FA7034 - Notes of Montage and Sound

‘La Jetee’ by Chris Marker (1962) – a very clever film.

• Really heavy narration, very dense atmosphere created by intense sounds (like a heartbeat)

• What’s happening in the ‘black line’ between frames? There’s something magical about it

• Digital videos have pixels (and not the idea of frame by frame), and there is therefore no ‘drama’ of the black line between ‘traditional filmic’ frames

Montage and Sound – Part 2

• Sound effects can add more depth to your work

• They are like the topping of a pizza, and can make it ‘really tasty’

• If sounds get louder and louder they can represent fear

• This can be related to cityscape, ‘construction’ sound – but what about nature and nostalgia in that sense? If it is more intense is the atmosphere happier?

• Get some sound effect libraries:

• Soundbible.com

• GR sites (archive sounds)

• Internet archive: digital library (sound)

Rotoscoping: Sound Effects & Rotocscoping

Waking Life (Dir. Richard Linklater, 2001) – is the main character dreaming or awake in the ‘real’ world. What is ‘real’?

• The rotoscoping technique was used effectively in Waking Life. As it is a film about the protagonist encountering different characters in his ‘dream’.

• Could the caravan have a dream-like quality through rotoscoping? What about a suggestion of characters? Mix it in with ‘real’ photography (backgrounds)?

• The background is always wobbly as if he is in an unstable, anxious dream land.

• Will a wobbly line be suggestive of other qualities as well as the caravan itself? What if only the background is wobbly and the caravan remains ‘real’? (I should try both techniques).