Sound choice analysis: Hanna

Hanna:

Keep in mind when listening to this score that every single piece composed for this film was all generated by computer software and not recorded from live instruments.

This is the music that plays while the chase scene is happening as Hanna tried to escape the prison she is in. The music is purposely unusual which could be done to mirror the predicament Hanna is in, not knowing where she is or where she is going.

Also the sudden drop at 2:49 in could signal that she is started to slowly realise where she must go. The constant beat reminds the audience almost of the sound of someone runing where two feet hitting the group every few second in sync with the back beat.

Furthermore, towards the end when the music suddenly goes really high pitched could build up tension as to what could happen next and what this sound could be leading us to or even hinting.

With the quick cuts and rotating camera angles playing through this music it keeps the audience’s attention as the chase continues, causing them to hope that Hanna escapes, as you see the dangers happening that she cannot.

the director may have wanted to do this, as well as have all the soundtracks computer made to show how unknown Hanna is to the outside world and new technology, giving the feel of a child in the big world who is clueless of its new dangers.

This was also another good choice in my opinion to use on the interrogation scene where it symbolises isolation and complete loneliness. The long drowning keys also dragged out can mirror the emotions Hanna may have been feeling at the time, for example anxiety, worry but at the same time anger and determination, with her mission in mind. Even though it has such a lonely feel to it, this piece also mirrors her strength and deadliness to others. The further mention of Hanna's over all themes from the movie, slightly changed to sound quite off, followed by a backwards piece could almost show a realisation of where she is and what Marissa could be after. It has such a disorientating feel to it and extremely eerie, reflecting how unknown Hanna is to the outside world as well as the secrets her father is hiding.

Sound Choice analysis: Momento

This soundtrack was exceedingly fitted for Memento as it started off slow in the beginning as if it was getting into the audiences head and realising that something was wrong to them. It started to pick up it pace as if there was a chase starting to happen because of the information found out. Also the sound effect of the camera zooming in and out adds to the whole theme of the movie with the camera acting as the protagonist’s memory. This could have to be done present the panic and fear as well as frustration at time the protagonist must live in, not being able to remember moments in his life.it also reflects the situation of the audience knowing what's going to happen or what has happened whereas the protagonist does not.

Soul: Location Scouting

The reason we used this room with the dull grey walls and lighting with no soft furniture and surrounding so we could have the sense that Grace is in a dangers place, even though Demi is trying to falsely help her. Also the dull colouring creates a serious tone to the scene representing her isolation from other people and the outside world; being locked in the connected relationship with the Xavour. This location was chosen for our film from being inspired from "Hanna" when she was in the prison after being captured by Merissa. This would mirror that Grace is in a dangers place where it looks like a prison where Demi is trying to help her but in the end all she wants Grace for is to get to the Xavour.

This is where we shot in interrogation room, while looking quite cluttered at the sides of the room however keeping the chair that grace was sitting on very alone in the middle of the room mirroring her feelings. also the very dull grey walls against the hard floor shows a not so welcoming place to be locked into. 

 

this is the place outside the interrogation room where Grace will then flee from the organisations strong hold. also the side of red on the wall is used to show that she is in danger there and must escape with the white wall on the opposite side showing that it may be safe the bargain that Demi is offering, causing Demi and the Xavoirs motives to clash. Further more the stair well imitates the same feel as the interrogation room with the Gray and dull colouring as well as reflecting, shiny surfaces and spiralling down could disorientate the audience.

the room we we're shooting in was inspired from the Film "Hanna" where the protagonist was dragged into this dull interrogation room, as Grace is seen in our film.

We decided to shoot in the media suit because the characters can have a screen each and not only that we will be able to play the footage from the interrogation room at the same time. Also the brightness can be turned up on the mac screens to further embrace the strong contrast of light and darkness on the characters faces and in the background. Not only that it would look more professional instead of having one massive screen in front of Demi and the assistant to watch Grace. This was also inspired by "Hanna" with Merissa being able to communicate with the people at the control room to then further communicate to Hanna. 

For one of the two flash back we decided to shoot it the environment of our own home to represent the vulnerability Grace has, as she is no longer safe from the Xavior, not even in her own home.

We wanted the room to give off a very warm and cosy feel to it while the supernatural events occurred to show Grace being pulled out of her comfort zone, further embracing the fact that no where is safe for her, not even in her own home. Also it is back up for when the Xavior says that the organisation and demi cannot help her, only he can.

Soul Focus Group Analysis

questions :

1) what is your favourite thriller film?

2) what do we like about thriller film?

3) which thriller films didn't work out and why?

4) if you were to make a film of your own what would be sure to include?

the first questions was to get a rough idea of what films these guys have seen and what they liked about them, from there I could then feed into the information they have given me and see why they like them thrillers, considering that the age these guys were at is what our target audience is.

one of the films choose was "the 6th sense" which was very well known for having one of the most remembered plot twists. This was something that the members of the group found very good and thought it made a lot of thriller films work, to have false endings and plot twists.

Another was "Kieri" which was a physiological supernatural thriller, which is actually kind of like what Soul is pitching at. Saying that the girls supernatural powers was a result for most of the action happening in the film and made it quite suspenseful in the end. This information was very helpful so that we knew we should include a lot more of the Xaviour as well as Grace's powers in the final film and let the audience know how they work and what they can do.

