Unit 12: Final analysis report

Introduction

In this report I am going to be writing about all the skills/techniques and research I have done over the last 7 week for my unit 12 specialist study research/experimentation, for example I have created a mind map about what I already know about a certain discipline then created another after researching more into my certain discipline using the internet, I have also experimented with the effect music has on a certain movie scene. I will be talking about what research I have done each week and talk about what I have learned from my research and how I can apply the information to my final major project. I will also be writing about the contextual perspectives of sound in films for example the historical factors of sound in film.

contextual perspectives of my chosen discipline

Sound in film

During all the research and experiments through the weeks I have also been looking into the history of my chosen discipline, music in film. I did this so that I knew how sound started appearing in film during and after the use of pianos or orchestras, What I have learnt is that a man called Lee De Forest was a pioneer in the development of sound on film. In 1906 he invented a audion tube which became a key element in the development of talking motion pictures, radio broadcasting and many others. when he started focusing on using his invention for films in 1919 and in 1922 he created the De Forest Phonofilm Company and created many short sound films.

Week 1-2

During the first couple of weeks we were thinking about who we were and what we like so we created mind maps about what I love which included hobbies and things I love, for example I love sports so I added rugby and football to the mind map because they are the specific sports I love. Last year we made a similar mind map that was about me, and I used the information I put on there to think of an idea for my final major project, I put together to of my favourite things (rugby and animation) and I created 3 animations using different techniques using a video of me using a rugby skill. This year the mind map was different because we had to add what we knew about the hobby/interest for example I added what team I support for rugby and football and what my favourite movie was to film.

In the second week we then had to try and find out more about ourselves so we first planned and did interviews with another student in a different media course so that we could find more information about ourselves from another person’s views and we could do the same for them. We talked about are past projects and what we were thinking about doing this year for our final major project and after we finished the interview we had to get feedback from the interviewer and note down everything he said about me. Another way we tried to find out more about ourselves was by taking a personality test and answer questions to see what personality category we were in, I first answered the questions by myself and I found out that I was in the category ENFP (campaigner) which means I am enthusiastic, creative and sociable. We then had another student from the same course take the test for us on their opinions, after he did the test he gave me the results and it said that I was an ISFP (adventurer) which means that I am a flexible and charming artist, always ready to explore and experience new things. There were a few parts of the personality category I didn’t believe where true for example in the campaigner category it says that I am very popular which I’m not so it isn’t 100% accurate but there are a lot of similarities. After I read the page I took notes and listed all the things that were true and some stand out things that weren’t true.

Week 3

During week 3 we focused on finding and using new research skills to use in the future for our final major project, We focused on a specific subject to research which was skateboarding, we first had to create a mind map in groups on everything we already knew about skateboarding and then share that information with the rest of the class, after everyone had shared their information and also collected the new information from the other groups, we then watched a documentary about how the popularity of skateboarding rose and who the main faces of skateboarding where at the start, as the documentary was going we all took notes so that after the documentary finished we could add that additional information to the mind map, when the documentary finished we talked about what happened and talked about what the key information we got from the documentary was, after we finished talking about the documentary we then had to each research a certain subject of skateboarding (e.g. famous names, types of skateboards etc.) and research on the internet that certain subject and as a group create a new mind map with all the new information on it that we had learned from both the documentary and the research we did. We then used what we had learned and started doing research connected to our own discipline, for example I looked at the history of sound in film because for my final major project idea I want to create music to go with a piece of video so I should learn how music/sound first came into films so that I know how it all started like how we researched how skateboarding first became a thing.

Week 4

In week 4 we started doing experiments for our discipline, we had to start thinking about what we wanted to do for our final major project and see if there was anything we could experiment with to help us with our final outcome. We all first had to experiment with the theme of fear, so I decided to experiment with how the music in horror films creates the feeling of fear, I decided to find examples of music in horror films and explain how the music in certain scenes creates the feeling of fear, I chose to use the cage attack scene from jaws, the stabbing scene from psycho, and the “here’s Jonny” scene from the shining, I then used these scenes to experiment with the music, I watched the scenes again without sound to see if the scene creates a different or the same effect, I found out that with most horror scenes the use of the music is a key element to create the feeling of fear because it is used to create tension and to surprise the viewer in a scene.

