Sunday, 22 September 2013

Sound


Sound

Diagetic Sound


Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film. this is a sound which the characters within a film/footage can hear. Diegetic sound can include everything from traffic noise, telephone rings. doors slamming and animal sounds, to industrial machinery and dialogue  These sounds may be used to generate a reality effect for the audience, but can also take on symbolic meaning
  • voices of characters 
  • sounds made by objects in the story (eg explosion (rerecord) )
  • music represented as coming from instruments screen (Sherlock Holmes)
  • actors singing on screen
sometimes Diagetic sound can become Non-diagetic sound in a film. eg when some one plays the radio on screen and the song continues in another scene. A good example of this (below) shows 12 people talking to each other the sound is daigetic because the sound e is visible on the screen.


Examples of diagetic sound are  andy sound which can be see non screen such as a conversation between two people (video below) or another example is the scene at the end of "heat" in which you see a gin fight which the director insisted that the sounds of the guns firing blacks was perfectly addiquate instead of adding in the sound after in post production and making the non-Daigetic  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhl1U6CG2pg 



Non-diagetic



This is sound which does not exist within the story of the film, but is put onto the film in post production. This type of sound could be in the form of a music soundtrack, voice over or extra sounds which enhance the meaning of elements within the film.

A Non-diegetic sound is the sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action:

  • narrator's commentary
  • sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect (usually timed to the music)
  • soundtrack / score
An example of this is the soundtrack/score in Once Upon A Time in the west which keeps the scene together and allows the action to flow 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kD54-q1uFM (do not watch if haven't scene one Once Upon A Time in the west !) 

An example of non-daigetic sound within my own work is the narrational radio signal which is used in my post apocalyptic work for scott. in the scene which we shot it shows the main character using the radio which of course couldn't give off the sound of a emergency broadcast so we added it in in post production and is then became non-daigetic sound.   



juxtaposition



Juxtaposition is where there is a contrast over what is on screen and the sound track, this is used a lot in comedy for example their could be a scene of a funeral but instead of a sad or slow soundtrack it could be a happy song playing over the scene to create a contrast. This scene from Reservoir Dogs is a good example of this as it shows contrast between what music is playing and whats happening. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiU2pKQ683s (Warning Spoilers)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWQ7imklTlc (second example (kill bill) 















The best examples of good juxtapositional sound are when there is a very big contrast between the visuals and the audio such as large the scene in Green street in which there is a large fight breaking out at the end and everyones surrounded by death but a soothing song is playing. 








mood and meaning in soundtracks 

Mood and meaning is when both Diegetic and Non-Diegetic sound works together to create atmosphere. A good example of this is in the end scene from The Matrix in which the viewer experiences the music of Don Davis with the addition of the foley sounds of the bullets and the Diagetic Sound of the voices of Neo and Mr Smith. The combination of the two working together builds the atmosphere getting the audience excited about what is happening on the screen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYwdzYC3uUc (Warning Spoilers)















Foley Sound

Foley effects are sound effects added to the film during post production by foley artists who record the sounds to fit into the film  . They include sounds such as footsteps, bones cracking, punches, horse hoofs ect...   A good example of foley sound is in Fearless. when Jet Li is fighting  you can hear the metallic noises of the two swords coming together and the noise of the furniture and pots breaking around  them.  But my favourite foley sound comes at 4.12 in the video when Jet Li breaks his opponents back.

Foley sound can help my work here at college my giving it a more professional feel. this is the main reason which i think breaches the gap between professional amateur. for example in a project which i recently finished for college the on screen character was walking across gravel we recorded the sound and it sounded much better and and gave a degree of professionalism to the piece of work.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxtYihzhquE  (no major spoilers)( 4.12)

Tom and Jerry 














Non diagetic 

classical music to soit music

Foley 

dog bark (dog bark)
dog eating a branch (chain saw)
Smash dog kennel (chain move about)
cat footprints on grass ( force a cat to walk on grass land )
Cymbal noise ( go to music and borrow some cymbals )
baseball bat hit ( hit something with a bit of wood )
rattleing noise (rattle some stuff )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__CxFMas4LE     (project link)


Project Evaluation Tom and Jerry 

I thought that my project was successful in the end even though some of the sounds I recorded don't necessarily fit the visuals correctly.  If i was to repeat the excise i would allow more time for recording extra/correct sounds to make my foley should a more accurate representation of real life sound.  Though real life sounds are not necessarily best for a cartoon. I thought the best aspects of our video were the noises form the kennel rattling and the pool cueing noise when the cat puts the dog back in the kennel.

