Whiplash (2014)

One of the best films of 2014 – Whiplash has managed to have wins in prestigious awards this year (which J.K. Simmons won 33 awards for best supporting actor, including Academy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTA; and wins in best film editing and sound mixing in Academy Awards and BAFTA).

Reason I chose this film: This is a film filled with music and tension – which are both related to my field of study. This film is not included in the list of winners of original score in any award because the majority of the music used in this film is from jazz pieces that were played a long time ago.

Composer: Justin Hurwitz

Sound mixer(s): Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley

Genre: drama

Summary: The film tells the story of an university student who plays the drums and finds himself as a student of the most abusive, insulting and strict music teacher there is.

This film is filled with tension and unexpected turns. The next scene is never what you would expect it to be – one moment our protagonist (Andrew) is doing great, doing everything right – then his teacher (Fletcher) just throws a chair at his face for not being “on his time”. The next scene you would expect him to be yelled at – but then Fletcher just comes in with a smile and sits him down for some drinks. The constant question of what’s next, the things that happen to the protagonist is way beyond what we would expect.

The viewers sympathises with Andrew as he goes to class every day, not knowing what his teacher would do to to him. We are shown from the beginning of the film that the teacher, Fletcher, can either be a nice guy or a total bully, and can change his attitude within 1 minute. At some point in our life, we have encountered someone that does something like this to us. But this teacher – he’s not only like that person, but everything he does goes over the top. He slaps, demoralises, throws chair at people. Andrew bleeds. Fletcher doesn’t care. Andrew gets in a car accident, nearly faints, drops his drumstick. Fletcher tells him that he’s done. By sympathising with Andrew, we feel the tension, the pressure that he feels; the pressure to become “one of the greats”, he knows that this teacher, as horrifying as he is, is the key to become “one of the greats”, by getting his approval. Then Andrew finally earns it. For a day. Then everything is back to zero. Then he gets a chance again, he thinks that this time, he can get Fletcher’s approval. But does the film lets it go onto a happy ending as simple as that?

Discussion about music and tension

Jazz music is integral to the film’s story – the creators of music in this film is the characters themselves. The main character plays drums, not that great at it – but we can see him becoming gradually better, and culminating at the final scene of the film, the 9-minute drum solo – the climax of the film. What’s special about this particular climax is that it is also the resolution of the whole film (in fact, the resolution is the last 15 seconds which begins after the climax/drumming stops). In 9 minutes, tension builds up quickly and the audience is unsure what is happening next, because what’s happening on screen and the relationship/interaction between characters changes constantly. Here is the list of key things that happen during the 9 minutes and the impression that it gives to the viewers.

