them back into their chairs.

WALL·E follows EVE all the way to the bridge of the Axiom, the Captain is brought to the bridge and learns that by placing the plant into the holo- detector it will send the ship directly back to Earth so the humans can begin to recolonize it. The Captain has since heavily relied on the auto pilot robot called Auto. All of the auto pilot robots were programmed by Buy ‘n’ Large to destroy all vegetation found on Earth after the corporation wrongly identified that the planet could never be saved. Auto orders the Captains robot assistant GO-4 to destroy the plant.

With the plant no longer contained in EVE she is considered defective and hurried away to the repair ward to be fixed and WALL·E to be cleaned. WALL·E doesn’t understand the procedures being done on EVE and mistakes them for torture and tries to rescue her. By doing so WALL·E accidentally releases malfunctioning robots who were being kept for repairs in the robot jail. Security systems on board declare WALL·E and EVE as rogue robots. EVE becomes angry with WALL·E’s intentions and their identification as rogue robots, so she brings him to the escape pod to send him home. At this time in the escape pod hold they notice GO-4 placing the plant into a pod that is set for self destruct. WALL·E then enters the escape pod to try and save the plant and GO-4 launches the pod into space. WALL·E escapes from the pod with the plant before it explodes, and links back up with EVE, where they share a kiss and a dance in space.

They both make it back to the ship and bring the plant back to the Captain, where EVE’s images of Earth are surveyed and determined that the humans must be sent back to earth. Auto reveals his orders and stages a mutiny. He several tasers WALL·E when WALL·E tries to save the plant. EVE knows that the only parts that can repair WALL·E are back on Earth in his home, and she helps bring the plant to the holo- detector to start the hyper jump back to Earth. The Captain opens the holo- detector and fights Auto for control of the ship. Auto partially crushes WALL·E by closing the holo- detector on him. Auto becomes disabled and the Captain opens the holo- detector releasing WALL·E. EVE puts the plant into the holo- detector starting the hyper jump back to Earth.

After landing on Earth EVE takes WALL·E to his home to start repairs on him. Due to the damage and the amount of repairs done on WALL·E he automatically reboots himself back to his original programming of an emotionless waste compactor. EVE who becomes heartbroken gives WALL·E a goodbye kiss which instantaneously jolts WALL·E memories and his personality. WALL·E and EVE live happily ever after as the humans begin reconstruction of Earth.

Chronology: The film is show in chronological order. This helped make the film more meaningful to the audience and the end take away. Through out the film issues such as the amount of waste humans produce and obesity are brought up and these issues are occurring in the real world. During the movie it showed a depiction of what can happen to planet Earth because of how much human waste is built up, and obesity in a single population. In the end when the humans return back to earth they start becoming active again and walking around on their own. They re-plant the plant that was brought to the Axiom and teach their children about farming, and what can happen when a single plant is planted. The shot widens out and pans away from them over the terrain of Earth when you can see more plants growing on the barren earth. As the humans were out on Earth and walking around you could see a change in their mood from a bored and lazy mindset, to a proactive and happy mindset.

B. How are elements like character development or foreshadowing impacted by the choice of storytelling methods?

WALL·E’s character highly develops throughout the movie. WALL·E is this individual who has lived alone for so long with out any interaction and is scared of new things. As the movie progresses we see WALL·E fall in love with EVE and will do anything in his power new or old methods to protect her as well as the plant. He grows from this fearful character into a fearless one. EVE is a cold emotionless individual and you see her grow into a warm caring individual as the movie progresses.

If the film had followed a different presentation style, how would the general effect on the audience have been different?

If the film was shown non linearly I think it would change the whole idea of the movie. If we had started by seeing the Axiom and the humans living there it would depict the humans as choosing to live life on the Axiom with no thought of ever returning to Earth and to continue to live in space, because life is great there. And then changing direction to WALL·E cleaning and collecting trinkets and EVE searching for vegetation, taking the plant back to the ship to return to earth to rebuild it, I think it would be contradicting message.

WALL·E Movie trailer (2008). WALL·E Official Trailer [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alIq_wG9FNk

WALL·E Video clip (2010) WALL-E Space Dance [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8yAQhbvSd4