Things that could have gone better in the video

I could have done with more time to get the correct sounds because some of the sounds where perhaps not the correct ones for the moment e.g. when the dog is hit by the baseball bat.  There were some moments of prolonged silence which effected the overall feel of the video e.g. just after the dog gets hit by the baseball bat. Also at the beginning there is what i think is to much science when you can just hear the classical soundtrack before any foley sound is herd.


Things i think when well 

My favourite foley sound in the video goes to the moment when the dog chews the branch into a baseball bat for which we added a chainsaw sound . Though this noise is not usually associated with chewing in real life it fits in well as a cartoon is not a realistic representation of the sounds of the real world. The other parts i think went well included the pool cueing sound which fits in perfectly and the noises of the kennel rattling which i thought resembled the correct sound that would have been made by that action.

Conclusion

To conclude I thought that with the time that we had we created a very successful video which i have eventually painstakingly placed on youtube. The quality of sounds I had were perhaps not the best but other sounds worked pretty well. Overall the main contributing factor to the demise of the video is that i did not have enough time.    



Kick ass Sound 













1. 00.00 - 00.09 - tense music                                
2. 00.09 - 00.14 - breathing & gun clicking            
3. 00.14 - 00.16 - breathing                                   
4. 00.16 - 00.22 - slow motion camera                   
5. 00.22 - 00.23 - gun shots                                    
6. 00.24 - gun shot                                                                                                      
7. 00.25 - gun impact noise         Footsteps throughout                            
8. 00.26 - book hit by bullet                                   
9. 00.27 - kick noise (man falling noise)                
10. 00.32 - bullet to head noise                             
11. 00.35 - gun shot                                               
12. 00.38 - 00.40 - gun reload                                

1.  intro tense music 
2.  breathing sound and sounds of metal clicking
3.  breathing
4.  slow swoop
5.  gun shot
6.  gun shot
7.  shoot someone in he face
8.  shoot into a book with an air rifle
9.  I kick the sleeping cat
10. Shoot the sleeping cat
11. shoot gun
12. reload my gun


Uses of audio panning within my the kick ass video


1. slow motion moving right to left (best part)
2.when she jumps on the cabinet right to left. 
3.
4.
5. gunshot right to left
6.
7.gun impacts on the door herd in left ear 
8. rifle shot right to left
9. gun shot left to right
10.the clicking of the gun herd in left then right 
11.
12.

Link To the video on your memory stick 


Project Evaluation Kick Ass 



I though that the sounds in the video Sounds that we recorded were perfect in fitting with the visuals unlike the previous foley sound work that we did we spent much more time planning and recording the visuals which is why the finished product has much more accurate sounds which are a good representation of real life. 

Things that could have gone better in the video

Obviously some of the sounds in the video are unobtainable by students and are not readily available to people in the UK such as the foley sound for the handgun shot from "hit girl" and the people shooting at her.  If I was to repeat the process I sound try to find a substitute sound to that of a gun shot such as a balloon bursting.

Things i think when well 

My favroute sounds in the video are the bullet impact noises which we achieve by hitting a chair with a stick of bamboo which we found this gave the impression of bullet impact noises into a wooden door and in the finished product you wouldn't know otherwise. I also think that the music that we code to go in the background of the peice fitted perfectly espachally the part when hit girl turns around at the begging the music is perfectly synchronised to the visuals.   

Sound panning Analysis 

The uses of sound panning in the video I think worked well and aid the video nicley such as the moment when the two bullets impact on the door and the sound only goes to the left ear giving there impression of the bullets going from right to left and making the audience more engrossed within the piece. I think sound panning is a very important contributer in making a movie as it helps create the world in which a film maker is trying to create by adding a certain realism to it.

Conclusion

To conclude I think that is was much more successful that the previous project on foley sound and the factor that made it better was that we had much more time to record the sounds and much more time to edit. 



















Monday, 16 September 2013

Broadcast standards


Unit 21: Understanding Video Technology



1. Television Standards




NTSC, PAL and SECAM are all television standards for analogue television. PAL is most used in the UK, Germany and Eastern Europe. SECAM is used in France, Russia and a few other countries. NTSC is used in the US, Canada and parts of South America.

These analogue system have now largely been replaced with digital terrestrial systems. Digital systems have advantages over analogue systems in that they have more capacity for data, lower operating costs and a better quality of picture. 