• Andrew is humiliated by Fletcher, leaves stage, ashamed in front of the audience, and feels betrayed by Fletcher [Viewers think this is the end for Andrew]
• Andrew gets a hug from his father off-stage [Viewers might be lead to believe this is the conclusion to the film]
• Andrew turns around and walks back to the stage, confidently, to his dad’s, Fletcher’s and viewers’ surprise. He can’t possibly do anything since he can’t play the songs that others are playing [Viewers are surprised]. Question is raised to what he is going to do? Is he going to improvise and play along to a song that he doesn’t know perfectly?
• Andrew starts playing. The drum begins. Fletcher is interrupted mid-sentence and turns around. [Viewers’ thoughts as well as everyone in the film’s are raising: what the hell is Andrew doing?
• Andrew tells the double bassist what to do. He follow’s Andrew’s lead, then other musicians jump in. Fletcher is losing control of his own band, to this kid, this failure of a drummer that he just humiliated off stage. He reluctantly starts to join in and conduct the band. [Viewers are now hooked into the jazz song]. Fletcher shakes his head. He’s not happy.
• Fletcher is very unhappy. He comes over to the drum kit and tells Andrew, “I’m gonna gouge out your motherfucking eyes”. Andrew responds by hitting the cymbal onto Fletcher’s face, knocking him away. [Viewers are now expecting something very bad to happen to Andrew, possibly another revenge from Fletcher, or physical harm]. Andrew just continues. He’s doing his thing. He’s enjoying it. This is his stage now, not Fletcher’s.
• Throughout the scene, viewers are also very concerned if Andrew would make a mistake. It would really be his end, possibly as a drummer.
• Slowly but surely, Fletcher is sinking in to this act, enjoying the music. He stops worrying about Andrew. Fletcher might be sure that Andrew is not messing up his stage anymore because he has his pride to save. Fletcher is nodding his head to the tempo of the drumming. He’s smiling, but not to Andrew.
• The song finishes as Fletcher finishes his arm gesture. But Andrew hasn’t stopped. Fletcher turns his head and lets his arm down. [Again, Fletcher, other musicians, the audience and viewers are wondering what Andrew is doing again.]
• The light turns off and back on again. Andrew is still playing. Fletcher comes over and asks, “Andrew, what are you doing, man?”. His usage of word is much more nicer now. Andrew responds, “I’ll cue you” (As in, trust me, I got this. Follow my lead). Fletcher slowly nods. He thinks to himself, maybe I can trust the kid this time. He has been doing okay so far. He quickly heads back to his spot on the stage. The spotlight is only on Andrew now. This is his stage. Everyone else is in the dark or off screen.
• The drumming has been going on so long. Andrew is sweating heavily. Viewers think – is he tired? Is he going to make a mistake? What will he do next?
• His cymbal falls off. Fletcher fixes it for him. [Viewers totally believe that Fletcher is finally trusting Andrew now.] He nods his head. And tells Andrew what to do next. They make eye contacts. The enemies have turned into allies. From teacher/student to fellow musicians. This is similar to the scene from earlier, where Fletcher disapproves of Andrew’s tempo. But this time, Andrew does it perfectly (on Fletcher’s time).
• Fletcher leaves the spotlight, leaving it for Andrew alone.
• The drumming finally stops. Andrew looks at Fletcher, waiting. The viewers are also waiting. Is Fletcher’s approval finally coming?
• Fletcher nods and smiles. He approves.
• Andrew smiles.
• Fletcher begins the next song by facing his hand upward and pointing at Andrew, in the way of “this is my Charlie Parker”.

The last scene also refers to many of the things that happened earlier in the film, such as what Fletcher wants in someone in order for them to be successful, such as “never to be discouraged” (humiliated off stage). Andrew does it all in 9 minutes.

Finding Neverland (2004)

Composer: Jan A. P. Kaczmarek

Genre: semi-biographical, drama

Summary: The film about playwright J. M. Barrie and tells the story of how Peter Pan was written.

Discussion about usage of music

The majority of the score is classical music – this is due to the fact that the film is about the story of how Peter Pan was written. Many of the scenes were plays, the acting of plays, or just Johnny Depp (James Barrie)’s character’s imaginary thoughts about real-life scenarios as plays. The score also helps build the character’s personality as a man who has a mind of a young boy (a play on the full name of the Peter Pan play: the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up) – childish and imaginative. The music also helps build the feeling of a wonderful, perfect world where nothing is wrong, but in reality it is not to everyone in the story (James – unhappy marriage, Sylvia – is a widow, constantly tired and sick, the children – fatherless and their mother unwell) , but James constantly reminds everyone to use their imagination to create a better world in their mind.

The music in this film does not entirely contribute to building the story, its only effect is to establish the viewers’ emotion, the same way music is used in theatre plays – because the film is about theatre plays. It gives the feeling of magic, as the same way people feel about Peter Pan and his Neverland. The score accompanies the scene where Sylvia dies, where the metaphor of Neverland being magical land where dead people go; the film doesn’t actually show her dying, but instead walks into Neverland.

Because the film is a semi-biographical film, the story is very simple in terms of building up, it only has a few key points: James meets children, James spends time with children and their mother, James gets inspired to write Peter Pan, James finishes Peter Pan, Peter Pan gets shown in theatre, children’s mother dies.

Selection of 40 films for film score study (Updated)

The best way, in my opinion, to study the effects of music in film is by watching the films which are highly regarded for their score. Every year, the Academy Award and Golden Globe respectively chooses a film that is outstanding for having an original film score that works well.

