Sweeney Todd music annalysis

The sound in this changes various times within the clip, which changes the atmosphere completely through the scene.

At the beginning when Sweeney is watching the judge come towards the barbers, music is played using a violin which builds up tension as it gets faster and louder. the sound of the character walking up the steps and entering the shop, making the bell ring also adds tension as the character is getting closer. the music dulls down as they have a conversation with slight sounds of violins underneath the dialogue. the creaky floorboards that moan when the characters walk across also add effect as it incorporates the surroundings into the sound.

The mood switches when Sweeney starts to talk to the judge as a real customer, as the sound of a harp sounds over the dark music which gives a smooth transition but a strong change of atmosphere.

the dark sound of violins cut out when the characters begin to sing and the overlay of music is left with harp music.

The characters begin to whistle and hum to the music which brings the music closer into the clip rather than just overlaying it on top.

The music takes a sudden change after this, as the sound of violins is brought back into the clip which begins to build up the tension once again.

Sweeney goes to fetch his knife, and the sound of the knife being unfolded is exaggerated with a high pitch noise. this same noise is repeated in the background numerous times whilst Sweeney is singing.

The music suddenly jumps back to happy when the judge talks, and then goes back to the dark music when he goes back down, as if the judge is interrupting.

The music begins to get louder and the tones begin to stretch longer as Sweeney rings the blade to the judges neck, then all of a sudden a happy tune pitches in and the dark music is cut out and Sweeney simply shaves the judge, although the audience were to expect the worst due to the reputation of the character.

The sound of the blade that was incorporated before in the film was still repeated in the background within the sound of happy flutes, which subtly reminds the audience of the sharp blade he is still holding.

The music still pays joyfully as the characters sing, but as sweeny brings the blade to the characters neck the music begins to sound sinister, however the characters still sing the words which makes the transition of happy to horror music smooth and subtle.

Final Film

Final film

I like this shot of the abbey as it shows the audience some strong Gothic architecture which was the main aim of our film.

A problem we faced in making this shot, is that we did not get hold of the Abbey until the day, which limited us to how long we could film before the public came in. We should have contacted the Abbey before the day of filming to allow us to plan our filming around the arrangements we would have made.
The main problem with the film is that the footage we captured was shakey. therefor this was hard to edit together and may not be easy to watch. If i had to film again i would plan more still shots using a tripod to balance out the movement of the other shots. Using a tripod would also allow me to use lost of different filming techniques such as panning and zolly shots. Another problem we faced whilst filming was the fact that we were filming in public places. The best way to overcome this is to go at a quiet time. However, as we went to one of our locations later in the day when there were less pedestrians and cars about, it began to get dark. This limited us to a short time of filming as the camera wasn't picking up the footage we wanted, However, it did give our film and eerie effect. Some of our footage was ruined because one of the members of our groups legs can be seen in the shot. This was because we rushed this shot which didn't give us time to clear the area. It is important to make sure there are no distractions that can be seen on camera when filming, so we should have been more aware of obstructions before we started shooting.
An ongoing problem we had when filming, was bringing a battery with us. On multiple occasions we had to run back to college to collect the battery that we had forgotten, which limited the time we had to film. Next time our main priority before leaving will be to make sure we bring everything with us and double check before we leave to our filming destination.

Editing 2

Today, whilst watching our rough edit, we realized that we needed more still footage in our film to balance out the moving shots. We also needed to record some sound for our film, so Oliver and Liam went out with a microphone, whereas Faii, Daniel and I went to record some still camera shots.

Once we arrived at our first destination we realised we had forgotten to bring a battery, so Daniel ran back to college to get one while me and Faii planned out the shot. By the time Daniel arrived back, we only had 10 minutes left to get our shot. If I had to go out again, I would check that we had everything packed in the box that we would need for the day to avoid forgetting anything.

We did manage to get the footage, but it did not have the effect we wanted int he film so we didn't use it. We should have planned out the shot we wanted that would have fit in the film.

Edward Scissorhands

'Edward Scissor hands' Is a Gothic love story about an unfinished creation of a man with scissors for hands. He is removed from his isolated attic located at the top of a Gothic castle placed on top of a hill, to live with a suburban family. When 'Pegg' finds Edward in his castle, her pastel lavender shaded clothes show a high contrast compared to the darkness of the castle. this contrast is reflected when Edward scissor hands enters suburbia.
Much like the story of Frankenstein, Edward is hated by the town for the way he looks, and by accidentally cutting Kim's finger with his scissors, is referred to as 'Satan' and is chased out the town. Another film that could be compared with this, is Beauty and the Beast, as it also shows that love conquers appearance.

The atmosphere and mood differentiates throughout the film. The small, pastel suburbia with painted houses shows a constant happiness throughout the town. The small windows also show a sense of paranoia that people have in this other wise perfect village. This is a strong contrast in comparison to Edwards castle.