Digital



Advantages:

Better resolution 
Narrower bandwidth signal transmission

More compatible with modern technology such as computers, DVDs, Blu-Ray, and modern video processors in TVsMore precise, sharper, less blurry for higher resolutions

Disadvantages:
Difficult to modulate, digital tuners more expensive than analog
Limited color range 
Not backwards-compatible with older technology 
Easy to manipulate
Flexible
Compatibility with other analogue systems
Easy internet connection 


More reliable

pixelating, and can freeze up (buffering)


Analogue 


Advantages:

Less expensive
Digital communications require greater bandwidth than analogue to transmit the same information.


Disadvantages:

Uses less bandwidth
Worse quality 





PAL





 In 1962 Walter Burch created PAL to keep up with the rapidly introduced colour television. PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is a colour encoding system for analogue television and is used in the UK today.  



Description
English: Oscilogram of PAL signal - 2 lines.
Date (original upload date)
SourceTransferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Plrk using CommonsHelper.
AuthorMarkome at English Wikipedia




The name "Phase Alternating Line" describes the way that the phase of part of the colour information on the video signal is reversed with each line, which automatically corrects phase errors in the transmission of the signal by cancelling them out, at the expense of vertical frame colour resolution





(fps 25, 50 htz)
(Pal Signal)

Advantages and disadvantages of PAL
Advantages:
Adopted by most of Europe
Modification of NTSC to avoid colour distortion
Higher number of scan lines than NTSC
Higher gamma ratio than NTSC

Disadvantages:
Only runs at 25 frames per second (the lower the frame rate the worse for fast motion and more flicker)
Visibly colour saturation
Variable colour saturation



SECAM 

                                                                                       SECAM was developed in 1956 by soviet technicians. The first proposed system was called SECAM I in 1961, followed by other studies to improve compatibility and image quality. The first color television sets cost 5000 Francs. Colour TV was not very popular initially; only about 1500 people watched the inaugural program in colour. A year later, only 200,000 sets had been sold of an expected million. This pattern was similar to the earlier slow build-up of colour television popularity in the USA.


Short for Sequential Colour with Memory, SECAM is a colour TV standard that was introduced in the early 1960 in France. SECAM uses the same resolution as PAL(625 lines) but transmits the colour information slightly differently. 

(Fps 30)

(Broadcast systems in different countries)



Advantages and disadvantages of SECAM
Advantages:
Uses an FM frequency  - therefore less errors
Lower cost than NTSC and PAL
Higher number of scan lines than NTSC and PAL

Disadvantages:
Not suitable for studio use
Half the colour information is lost on each line






NTSC



National Television System Committee or NTSC is the analogue television system used in most of Northern and Southern America. 

NTSC colour encoding is used with the system television signal, which consists of 29.97 frames per second . Each frame is composed of two fields, each consisting of 262.5 scan lines, for a total of 525 scan lines. 


Original NTSC colorimetry (1953)CIE 1931 xCIE 1931 y
primary red0.670.33
primary green0.210.71
primary blue0.140.08
white point (CIE Standard illuminant C)0.3100.316
After nearly 70 years of use, the vast majority of over-the-air NTSC transmissions in the United States were turned off on June 12, 2009, and August 31, 2011, in Canada and most other NTSC markets



(fps 29, 60htz)


Advantages and disadvantages of NTSC
Advantages:
Runs at nearly 30 frames per second (good for fast motion as the higher the frame rate the better, smoother the action appears and reduces visible flicker)
Has simpler circuits than PAL and SECAM
Has a less obvious picture noise
Is less costly than PAL

Disadvantages:
Small signal bandwidth which increases likelihood of interference
More costly than SECAM
Lower number of scan lines which reduces the quality on a large picture





2. Broadcasting Systems

Types of Television / ways to watch



Cable 

                                                          
Cable television previously known as Community Antenna Television or CATV originated in Pennsylvania in 1948.
Virgin media and BT broadband TV are 2 examples of cable TV. Many cable companies have upgraded to digital cable in the last 5 years but Virgin and BT have not as they both maintain a very fast connection. Fibre-optic cable provides the fastest internet and TV connection on the market at the moment which is one of the one of the major advantages to having cable. It's by far the quickest. 



Advantages and disadvantages of Cable
Advantages:
Fast
Connection very rarely lost

Disadvantages:
Cost







Digital 


Digital TV originated in 1938 in the UK when towns such as Bristol used wires to carry television signals to homes which could not receive signals over the air.
Digital television is the transmission  and video  multiplexed signal, in contrast to the totally analog and channel separated signals used by analogue. An example of this is a freeview box.  The advantages of most digital TV systems is that after the initial payment for the box it is free which is why its still the most popular TV in the UK at the moment. 