The common answer here to what people like the most in thrillers was what we said before about the plot twists and false endings but also the cinematography and positioning of camera angles. I was glad that they picked up on this so I could comment on how different camera angles mean different things and interpretations. we would be sure to include a lot of hidden meanings behind all of our camera angles and why we put them there. Another thing was also the suspense and tension building up to jump scares and intense action sequences that would surprise the audience unexpectedly. to import this into our film we made sure that through out the opening when Grace and Demi, the protagonist and antagonist, were clashing we have the camera angles represent a power struggle between the two using canter, point of view, and high and low angles.

We also talked about how some Thrillers have a ridiculously false story that just didn't grab audience with either a story that doesn't make sense or a plot twist that just doesn't make sense. We made sure to take this into consideration and triple checked the story line for plot holes and to ensure that the plot twist would make perfect sense but at the same time not be to predictable.

I'll admit we did have to re think certain scenes that took place later in the film to make sure it was believable to an extent.

Lastly I asked this question of what the rest of the group would be sure to include if they had to make a film of there own. Again they linked back to the cinematography and said that is was vital to include in any film, especially thrillers. This made us think even more about camera angles and where they should be in comparison to the structure of the story and character position.

Devon also commented on sound choice and how important it was to compliment what is happening at a specific point in the story. in response to this statement we carefully went through a playlist of original pieces by an un official artist on youtube known as SaberClaw and picked out 4 soundtracks out of 60 to edit into our opening at the right moments where the scene is suppose to capture emotion of Grace's past to the chase scene when she escapes to make it intense.

Over all we decided to take the camera angles and story line into consideration the most to make sure everything had hidden means as well as false leads but at the same time still making sense. also we worked more on the storyline to work through it thoroughly and ensure that everything falls into place while keeping the tension of chases as well as quick cut flash backs.  

Soul: Focus Group





Soul: original mind map and planning

The reason we changed the gender of Anton to Demi was to further develope the relationship between the protagonist and antagonist in the beginning and throught the film and to make the break up and friction between them more effective and suprising to the audience. We also took inspiration for this from Merissa from the film "Hanna" which adressed breifily the relationship with her and Hanna thought the film.

the plot seems to follow through and flow however what we hope to do throught the film is to mix up some of the events, for example in the beginning will be straight to the interigation room instead of when the car accident occured. This takes inspiration from the film "Momento" where the events of the story are all mixed up and as the audience watches different events it slowly pieces together for the final ending. Also it could mirror how broken Grace became from this story and what an impact it had on her life.

 

Soul: Audience profile

We all decided that the target audience for our thriller film would be mostly aimed at teenagers and young adults ranging from 15 to 25 years of age. This was because most of the elements that were implemented into the film and story are hidden scenarios and difficulties that teenagers may deal with, causing them to relate more to Grace and her predicaments. Also the fact that most of the cast apart from Demi and some members of her organisation are mostly under the age of 20 the character overall became more relatable and appealing to the younger teenage audiences. A film that is all about younger people do normally tend to appeal to a younger audience of their same age range. We also wanted to have Soul appeal to the mainstream thriller fans so that the film could gain an increasing amount of popularity as well as a block buster amongst popular thrillers to date.

 How would we do this?

From the research and questionnaires we sent out we gathered enough info to then figure out how we would convey the right audience to watch our film. Since "Soul" will mostly be aimed at a teenage audience between 15 to 20 we would have to relate to that specific age range as well as interests. For this to happen throughout the film the setting will mostly be in that environment where a teenager would go, for example a messy home environment, high school facility as well as letting Grace have her emotions reflecting depending on where she would be. Also the common challenges and predicaments which Grace would face throughout the film would end up reaching out to the young teenage audiences as they would see a lot of challenges they personally would have to face within Grace and her decisions.  Furthermore the way Graces attitude would impact specific topics would almost act as a role module for the younger audience which would encourage them to watch the film, not only for the story but perhaps guidance or to fill a gratification from watching Graces character change and evolve to face the challenges she does in the film.

We took the inspiration of having a young role module as the protagonist who would heavily influence a teenage audience from ‘Hanna’ .As the protagonist Hanna is forced to travel, train as well as fight all by herself with no guidance from parents in order to survive and reach her goals. We also wanted this determination and head strong attitude to shine through Grace in ‘Soul’ as it would captivate audiences and almost gain a respective attitude towards her while watching her story. Furthermore the uniqueness of having a young female protagonist in a thriller film would perk people’s interest to watch the film or fall in love with the fact that the film, although following codes and conventions, does not follow the stereotype of having a young male as the protagonist of the story.

To attract the main stream thriller fans we made sure that it followed all of the correct codes and conventions however at the same time staying out of the trap of becoming a stereotypical thriller film. By becoming unique from other thriller films this would instantly grab people’s attention and interest to watch the film, gravitating hype and popularity for it.

 

The intense action would be enough to keep the main stream fans happy and captivated to watch the film while at the same time the psychological and hidden themes of Graces back story and emotions would capture the interest of the teenage audience. Despite seeming like a small target audience to aim for at the same time the broadness of thriller fans and how easy it is to spread information through teenagers would work well in our favour, both keeping the audience happy as well as spreading word of the film rapidly.