Interpreting My Research So Far

What I Intended to Find Out

When I undertook my research for the short film, I hoped to discover how sounds could creatively add to the atmosphere of a scene, by using relatively simple music software. I wanted to better understand how to utilise sound and effects, to augment an initial idea. I wanted to experiment with different types of pedals, settings and instrumental ensembles, (mainly with synthesisers) to create the sounds that I wanted to make for the short film.

What I Found Out

I mainly researched a multitude of short films to take inspiration from, which included 'No Through Road', 'The War of the Worlds' and 'Kairo'. I also researched the film 'Baby Driver', which makes amazing use of diegetic and non-diegetic music, using unorthodox methods to intersperse the two. Strangely enough, diegetic music is often edited into the production in the post-edit and is made to sound like it is for example, in the corner of the room.

How The Research Helped Me

The research that I undertook helped me to understand how to use cultural conventions to impact the film in such a way that would compliment the interests of my generation, looking at what they would want to see in a short film. Figuring out which ideas struck a chord with audiences, was done by looking at comment sections of YouTube videos including scenes from the films I researched as secondary research.

How This Helped My Ideas Develop

Looking at Chiaroscuro, as well as 'The War of the Worlds', helped me to focus on amplifying and emphasising the differences between light and dark in our short film. I considered how I could use minimal light in the short film, to stand out in dark scenes, to give power to the lights I chose to use in the scene. Using lights as codes was also inspired by 'The War of the Worlds', with red being used in the short film to represent critical levels of danger.

Further Required Research

I will need to further research the production of sound effects for film, as my role in the short film became more and more centralised around sound effects rather than music. In spite of this, sound effects were created using music software and are all technically musical notes, varied and modulated in ways that made them appear as sound effects.