Fairly-A-Tale: a Musical Short Film
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Proceedings of the URECA@NTU 2011-12 Fairly-a-Tale: A Musical Short Film Koh Chong Wu Assistant Professor PerMagnus Lindborg School of Art, Design and Media Mr Lucas M F V Jodogne School of Art, Design and Media <Fairly-a-Tale> is a short film that aims to explore the extensive research on this event and the belief in Fairies relationship between Film, Sound and Music through was also part of preparation process. weaving a modern whimsical tale with the conventions of the Musical genre. The project also research into the 4 METHODOLOGY aspect of Folklore and Singapore Culture. After the script was written finalized, an important step Keywords – Film, Sound, Music, Fairy is to decide the musical style to apply on the film. Though research findings indicate that Fairies exist in various cultures, the belief seems to be of more 1 INTRODUCTION significance in that of Celtic origin. Hence, Celtic style music was selected for this film. Based on the script, the Primary concept for this film first came to me 2 years film has 3 Musical Sequences. The opening scene, ago, when I was still in my second year, over a casual which aims to introduce the lead character and the discussion with my friends. Originally written as a short conflict, that is the reclamation of a plot of land for film, the idea to make this project into a Musical came redevelopment that the lead character believes Fairies in later as I felt that premise of the story permitted for resides in. The second is the scene where the lead it. On top of that, sound design and the integral character garners the help of two other friends to relationship between sound and music in film has petition and seek support for their cause. The last always been something I am interested in and exploring Musical sequence is a song performed by the lead Fairy. about. As the lyrics almost functions like the dialogue and serves to propel the narrative forward, a guide content 2 AIMS / OBJECTIVES for the lyrics was written prior to the composition of the music, then later modified to fit into the tune. It was a The primary objective of this project is to explore the constant back and forth between modifying the lyrics realm of the Musical film genre, where music, songs and adjusting the tune until the best harmony is and singing are entwined into the narrative. One aspect achieved. Other than these three Musical sequences, of filmmaking that I have strong interest in is Sound there will be a Dance sequence and background music Design and Audio Post Production. In most film genres, running through the entire film. Hence, the direction music often plays the subservient role in the was also for all the music to always relate back to the background to create a certain emotion. However, in the same motif, so as to achieve harmony throughout the case of a Musical, music takes the primary role. film. Nonetheless, across all the Music, we also try to Nonetheless, Sound Design still plays an integral role in vary the orchestration and arrangement of the songs creation of “space” in a film. How the two elements such they stand unique at the same time. So for intermingle to push the boundaries of filmmaking example, the first music, it introduced elements of becomes the focus of this project. traditional cultural music not foreign to Singapore, Chinese and Indian musical instruments such as the 3 LITERATURE REVIEW / Erhu and Sitar were introduced. For the second song, it BACKGROUND had a more pop feel to it. For the third song, an ethereal Music as a source of emotion in film by Annabel J. and airy sensation was introduced to highlight the Cohen, Chapter 31 from the edited book Handbook of nature of the Fairy in the film. Since the Fairies also Music and Emotion by Patrick N. Juslin and John A. have a strong tribal factor in their design, the same was Sloboda, is the main and probably only literature applied for the accompanying music for the dance reference selected for this project. Larger portion of scene. A pre-singing recording was performed so during research for this project came from watching Musical production, the actors had a guide to lip sync to. After films, such as Sound of Music, Moulin Rouge and production, it was recorded in a studio environment to various Disney productions and animations like maintain the sound quality for audio mixing. Enchanted and Beauty and the Beast, for cinematic reference and also to study the transition from Drama to 5 RESULTS Musical, Singing to Dialogue. Since the narrative is The final product of this project is a Musical short film. inspired by the famous case of the Cottinley Fairies, Though originally, three Musical sequences were Proceedings of the URECA@NTU 2011-12 intended, it was ultimately cut down to two to better film. I definitely had a whole new understanding of the control the duration of the film. However, that was not Musical genre and the process of creating one. After the only reason, as mentioned in the previous segment, this project, I am technically more adept; I have better we tried to introduce elements of pop music into it, the understanding on how to produce a bigger production; style was starkly on contrast to all other songs which stronger communication and directing skills; managing ultimately still had a more instrumental factor. The big cast ad crew; better understanding on the digital presence of thus sequence broke the harmony of the workflow and working proceeding of a film that film. Finally, not only was the Musical sequence involves computer graphics. I am grateful to my removed, but also the entire scene, and effectively, two devoted team, all the support and advise that my characters form the entire narrative. The entire film also supervisors and peers have given me. At the end, I am went through a few rounds editing and musical re- proud to say that for this project, I exhausted all the arrangement before final product was locked. skills I have picked up over my four years course in filmmaking. 6 DISCUSSION Working with a composer was an interesting and ACKNOWLEDGEMENT fruitful experience. As the Sound Supervisor of the On top acknowledging Prof PerMagnus and Mr project, we had to work closely with each other to Jodogne for their guidance and support through the ensure the balance between music and sound. Three project, I also wish to thank Assistant Professor Jaymz portions of the film that I remember strongly were the Wong, Assistant Professor Wong Chen-His, Assistant dream sequence, the dance sequence and the Fairy Professor Marijke Van Kets, Assistant Professor Song. For the dream sequence, it is the first scene where Kenneth Feinstein, Technical Staff Abdul Shukor bin the Fairies were introduced, One important sound motif Mohammed and Media Manager Tan Wee Liang for for the Fairies is the flapping of their wings, This scene their advice and assistance. I also wish to acknowledge could just had been ambient and Foley, however, Music the entire cast and crew who worked very hard to make could actually enhance emotion of this scene. this project a success. Nonetheless, I do not wish for the music to simply be for background support. Hence, for this scene, I worked We wish to acknowledge the funding support for this closely with the composer to design the song such that project from Nanyang Technological University under the ambience and the motif sounds becomes part of the the Undergraduate Research Experience on Campus music, the music itself not losing the strong (URECA) programme. instrumentation and Celtic style. Similarly for the dance REFERENCES scene, the Fairies were actually dancing to the music. Some of the fairies even playing custom designed [1] Cohen, A. (2011) ‘Music as a source of emotion in instruments. Hence, the challenge was this scene was Film’. In Juslin, P. & Sloboda, J. (ed.) Handbook not to just interweave he music and the sound design, of Music and Emotion. Oxford University Press. but also to find or create instrumental for the instruments. For the Fairy song, it is simply a vocal with a single flute accompaniment. The challenge for this scene is that the performer does not appear, but it is literally implied that the Fairy is singing it. Hence, creating the sense of the space such that the singing does not become background music becomes a challenge. However, for the previous two scenes, we created the sense of space by including audio elements from the scene itself onto the arrangement. But for this Fairy Song, the intention is to remove all excess sound such that focus is only the vocal and accompaniment. Without direct visual reference to the performer, merging the visual to audio becomes the challenge. I particularly like this scene also because at the very end as night turns to day, the song also beautifully fades into the songs of birds that is diegetic. 7 CONCLUSION Whilst Musical film is a popular genre for feature length film, it is not easy implementing the same protocols onto a short film due to the constraint of time. For a film to be labelled as a Musical film, Musical sequences have to hold a determining role to the whole .