Crisis averted

I'd just like to take this opportunity to say that finishing that dissertation was one of the most stressful experiences of my life, no exaggeration. I should have stuck to what I knew, last year, I researched Propp's Theory and applied it to three films, this year I took it one step further and went for surveys. Compiling the data into graphs took a lot longer than I anticipated and I nearly missed the deadline. Having said all that though, handing in another finished dissertation was incredibly satisfying, the weight of the world off my shoulders.

In other news, I'm still working of the script for the Ghost Recordist. I'm not really sure what to change, so I'll just develop it further and hand it on to Niall soon. It's a bit loose but I hope he likes it. I've also got to start planning for the next shoot, it's a month away and we still have to find our lead actor, and a location. Speaking of which, I should have shown these off before; I took some recce photos in Shane (Davidson)'s granddad's old house, it's abandoned now and it would be absolutely perfect...

Spooky exterior...

 Dusty old interior...

It even has this! This is pretty much exactly what I had in mind when I thought of Mikael's house, I went in and my jaw dropped, it was perfect. Too perfect. It turns out Shane would rather we didn't use the place, out of respect for his granddad, and because it's not 100% safe in there, someone might get hurt. Well, at least I have something to work off, I'll send Steve the pictures of the place so he knows the look I'm going for. I don't think we'll be able to recreate it in all its glory, but we'll give it a shot.

Not another dissertation!

So I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting another dissertation so soon, due in at Christmas? Oh god, the pressure is on. I am very glad I have my experience from last year to draw on however, I know to keep my workload spread evenly and it'll all be okay (I'm panicking on the inside).

I know I want to base my study on sound and music in horror films, but I'm not sure of a specific title yet. Perhaps something to do with clichés, and how they detract from the value, and scariness of the film, I find myself looking at Film Sound's list of cliches, and giggling and nodding at each one, so it could be a good avenue to explore. Before I nail it down though it's a good idea to research as much as I can about the topic, so here's a few of the sites I'm checking out at the moment:

http://filmsound.org/ the obligatory source for film sound, a hub of sorts.

http://designingsound.org/tag/horror/ - A good few articles on here, though not exclusively dealing with film.

http://www.soundandmusic.org/projects/sound-fear-musical-universe-horror - Some very informative videos about sound in horror films.

http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=11755 - A detailed interview with a fairly prominent horror composer.

http://www.lma.cnrs-mrs.fr/~kronland/Sense_of_Sound/49690139.pdf - A very detailed scientific article on how sound affects people.

Plenty of reading material there to last me, this is definitely the most import part of my secondary research. I'll update with more sources for the other parts of my secondary research, as well as anything else useful I find.