[Year]: [Title] [Composer]

2014: The Theory of Everything (Jóhann Jóhannsson)

2013: Gravity (Steven Price) and All is Lost (Alex Ebert)

2012: Life of Pi (Michael Danna)

2011: The Artist (Ludovic Bource)

2010: The Social Network (Trent Reznor)

2009: Up (Michael Giacchino)

2008: Slumdog Millionaire (A. R. Rahman)

2007: Atonement (Dario Marianelli)

2006: Babel (Gustavo Santaolalla) and The Painted Veil (Alexandre Desplat)

2005: Brokeback Mountain (Gustavo Santaolla) and Memoirs of a Geisha (John Williams)

2004: Finding Neverland (Jan A. P. Kaczmarek) and The Aviator (Howard Shore)

2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Howard Shore)

2002: Frida (Elliot Goldenthal)

2001: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Howard Shore) and Moulin Rouge (Craig Armstrong)

2000: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Tan Dun) and Gladiator (Hans Zimmer)

1999: The Red Violin (John Corigliano) and The Legend of 1900 (Ennio Morricone)

1998: Life is Beautiful (Nicola Piovani), Shakespeare in Love (Stephen Warbeck) and The Truman Show (Burkhard Dallwitz and Philip Glass)

1997: Titanic (James Horner) and The Full Monty (Anne Dudley)

1996: The English Patient (Gabriel Yared) and Emma (Rachel Portman)

1995: The Postman (Luis Enriquez Bacalov), Pocahontas (Alan Menken) and A Walk in the Clouds (Maurice Jarre)

1994: The Lion King (Hans Zimmer)

1993: Schindler’s List (John Williams) and Heaven & Earth (Kitaro)

1992: Aladdin (Alan Menken)

1991: Beauty and the Beast (Alan Menken)

1990: Dances with Wolves (John Barry) and The Sheltering Sky (Ryuichi Sakamoto)

1989: The Little Mermaid (Alan Menken)

Notes:

The following composers appeared more than once: Gustavo Santaolalla (2), Howard Shore (3), Hans Zimmer (2), John Williams (2), and Alan Menken (4).

From 1995 to 1998, categories of Academy Awards were divided into ‘dramatic’ score and ‘musical or comedy score’.

Editing workshop

1) Research and review three different types of editing sequences. Explain the affect of each type of editing upon the audience. Provide examples of when this type of editing has been used effectively.

Freeze-frame

Freeze-frame is when a shot is frozen in time to create a still photograph. It is usually accompanied by narration to provide personal thoughts, which in turn give more insight to the scene or the plot of the movie. It is also used to resemble a photograph if a flash-bulb cut is used to create a photo-taking action. Freeze framing can also be used to capture moments that are considered significant to the film.

Slow-down/speed-up

Slow-down and speed-up is when the speed of the film is manipulated in post-production. They are commonly used as a special effect.

In the film X-Men: First Class, the character Quicksilver possesses the ability to run at super-human speed. In order achieve this effect, all other characters and objects were slowed down and Quicksilver was sped up, creating the illusion of the character moving at superhuman speed.

Slow-down is used to slow down time, which a camera in real time cannot. These types of scenes are usually shot with high-speed cameras that allow high frame per second shooting. Other than being used as a special effect, it can be used as a technique to build tension, such as slowing down a car before hitting a character, which during the slowed down time, thoughts can be expressed, such as the dying characters’ last words, or the reaction of other characters.

Photo montage

As its name suggest, this type of editing inserts a number of still shots into a short duration of time. It usually creates the idea of memories or old photograph, providing a little back story to a character’s past.

2) Research and review three different types of cut.

L-cut

An L-cut is when one shot changes/is cut to another but the audio remains from the first shot. It can be used as an effective tool to hide an obvious transition, or helping with editing an dialogue scene when a scene is shot with a single camera using multiple takes. The L-cut can also be used to create an effect, such as the dialogue continuing but the scene can shift to something completely different from the previous shot. A notable example is a scene in the TV show Friends, where the character Ross screams loudly, but the scene cuts from inside the house to the exterior of a museum where birds fly away, to create the feeling that the character screamed so loud that birds from miles away heard him and flew.

