Conventions of editing and sound

Conventions of editing and sound

 



Editing and sound are both big parts of film making an storytelling. They both have key influences on the genre and additionally infer to the audiences how the film is that specific genre and why. When editing our film, some conventions of editing in sci-fi are to show passages of time and how the setting or characters are influenced and/or affected by this change. This is known as elliptical editing. Due to editing playing a key part in sci-fi, we have decided to focus on the time travel aspect and we will rewind key events that happen in the film and show how they unfold both with and without time travel to cause the butterfly effect. By showing what would happen and what actually happens due to time travel, this will infer to the audience how time travel has an influence on our characters and how it affects our characters. Through editing we can also apply an old fashioned green tinted filter for when our character travels back in time to emphasise that he's in a different period of time to what he was. Many science fiction films use filters similar to these for different effects for example Gravity uses a lot of filters to ensure they get the most crisp image of outer space possible.

 



Sound also plays a key part in the conventions of science fiction as many films use electronic music in sci-fi films to depict futuristic scenes. In addition to this they also use experimental music and non diegetic sounds to portray time travel happening. We will use non diegetic music and maybe some experimental music in our film to also indicate to the audience that our film is in the sci-fi genre as well as comedy. As well as scientific non diegetic music there are a lot of sound effects apparent in science fiction movies to gain extra terrestrial sounds and effects. These sounds and effects are created by Foley artists who enhance the sound to make the sound and image synchronise as if the sound was coming directly from the footage. Some examples of sound effects used in the science fiction genre are alien languages, lightsaber effects and whenever someone time travels there is a warping sound to convey the time travel. Therefore when adding sound to our film we will ensure we add a warping sound to the time travel scenes and also ensure that the sound quality is good enough to be heard clearly.

Conventions of settings and cinematography

Conventions of settings and cinematography

 

For the settings of our film we will be setting the film around the local area to make the main character feel relatable to where he is at and also this will make the storyline more realistic as the settings will reflect where he comes from. The place we are setting the film is in Goldthorpe where there are quite a lot of problems such as domestic violence and a lot of rowdiness. This links in well with the sub genre of our film as our main character isn't preventing these situations of rowdiness and aggression instead he's travelling back in time for mundane and everyday tasks hence the comedy sub genre as he accidentally prevents these serious tasks from happening due to the main character rewinding time and causing the butterfly effect.

Due to our film being a science fiction film as well as a comedy, setting a film in a run down area in a small town isn't very stereotypical of a science fiction convention. However, the reason why we decided to film here is due to two reasons: one reason is that close by to this location is our dinosaur scene which conveys themes of science fiction as he travels back in time to that era and the second reason is due to the audience of our film being local. The audience being local plays a big part in our film as they can relate to the setting that the actor is acting in. Therefore this makes audience alignment in our film extremely effective as they are encourage to feel nostalgia based on the setting of our film.

When it comes to cinematography there are going to be quite a lot of close ups to emphasise the dopiness on our main characters face. By doing this, this will portray to the audience that our storyline is a comedy due to our main character not paying attention to the world around him. In addition to comedy our genre also has aspects of sci-fi due to time travel. We will depict sci fi through cinematography through close ups of the characters expression matched with close ups of the fidget spinner to show how shocked he is with the concept of time travel. In addition to this, when our main character discovers time travel for the first time we will convey our character travelling through time with a space background to portray the science fiction side of the story and to emphasise his amazement of the spinner spiralling him back in time.

Cinematography plays a key part in many science fiction films such as Star Wars and Star Treck. These two films tend to focus s lot on point of view shots to see what a character is looking at and a lot of close ups to convey characters facial expressions in the movie to emphasise shock or anger. An example of this would be in Star Wars episode four when Darth Vader tells Luke Skywalker that he is his father. By using a close up this depicted to the audience is facial expressions clearly and how is shock turned into anger. Therefore when making our own film we will add in close ups and point of view shots to convey to the audience what the character is experiencing at the time which also contributes to audience alignment.

Questionnaire

Pre - Production Questionnaire

1. What is your age?

12 – 14 [  ] 15 – 17 [  ] 18 – 21 [  ] 21 – 49 [  ] 50+ [  ]

 2. What is your occupation? 




 3. What is your gender?

Male [  ] Female [  ] Other [  ] Rather not specify [  ]

4. What genres of film do you prefer?

Action [  ] Adventure [  ] Sci-fi [  ] Romance [  ] Comedy [  ]  

5. How do you prefer to consume films?

Cinema Release [  ] DVD [  ] Online streaming service eg. Netflix, Amazon Prime etc. [  ] Illegal sources [  ]

6. What is your favourite film and what is the genre? 




 7. Please read the following storyline:

Max, the main character, is walking down the street, just minding his own business when he sees a regular looking fidget spinner on the ground. Now obviously he's heard about the craze and is not going to pass on the opportunity of a free one so he picks it up and starts spinning. As he spins the fidget spinner backwards, he sees the people on the street begin to walk and talk backwards. He then realises that this fidget spinner has the ability to rewind time depending on how hard/long he spins it for.


 8. Do you understand the storyline of the film?

Yes [  ] No [  ] Somewhat [  ]

If you answered ‘No’ or ‘Somewhat’ please elaborate: 


9. What type of locations/environments would you expect to be in this type of the film?

 




10. What type of music would you expect to accompany this film?

 R&B [  ] Soul [  ] Hip-Hop [  ] Pop [  ] Rock [  ] Electronic/House [  ] Other [  ]


11. What Certificate would you rate this film? 

U [  ] PG [  ] 12 [  ] 15 [  ] 18 [  ]

12. Would you go tom see the film based on the storyline?

Yes [ ]                            No[ ]

13. Would you recommend this film to others based on the storyline?

Yes [ ]                            No[ ]