Abigail Elliott
TWO FACE
​I have always been super interested in film ever since I was a little girl. Bringing things to life on a screen has always been a dream of mine. In this project, I wanted to display two sides of myself. The one side is me on a "good day" where I make healthy decisions and on the surface seem happy. This feeling can change so fast on a "bad day" where those healthy decisions fade away and self care is nonexistent. This is an aspect of the college experience that we all go through. The highs and lows of day to day. I wanted to film something that was close to the heart and could be relatable across a wider range of people. I filmed everything at my house and made the music afterwards to get across the certain feelings I wanted to convey. I hope that on some level people are able to relate to this and understand that prioritizing yourself is essential to living a full life.
Good Day
​The emotion for the first part of TWO FACE that I was trying to go for was a feeling of contentedness. I wanted to convey a sense of happiness in the simplest of things like getting ready in the morning or getting outside to enjoy the day. I mainly used major chords and sort of an upbeat melody to convey this lighter feeling that this piece brought. Also, the shots that were captured do not necessarily have anything negative that happens in them furthering the idea of happiness on that given day. We talked a lot about how having things set in major keys can really affect how the piece is perceived to an audience. Typically, major keys are associated with "happy" feelings while minor keys are typically associated with "sad" feelings. To keep the piece light, I went with a major key when composing the music. To make this piece, I captured all of the shots that I wanted to film and then compiled them together using an editing software. From there, I was inspired by the video to compose the music for this piece. After the music was done, I used Premier Pro to put everything together to make the final product. I really enjoyed doing this process as it let me get really creative with what I could do and film. As a "wannabe" filmmaker, this was a very fun first try at a film and I am pleased with how it turned out.
Bad Day
​The emotion I was trying to go for with this second part of TWO FACE was the feeling of being stuck. This feeling of being stuck can also relate to depression and sadness that an individual may experience on a "bad day". I wanted to convey these feelings as they are very real emotions that college students especially face. Some days you just cannot go outside and you cannot bring yourself to eat food. Some days you just cannot do your work so instead you play video games as an escape. I mainly used one minor chord and made variations on that chord to spice up and make the tune somewhat more melancholy. The shots captured in this part of the film do not contain a smile at all which is in stark contrast to the bright, happy shots of the previous video. In class, we talked a lot about how having things set in minor keys can really affect how the piece is perceived to an audience. Typically, major keys are associated with "happy" feelings while minor keys are typically associated with "sad" feelings. To keep the film's dark and sad tone, I went with the minor key when composing this piece. To make this piece, I copied some events of the "good day" and filmed all shots before compiling them together in a video editing software. I then was inspired by what I filmed to write the music and put everything together in the software Premier Pro. I really loved this piece as it tells a story that needs to be told and allowed me to have a lot of creative freedoms when making it.
Batman Begins
The emotion I was trying to for in my supplemental material was fear and using this clip from the 2005 film Batman Begins helped to capture this. This scene is a fight scene in which Batman is fighting the League of Shadows and Commissioner Gordon is escaping in the Bat-mobile. I wanted to emulate the fear that this scene invokes in a viewer with its music so I wanted to make it as dark and as creepy as possible. I mainly just went off of what sounded the most creepy together when messing around with Soundtrap. I was mainly trying to capture the overall Batman vibe that this scene gave off with my music. The reason I created this was because the activity was to choose a movie scene and give it a new score. I generally watched the clip a lot on Youtube and then messed around with Soundtrap until I got something that matched the action on the screen and sounded really scary. I submitted this that week and then combined both the music and video using Premier Pro to create the finished product this past week. I loved making this piece because I really love superheroes and to be able to make something of my own to fit a film that I love was a really cool experience. Plus, this really helped me to learn the editing software which was really cool and fun to do.
Nolan, Christopher, director. Batman Begins (2005) Batman vs League of Shadows Fight Scene. Youtube, 2005,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSjXmn8dKb0&ab_channel=BatmanMovieScenes.