After using all the skills I learnt from my first experiment I then did another that was similar except I changed the theme of fear to intensity, I wanted to see if an intense fight scene from a movie would create a different feeling if the music was changed to a darker/sadder song.

I used the fight scene from the movie Avengers age of Ultron and then replaced the intense music with the song mad world from the film Donnie Darko, I put the scene and the song together using adobe premiere and once I finished I went around asking others what they thought of the video and how big the change of feelings where, majority said that the Donnie Darko song makes the scene feel like they were going to lose where as in the original scene with the original music, it made them look like they were going to win, and the use of the slow motion in both versions helped the scene become sad or intense.

Week 5

During week 5 we carried on with the experimentation parts of our project only this week we weren’t focusing on themes, we were told to start doing any kind of experimentation to help us with our final major project, so I decided that because my project idea at the moment is music based, I thought I would find a few piano pieces in famous films and first break it down and describe the feeling it makes first, then I would go around to other students and see what their thoughts were on the music and what feelings they thought the music created.

The songs I chose to use were mad world from Donnie Darko, Hedwig’s theme from Harry Potter, and He’s a pirate from Pirates of the Caribbean. All three of the songs where piano versions because for my final major project I will be using a piano to create my own music so I thought using piano versions would mean that I will get better answers and information for when I create my music. After listening to all three songs by myself I knew that all three where very different, all three created different emotions and feelings for example Mad World creates a feeling of sadness and depression, where Hedwig’s theme is more mystical and magical, and lastly I’m a pirate was more intense and exciting. I then went around to other people in my class and asked them to listen to the three songs in the same order I listened to them and then I noted down the reactions and emotions they told me they felt while listening to the songs. I then collected all the information and put my findings into a blog post.

Week 6

In week 6 after we had finished the experiments we had to identify two practitioners one early and the other contemporary who were relevant to my discipline and find out as much as I can about them, because my discipline is music in film/games I chose to look at two of the biggest game music composers, one was Martin O’Donnell who worked for bungie on the music for the Halo games, and the other was Koji Kondo who works for Nintendo on the music for many of their most popular games including the Super Mario Bros franchise and The Legend Of Zelda franchise. I first looked at Martin O’Donnell’s work and found out how he came from working at a film and television business to creating one of the most iconic game themes in history. He also worked on the music for another big game franchise called destiny before he was fired from bungie “without cause”. Now he is currently founder and audio director of a game company called Highwire Games and is currently working on a new game called Golem for the PlayStation 4 console.

I then looked into the history of Koji Kondo, before he joined Nintendo he studied at the art planning department of Osaka University of arts, at first he wasn’t particularly dedicated to music even though he had been learning how to play the electrical organ from the age of five, he had experience in composition as well creating pieces of music using a piano and a computer, he then saw that a game company called Nintendo was looking for a composer for their games so he applied and successfully got the job. He then went on to create music for many iconic games like the famous arcade game Punch Out in 1983, Super Mario Bros in 1985 and The legend Of Zelda in 1986. He is currently still working for Nintendo as a sound/music supervisor for Nintendo’s future releases.

Conclusion

Over the last 7 weeks I have learnt a lot about my chosen discipline and it has helped me plan out a list of ideas for my final major project, using the information I got while experimenting helped me the most because it helped me with finding out what kind of music creates a certain emotion and I can take that information and apply it when I start to create my own music, for example having the music slower and using a minor scale makes it sound depressing or sad like the Donnie Darko song where using major scales and making the song faster makes it exciting and intense like He’s a pirate from Pirates of the Caribbean. The rest of the research for example the history of sound in films or the practitioner’s research will help me to see how music in films and games has improved over time and helps me see how people in my discipline got to where they are now. I have also learned more research skills I can use to continue researching more chosen discipline and collect more information so that I have work I can go back to if I’m ever stuck during my final major project. Also using the information I got from the interviews and the personality test I know have a better understanding of what I should work on while doing my project for example the personality test said that I stress easily and I agree with it so I now know that I should keep calm and keep up to date with all my work so that I don’t stress.

Bibliography

YouTube. (2017). Sound Film History. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU2sAlGFI5I [Accessed 19 Apr. 2017].

YouTube. (2017). The History of Sound at the Movies. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot5IryUt9SM [Accessed 19 Apr. 2017].