From the town, it looks as if a dark shadow is cast over the hill in the otherwise sunny town. the clean cut town is a lot different to the castle which looks ragged and neglected.

However, past the gates, the happiness that surrounds the castle is a repeat of the town. The bright colours and beautiful sculptures begin to tell the story of Edward, which contradict his appearance.


The film differs from 'classic' horror films, as the 'horror' is not only shown in the typically Gothic castle, and Edward, bus also comes from the 'perfect' people living in the suburbia. The only horror characteristic of Edward is his hands, however the bad things he does with them are always accidents. The suburbans reaction to these accidents shows the real evil.

The music used at the beginning of the film uses a 79 musicians to create a mysterious piece of music which gives a scary eerie feel. The song played during the scene when Patt goes to the castle is mysterious yet playful, which combines the atmosphere of the happy character in the scary surroundings.

Editing

Today we started to edit our films. We imported all of our clips from the hard drive into our folders and then imported them onto Final cut pro.

Displayed was a list of locations, and inside was all the clip we took from that location. Once we decided which part of the clip we wanted, we created a starting point by pressing ‘I’ for input, and selected a finish point by clicking O for output

Once we had done this for all of the clips, we decided a rough order for them. By selecting a clip and dragging it, you can arrange the order of the clips.

The problems I faced during the process, was that half way through a clip there was a shot of someone’s legs. I had to cut the clip before the legs were seen, and join on another similar clip. This was easily done by using the input and output tools. However it was hard to find a point where the clips could join without effecting the smoothness of the clip. If we had the chance to film again, I would make sure there were no unwanted objects in shot.

Filming week 2

Today we needed to finish off filming. we had arranged to visit our 2 inside locations, Bath Abbey and St.Micheal's church. However we still had not got in contact with Charles Curnock from Bath abbey to discuss times, so i rang him up and he told me that my group could film between 9 and 10. It was already 9:30 so we rushed to the Abbey to film, however i got a phone call telling me that we had left the battery for our camera back at the college, so Liam and Oliver had to rush back and get it. By the time they got back we only had 15 minutes to film and the public were already starting to enter the hall. Because of this we could not get the shot we intended, therefore we had to make do by making it another running through shot, and decided to come back at 4 to continue filming when it was less busy. After getting the shots, we went St.Micheal's to continue filming.
We were told that only 3 of us were allowed to film upstairs due to lack of space, so Liam, Oliver and I decided that we would go. We had already planned our shot when we visited St.Micheal's so it did not take a lot of time, however the camera wasn't picking up the silhouettes if the surrounding buildings out the window, so we had to work out how to change from outside mode to inside mode half way through our shot. Once we had got our shot we decided to leave, however i saw an opportunity to get a good shot, so i took the camera back up on my own and shot it. I feel that this was a good idea, has I was taking advantage of the location, and i feel the shot will be useful when making our film. The only problem that we encountered today, was public in the Abbey, but the rest of the day was very productive and i feel we have enough footage to create our film.

Filming

4/12/09

Today was the first day of filming for our Gothic films. Firstly we had to learn how to use the cameras. Me and Oliver were the first to learn the basics of filming, but then Daniel and Liam also had a go so we could share the filming between us. I found it easy to pick up the camera skills such as using the iris to adjust the light let into the camera lens. Oliver then practiced running down the college stairs for a test. we repeated this a couple of times, giving Oliver tips on how to improve the filming. This wasn't as successful as we planned, as students kept wanting to walk up the stairs. This reflects one of the problems we could face in the real location. Once we showed Sara our test shot of running down the stairs, we were able to go to the real location to put the skills we learned into practice. One problem we encountered is that another filming group had arranged to film on Walcot street steps at the same time, so we had to be quick with filming so we didn't hold them up. however this wasn't a big issue as we got the shot we wanted after only a few shots. Secondly, we went to the walkway up to Pultney bridge. one of the problems we faced is that as its a public pathway, a lot of pedestrians walked into our shot, so we had to work around them. Another problem we encountered is that there was a safety buoy attached to the railings, so we had to avoid getting this into our shot. Originally, we had arranged to film in the Abbey, however we did not get in contact with them in time, so had to postpone this until the week after. We also decided that we would postpone the visit to st.Michael's church until the week after also. This meant we needed to find a new location to film, that would be covered in our filming agreement locations. We went to a church down the road from where we were, which we decided would be a good location to film. Going here slightly changed the outlook of how we wanted our film to look like, we decided the 'character' was being chased,which would add more of a horror element to our film. However it was getting dark and the camera was finding it hard to focus, so we decided to finish. Overall the day was very productive, as we finished both our outside shots, but also got a new location added in as well. the main problem encountered was the public, therefor we need to try and arrange to film in less busy times next week.