Presentation - Cinema "soundtrack"

Introduction

In movie industry terminology usage, soundtrack is a contraction of "sound track" and is an audio recording created or used in film production or post-production.

"If you can't believe a little in what you see on the screen, it's not worth wasting your time on cinema." - Serge Daney

In the sky of the cinema people learn what they might have been and discover what belongs to them apart from their single lives." - John Berger

What is Soundtrack?

• it can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game
• it was commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the synchronized recorded sound.

Original of the Soundtrack

• it came into public in the early 1950s
• first conceived by movie companies as a promotional gimmick for new films
• it was commercially available recordings were labeled
• it advertised as "original motion picture soundtrack."
• such recordings are made from a film's music track, because they usually consist of the isolated music from a film

Types of Soundtrack

• Musical film soundtracks which concentrate primarily on the songs
• Film scores which showcase the background music from non-musicals
• Albums of pop songs heard in whole or part in the background of non-musicals
• Video game soundtracks are often released after a game's release, usually consisting of the   background music from the game's levels, menus, title screens, promo material (such as    entire songs that only segments of which were used in the game), cut-screens and occasionally sound-effects used in the game.
• Albums of pop songs heard in whole or part in the background of musicals

 

Key Quotes:

1.         "Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls." – Ingmar Bergman

2.         "Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms." - Alfred Hitchcock

3.         "Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has to the book I am reading." – Igor Stravinsky

        http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_definition_of_cinema
 

4.         Recorded musical accompaniments to silent film were generally felt to be inferior to the attractiveness of live music, which had long been a vital part of the cinemagoing experiences.

The Hollywood Film Music Reader, Mervyn Cooke

 

5.         The sounds of recording by the variable density method are as follows – microphone, which converts the sound vibrations into a system of electric currents.

The Hollywood Film Music Reader, Mervyn Cooke

 
                                              
Samuel Beam

• he was born on July 26, 1974
• his better known by his stage and recording name Iron & Wine
• he was an American singer-songwriter
• he occasionally tours with a full band
• the name Iron & Wine is taken from a dietary supplement named "Beef Iron & Wine" that he found in a general store while shooting a film.

Case study: Flightless bird, American Mouth

 

^{http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euHGXlYrLNk}

"Flightless Bird, American Mouth"

• it was created by Iron & Wine and aroused further attention of audiences at that time
• it was chosen for inclusion in the movie by star Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella Swan
• the soundtrack won a 2009 American Music Award for Favorite Soundtrack.

Benefits of Soundtrack

l   To arouse further attention of the viewers

l   "Does art reflect life? In movies, yes. Because more than any other art form, films have been a mirror held up to society's porous face." So that soundtrack as a best way for movie makers to further arouses audience’s attention in the spectacle.

l   To help audiences engaging more and enjoy more in the screen.

l   To remind audiences back to their own memories.

References:

1.     The Hollywood Film Music Reader, Mervyn Cooke, Oxford University Press, 2010.
2.     Spectacular Narratives, Geoff King, I.B.Tauris Publishers, 2000
3.     http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_definition_of_cinema
4.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundtrack

User Generated Digital Media

“Leave Brittany Alone” Blog Questions:

How many viewers are estimated to have watched the you tube video?
It is about 40 million people to have watched the youtube video.
(Actually viewers are 41,986,898)

How would you rate the video?
I am not really love the video. Since I am not sure what’s going on and what are the details of the video. So it can’t arouse my further attention to the video.

Is it of high quality in technical terms? Is it interesting aesthetically e.g. camera angles, use of light, the narrative, and so on?

It seems no technique at all. Because it was only forced on one shoot at the beginning to the end. In the process, it cannot saw any techniques, such as no camera angles, no use of light that used in the video.


Does it raise interesting socio-cultural issues?
In the past, only mass media to make us widely known about the issues. But nowadays, we could change our role from passive to active. We could upload our own comments or point of views to media sharing platforms, such as youtube to leave our comments to particular issues. It could enhance the interaction between up loaders and viewers. It also aroused further attention to the viewers to discuss more on the issues.

Do you think deserved the attention that it received from the Internet community?
I think that is a good way to arouse our attention to daily issues which received from Internet community. As a citizen, we have our own responsibility to pay attention to concern the thing that happened surrounding us. As the time goes by, Internet community becomes a part of our lives and we cannot live without Internet. We can absorb different kinds of information through Internet and arouse public concerns on such particular issues.  Therefore, Internet community provides a good way for us to learn more and to think more.

Briefly describe the video
It is about a man who dressing up likes a woman and sitting on the bed. He was cried and yelled to the camera that complained that the paparazzi should leave Britney Spears alone as they bordered the life of Britney Spears. It is obviously arouse the attention of the public to concern more about the side effects of paparazzi and think more about the privacy.

Find at least one interesting video, based on Crocker’s or Bus Uncle, and upload it to your blog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-O3KEL-yA0

Report some positive and negative comments about this new ability for computer users to make and widely distribute and respond to online films (such as the above three videos). (eg see Leadbeater, We-think, xviii;  Burgess and Green, Youtube, Cambridge: Polity, 2009, 10…, 21-30). 

Positive:
It is great that provide a new way for the public to present comments and own points of view to the internet. It encourages the interaction and communication between the up loaders and the viewers. Since the internet provided the public platform for those who are interested in the issues to discuss more and present the ideas directly.

Negative:
The privacy of the people was to make known to the public. Since everyone have their own right to upload clips or photos freely without asking holders’ permission, so it will invade the privacy of public. Otherwise, it is definitely resulting in the property rights will be invaded.  The public could watch different kinds of video clips freely and without any charges. Clips’ owners will lose the benefits by selling such clips to earn money.