Advantages and disadvantages of Digital
Advantages:
Free after the initial cost of the box

Disadvantages:
Fewer channels than SKY
Cannot receive box office channels


Satellite 





Satellite TV works by launching a satellite into orbit. This technique revolutionised popular entertainment and sparked an explosion in technological development.
Three years after the satellite was first introduced in 1965 it was used to show pictures of the moon  which were broadcast into people's homes.
Sky is an example of a satellite TV station. It works with the addition of a satellite dish which is attached to the edge of your house, a reviver near your tv then picks up the signal. the reviver then has a wire from it which then connects to your television allowing you to watch fast live tv. 




Advantages and disadvantages of SKY
Advantages:
Thousands of channels to choose from
A wide variety of box office channels

Disadvantages:
Monthly cost
Monthly costs can increase and extra cost for special programmes such as sporting events



Internet 




Before 2006 there was no catch up services which allowed viewers to watch programmes at their convenience but now this is part of modern life.
Nexflix, BBC iplayer and 4OD are examples of internet television. Internet TV is usually a catch up service offering showings of programs from the last week. This is what i think will soon take over in an internet dominated world its only a matter of time until everyone is watching globe TV through the internet on a television set. There are also services such as youtube and Vimeo which allow a viewer to browse  through millions of videos to find exactly what there looking for. 

  

Advantages and disadvantages of internet
Advantages:
Can watch at your own convenience and at times to suit you i,e, available on demand

Disadvantages:
WIFI is not 100% reliable and the connection can be lost
Neflix and similar services charge a monthly fee



6. Cables

Types of cables 





















































Component cable



  • The all-in-one solution for high-definition and standard TVs
  • High-definition gaming output of 720p or 1080i
  • Progressive-scan DVD playback in 480p
  • Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound output
  • Component (Y, Pr, Pb) high definition video output
  • Usually about 8ft long 


These cables have been very common through out my lifetime but now they are slowly being replaced by the feaster and easier to use HDMI cables which are now used for all HD thing Including gaming. 







Composite Cable 



  • Color-coded connectors help simplify identification and installation.
  • Connectivity : 3 RCA male (yellow, red and white) to RCA male
  • Length : 5 feet (1.5 meter)






Transmits analog audio and composite video signals between devices such as televisions, satellite or cable receivers, VCRs, game console systems, speakers and more and usually comes with a red white and yellow cable which if not is only an audio cable. 






HDMI 



  • Broadcast quality digital video, digital audio, and inter-component control signals all in one compact, high-performance connection
  • Supports uncompressed audio/video signals
  • Fully HDCP compliant to Provide highest level of signal quality
  • Fully HDCP compliant to Provide highest level of signal quality
  • Perfect for both high-definition video and standard video formats.





One of the most common cables around today and its used fro everything from Blu-ray to Xbox anything that requires an HD connection. 





Audio Jack 


Connect portable devices such as MP3 players to an amplifier/radio with a 3.5mm in port. Suitable for your In Car Sound system Fits all ipods, iphones Multimedia speakers, and Mp3 playes with a 3.5mm jack















S-Video




SVHS (also known as S-Video) plug (4 pins) to plug (4 pins). 

Carries video only (no sound). Results in better quality than composite cables. 
Standard now on most TV s and other visual devices (DVD players, camcorders, projectors) and now on most computers (as TV-Out or Video-In). 

In many European Union countries, S-Video is less common because of the dominance of the very well known and widely uses SCART cable which soon took over and gained world dominance because of its ability to transmit Sound 





DVI cable
digital Visual Interface (DVI)

DVI stands for Digital Video Interface; this type of cable is also used like an HDMI cable for high-definition television, DVD players, and game consoles such as an Xbox 360. Now that HDMI cables have become more of the standard and one sod the worlds most popular cables  used for HD television, DVI's are mostly used for computer connections, though they are still used to connect televisions to other components.


VGA



VGA (Video Graphics Array) originally intended computers in the 1980s though, now it has come to mean any cable or port with a VGA connector. It has a 15 pin connection and fits with most computer monitors today. . In addition, you will find VGA ports on many newer televisions so you can connect your computer to your TVs which enables a person to connect there laptop or computer to the TV to make the most of  a bigger screen. 






Mini-VGA


  • Mini DisplayPort 1.1a compliant receiver offering 5.4 Gbps bandwidth over 2 lines
  • Integrated triple 10-bit, 162 MHz video DAC for analog VGA signal output
  • Supports up to 1080p, 1920 x 1200 reduced blanking video resolution









The Mini DVI to VGA display adapter for connecting Macs or some PCs such a s ones made by sony equipped with a DVI port to an external VGA monitor or projector at home.