Cross-cut

Cross-cutting is used to establish actions happening at the same time, in different locations. It is a tool to build suspense where actions taking place at multiple places. For example, when two characters are walking but the audience is afraid that they might meet. Cross-cutting is heavily used in Christopher Nolan’s film Inception where it is used as the film’s central concept of “dream within a dream”, where actions happen at the same time, but rather than in different locations, they happen in different dreams. In Inception, both cross-cutting and slow-down were used to demonstrate the “science” of dreams inside dreams, of what’s happening at the same time and explain the difference in speed of each dream. Other than Inception, Nolan also uses cross-cutting in The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises near the end of the film to build tension towards a climax. Other than building tension, cross-cutting is commonly used in scenes with characters talking to each other on the phone, to compare their reaction or to show what’s happening at their respective locations.

Match cut

Match cut is a type of cut where shot is cut to the next but they match graphically in order to maintain action or create a metaphorical meaning. A very famous example of a match cut is the one in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, where a bone is tossed into the sky and it turns into a spaceship, resembling a jump through million of years. Another example is in Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, where a man pulls a woman from a cliff, and it cuts to him pulling her onto a bed on the train, which cuts through time – the cut means that he had successfully saved her from falling off the cliff and they got married some time after that. Another match cut by Hitchcock was in Psycho, where blood is flowing down the drain of the tub, then it fades into the dying character’s eye, as the shape and colour of the drain matches the shape and colour of the eye.

3) Using your own footage, demonstrate the cuts you discuss show you understand how to appropriately apply these cuts to your own work.

I will answer this question in the following entries regarding my experience with Orchid.

My experience with UEA’s Orchid

From summer 2014, I have been working with a group of students from University of East Anglia in a Vietnamese cultural show project. To prepare for the show, which took place on January 31 in Norwich, the group began preparing for a script and shooting a short film in order to promote for the show in August 2014. Initially, the idea was to create a music video that accompanies scenes that resembles acting from the theatre performance.

8/2014

Script draft – trailer idea – shooting begins. After shooting was finished, I was asked to edit for the project. I was not present during any of the shooting, so I could not prevent any issues that might cause problems during editing. Below are some examples that were mistakes during shooting that had to be fixed during the editing process.

Example shot 1:

Intention: fade from one scene to the next, fading away the male character only, keeping the rest of the shot in place.

The crew did not noticed the problems during shooting at all (especially the cameraman). Above I have circled three of the most notable differences between the two shots that make it harder for the editor to fix. The first circle shows that, there was a clear difference in time, and between the two shots, a motorbike entered, which would result in a motorbike being faded away if not fixed. The middle circle shows that, the cameraman obviously moved the camera between the two shots and forgot to place it exactly in the original position of the first shot. The last circle also shows that the cameraman moved the camera, and the window location changed.

Example of fixing shot 1:

The two rectangles were kept only since they were the biggest difference between the two shots (the second rectangle was needed because of their reflection on the wall). The rest remained parts of one single shot to make fading smoother.

Although I spent a lot of time fixing this scene, it still ended up being not perfect and was removed, and ultimately being replaced with an entirely new shot which was filmed 4 months later.

How things should have been done:

• The camera should not have moved at all
• If any visible changes occurred, the crew had to be aware of it.
• Shooting should have been done in a much shorter time to prevent any changes. This could have lead to bigger changes such as time of day (sun) and weather (rain or snow), which could ultimately lead to shooting at a different day, wasting money and time.

Example 2:

Initially, the group wanted an actress to lip-sync a song in the trailer, making it a music video-like short. Shots were filmed outside and the actress was asked to sing, but she did not really know the exact tempo of the song and it ended up being slightly different, and changed from time to time. A lot of editing was spent on changing the speed of the shots.

How things should have been done:

• Make sure the actress hears the tempo correctly by playing the song loudly so she can hear it.

12/2014

After months of fixing the scenes, I decided to tell the group to reshoot the whole thing for a two reasons:

• Footage was poorly shot
• Actor/actress changes. For some reason, the people who were portrayed in the trailer were completely different from those who were set to appear on stage
• Many things could be improved

After agreement, I went to Norwich to help with shooting.