Life on Mars Clip Analysis - Editing and Sound

Sound Clip

This clip of Sherlock Holmes begins with the sound of a fruit machine, this represents Sherlock's chain of thought and he is scrolling through the possible letters that are missing. There is non-digetic sound throughout the clip but some digetic sounds are merged in every now and then. The music begins quiet and at a fairly jumpy tempo. The audience is able to hear lots of different instruments used to make the sound. A guitar or banjo is introduced at approx. 0:11. As the clip proceeds, the music increases slightly. Each time Sherlock analyses the body and the audience is shown a piece of evidence there is a significant note played to highlight the importance of the evidence. The sound is usually a guitar be strum. Some heavier instruments are then introduced when Sherlock is finding out that this woman is a "Serial Adulterer". Drums are lightly being played to add some thickness to the sound. When he removes the woman's ring the audience hear a swooshy noise which emphasized the fact that it was regularly removed, this is the digetic sound. As soon as the audience are shown Sherlock's face, he smiles and the music ends on a single note. The first piece of dialogue is then delivered. Although the whole clip was majority non-digetic, the audience knew exactly what was going on and the music helped them to do so by getting louder throughout and having unique sounds where there was a piece of importance. 

Hotel Babylon Green Screen

Textual Analysis and Representation

Camera Shots, Angle, Movement and Composition

Shots: establishing shot, master shot, close-up, mid-shot, long shot, wide shot, two-shot, aerial shot, point of view shot, over the shoulder shot, and variations of these.
Angle: high angle, low angle, canted angle.
Movement: pan, tilt, track, dolly, crane, steadicam, hand-held, zoom, reverse zoom.
Composition: framing, rule of thirds, depth of field – deep and shallow focus, focus pulls.
　

Editing

Includes transition of image and sound – continuity and non-continuity systems.

Cutting: shot/reverse shot, eyeline match, graphic match, action match, jump cut, crosscutting, parallel editing, cutaway; insert.
Other transitions, dissolve, fade-in, fade-out, wipe, superimposition, long take, short take, slow motion, ellipsis and expansion of time, post-production, visual effects.
　

Sound 

Diegetic and non-diegetic sound; synchronous/asynchronous sound; sound effects; sound motif, sound bridge, dialogue, voiceover, mode of address/direct address, sound mixing, sound perspective.
Soundtrack: score, incidental music, themes and stings, ambient sound.
　

Mise-en-Scène

Production design: location, studio, set design, costume and make-up, properties.
Lighting; colour design

January 2010 Mark Scheme

65259 Mark Scheme January

Editing Clip

The clip of Sherlock Holmes uses narrative continuity editing which is typical of British TV dramas. This short clip is full of jump cuts and reverse shots back and forth from Sherlock, Watson and the body that Sherlock is analysing. Very plain text appears on the screen, white and no effect to try and not draw any attention away from the main image. The text is informing the audience of Sherlock's exact train of though, it's done in a very effective way by which when the name Rachel fills in the gaps of the scratching's on the floor and the last letter is spun around, like a fruit machine roll. The long pauses on each clue allows the audience to focus in to what it means and also to slow down the fast, jump shots which could confuse the audience. The reverse shots back and forth from the different characters created tension and allowed us to see into the mind set of all three, just by their facial expressions and body language - as there was no dialogue. The slow movement over each piece that Sherlock analyses is smooth and seems natural. When the text is showing that the woman was unhappily married (00:36) the colour of the image changes and flashes with the clear cut image and then a reduced brightness image. Throughout the clip, the camera has a permanent lens flare which    gives the illusion that the clip is excellent quality and that it is reflecting off of something. As lens flare are said to occur when the camera is zoomed - this clip would confirm this as all the shots are close-ups which could be a reason why there is a lens flare in the majority of the shots. The use of no dialogue and text instead is that we are able to take in the whole clip and get into Sherlock's mind set - the non-digetic music used is fast and creates a lot of tension with the sound of the constant ticking.