Social networks and online identites

On your blog write a two paragraph report on a class member who has an interesting set of online identities (you may use pseudonyms ie fake names)

  Contemporary understandings of identity are changing. Nowadays identity is thought of in more complex terms:

 “In sum, the selves that we have are composed of multiple identities and contradictory experiences. In late-modern society, it is almost impossible to have a fully unified, completed and coherent ‘self’; rather, we all tend to have fleeting, multiple and contradictory selves”

(Charles Cheung “Presentations of Self on Personal Homepages”, p45)

“Cherri” is internet addicted. She loves to visit different kinds of websites and search variety of interesting information. For example, she always visit “HK Golden” to read those posts who uploaded by the public. She always tells me it was really interesting and deserves to read. As she found that, internet is a world which full of curiosity. She could beneficial from the Internet to satisfy her own curiosity.

Otherwise, she also loves to use social networks to communicate and interact with others. She always uses social networks to chat with friends or families, to follow the update news of friends and to read some of the gossips. Nowadays, social networks – facebook or msn being a new trend for the communications between people. Also, everyone wants to share their own stuff online and without permission to let everyone knowing their privacy.

Internet and Media

What is the primary source of news for you?

For me, I always read newspapers to absorb primary sources in the past. Because of the internet was not well-developed, read of newspaper is the mainly for most citizens to absorb primary sources. Until to 20^th century, using of internet is a new trend for us to search different kind of primary sources. Despite of using internet, there is no way for people to communicate with others and engage into different social conduits. For examples, we are not only using Facebook to keep in touch with others, but also searching information by using kinds of searchers and so on. Nowadays, most of us cannot live without internet. It is beneficial to our daily life since the internet is tailor made for non-object news. We could easy to find and synthesize different views.

Do you think that ‘mass media’ will some day be totally replaced by digital media / internet?

Actually, I think that “mass media” will be totally replaced by internet in some day. Since the internet was “word of mouth” in nowadays, any of us could be reporters to report different news. It is convenience that the news could transmit to every websites without any constrains. You could say what you want to say in the internet. So that the roles of media transmitted from specific reporters to the majority of people who using internet. It is good that the internet provides different ways for us to synthesize different views and to find information easily.

Digital Knowledge Sharing

 

What is a brief history of the encyclopedia?

An encyclopedia is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from all branches of knowledge. Encyclopedias have existed for around 2,000 years; the oldest still in existence, Naturalis Historia, was written in ca. 77 CE by Pliny the Elder. The modern encyclopedia evolved out of dictionaries around the 17th century. Historically, some encyclopedias were contained in one volume, such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica or the world´s largest Enciclopedia universal ilustrada europeo-americana, became huge multi-volume works. Some modern encyclopedias are electronic and are often freely available, for example Wikipedia.


What are some key features of that encyclopedia
According to Wikipedia:
Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries, which are usually accessed by article name^. Encyclopedia entries are longer and more detailed than those in most dictionaries. It is like generally speaking, unlike dictionary entries, which focus on linguistic information about words, encyclopedia articles focus on factual information to cover the thing or concept for which the article name stands.Indeed, the purpose of an encyclopedia is to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe; to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live, and transmit it to those who will come after us, so that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come; and so that our offspring, becoming better instructed, will at the same time become more virtuous and happy, and that we should not die without having rendered a service to the human race in the future years to come.

According to Encyclopedia Brittannica:

Encyclopædia is a general knowledge English-language Encyclopedia that is available in print, as a DVD and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert contributors. It is regarded as one of the most scholarly of encyclopaedias. It divided the paper work into several parts; some of the contents are totally scientific and force on the art. Because of the encyclopaedias will force on different aspects at different period of time. So that the information will be concentrate on very specific topics. 

Which encyclopedia was most useful for this research?

In this research, I think Wikipedia was more useful. Because the use of Wikipedia system was more simple and easy than Encyclopedia Brittannica. As I said it before, Encyclopedia Brittannica was divided in to articles. It was generally liked speaking rather than to present such ideas or concept to viewers.

Can you trust this encyclopedia (the one you used) 100%? Why or why not?

I cannot trust this encyclopedia totally. Since some of the information is freely edited by anyone, each of us could freely entry and uploads what they want to say to Wikipedia. It means that this information and research were unable to distinguish the genuine from the fake. So that we need to bear in mind to take care to choose this kind of information. Avoid using wrong information to cause any misleading and misunderstanding.

Digital photography

What is the difference between analog photography and digital photography?

Analog photography is a commonly term for photography that uses a progressively changing recording medium. And the Digital photography is a form of photography that the sensitive sensors of light to capture the image focused by the lens. It seems that the digital one can capture image to store as a digital file ready for digital processing viewing or printing, but the analog one must need to print it out to view.

What use is digital technology to photographers?

The photographers could use some of the software to improve the quality of photos. It is hard for photographers to ensure the quality of photos, like the colors, spaces, line combination and so on. Therefore, Photoshop is a good helper for them to edit those photos to make it perfectly.   

Is photographic truth at an end? Has it ever existed?

I think the photographic truth has still existed. The photographers will use Photoshop for editing which to ensure or improve the quality of photos. Since the photographers captured different moments through different angles, although it may not impartial enough and it can still reflect some parts of truth to the audiences. The most cricial duties of photographers are to persent the truth to the audiences, maybe some of them influenced by commercial and to present those more visually rather than the truth. But they can still present the truth of first capture.

Photoshop