Film Music Evaluation

The same applies to a dramatic scene where the music may be deep and frantic to convey to the audience the feeling of anticipation. A scene i would like to focus on is the scene in which Garry and his father have a final ‘showdown’, if you will, at the front of the house. The scene consists of the father imposing himself on Garry and proceeding to continually beat him down time after time only for Garry to rise up and face his father on each occasion. This scene evoked a feeling of pride and admiration from the audience as to Garry’s courage and determination to convey the message to his father that he is ready to stand on his own two feet and defy him. This is a very powerful scene within the movie which initiated powerful emotions within the audience. All of this was accomplished with the notable absence of music of any form. The omission of music in this scene created an atmosphere in which the dramatic affect was amplified due to the silence.

Even though the film is essentially a visual experience, the use of sound has become extremely important in modern film. The modern viewer hears a complicated soundtrack that is as meaningful as the image on the screen. Three elements comprise the film's soundtrack: the dialogue, the sound effects, and the musical score. The proper balance and mix of these elements produced the essential emphasis required, which created the desired effects. As explained by Joseph Boggs and Dennis Petrie,

For example, the people filming the movie sometimes had the camera far away, which would then make the lines that the characters said harder to hear. If the camera was too close to a character's face, it was displeasing to look at, like when Johnny was in the hospital. Also, when watching the whole movie, it was hard to concentrate on the actual movie because I was too distracted on the voices to music ratio. Typically in a motion picture, the music is lowered enough so that the lines can be heard, while having it be loud enough for the audience to hear it, and bring the point across that it's an important moment to have that type of music. To give an example, in Ponyboy’s dream, it was very quite, then all of a sudden, extremely loud music and sounds erupted as I struggled to cover my ears, and I couldn’t pay attention to what was happening on screen because of all the piercing noise! Then, when Ponyboy woke up it was all normal volume that barely transitioned. There were a lot of other scenes that did the same exact thing, such as when Johnny went to back to his house and the volume of the parents fighting in the background almost cancelled out the other important lines and music. There are other problems than this particular one, some being no music at some points when it was most likely necessary to get the emotions that the characters were feeling across, or when the characters lines and volume were so quiet that you could barely to not hear them at all, or when the outside wind was so deafening to pay attention to anything else. It was somewhat comical to me every time one of these moments occurred, because it seems the creators didn’t care enough to fix

     The music helped in elaborating this great film. As I mentioned in class different instruments helped create different moods for different scenes in the movie. We heard the cello and the violin to create sadness and remorse. The flute created eeriness and the trumpet created awareness. I thought these were instruments and tools that help make this film extraordinary.

Over the past weeks I have been adding sounds to a moving image clip. Research of the science behind sound and of professional sound recordist would be key, anything from microphone techniques to personal safety would need to be taken into account on the recording side, whereas an understanding of the software and tools within it would be needed for the sequencing.

The audio although normally overpowered by the visual aspect played a key role in defining and empowering the movie. The music was fast and uplifting during celebration and on

Have you ever imagined what it would be like if Jaws lacked its famous theme? It would be very anti-climatic, wouldn't it? If you put it on a larger scale, the world would be quite mundane place without music. As a person who cannot go a day without listening to some tracks, I definitely agree to that statement. In my opinion, music is an enhancement that helps set the mood in an environment.

Along with background music, sound effects play more of a role on the way we feel than many moviegoers think, and "although the function of sound effects is primarily atmospheric, they can also be precise sources of meaning in film" (Giannetti, 225). When the

“The most exciting moment is the moment when I add the sound… At this moment, I tremble.” (Akira Kurosawa) Sound is arguably the most important concept in cinema studies, being there ever since the beginnings. It can radically change the way a motion picture is looked at and it can render what the director may sometimes find hard to depict using only his camera. Looking upon silent cinema one discovers an era which wasn’t at all silent, but rich in sound of different forms, from the simple narration of the images shown on screen, accompanied by a piano, to the complex score later composed specifically for that film. An example of that complex score is shown in Sunrise, a film by F.W. Murnau, which lies at the border between silent cinema and sound cinema. Considered to be one of the first films with an actual score, Sunrise is a great example of the multitude of dimensions and effects sound can have.

A musical film is a genre of movie where songs sung by characters are added into the storyline, occasionally complemented by choreography. The musical numbers in these films do not always develop the plot and characters, but they do give the films a more exciting quality. The primary difference between musical theatre and film musicals is the use of extravagant scenery that would be extraordinarily unreasonable for a stage performance. While making movies, the individuals involved have the luxury of being able to shoot multiple takes and have the time to move backgrounds around or change their entire location. Stage performances, on the other hand, must have scenery that can be easily and efficiently moved on and offstage when it is needed. In order to be able to thoroughly comprehend this relatively recent- in the grand scheme of things- form of entertainment, one should understand the history behind these musical films, be aware of some of the “big names” that are well-known, and recognize major titles that revolutionized musical film forever (Scaruffi, P., 2005).

Music is an essential component of film music because it introduces the mood and it helps create the atmosphere. However, the music often gets overlooked because viewers pay more attention to what’s happening on screen, such as visual images and dialogue. Film music continues to expand and become even more advanced. The golden age of film/film music were the late 1930’s. Although music is used to express emotions of a scene, such as the current emotional state of a character, music sometimes doesn’t have to match with what’s happening on screen.

Through all the changes composers and directors have come to believe that music changes how we can view a film. In 1927 the first movie with sound had been released as making huge improvements in the film industry that changed everything for Hollywood. Back in 1927 “The jazz Singer” had been released into theaters as the first film out of the silent era along with many others that

Music can be extraordinarily influential in films, as it has the ability to evoke emotion not displayed by on-screen action. Music used in films can play many roles; it can depict time and place, mood, atmosphere, character, and can be used to underscore the onscreen drama and titles. Alan Silvestri and John Williams successfully manipulate the use of music in film to establish characters (along with their personality, actions and changing emotions), as well as underscore the mood for the entirety of their given films. The contrasts of Silvestri’s “The Feather Theme” with Williams’ “Batman Theme” exemplify the power of music in film.

LISTENER RELEVANCE: Since film scores are such an important part of movies, it makes sense to learn a little bit more about them.

Music played during a movie and the soundtracks that go along with the movie play a significant role as the mood settles for the movie. If one is watching a scary movie, then a slower, creepier tone is appropriate, but if one is watching an action movie, then a fast paced song is better suited for the scene. In a sense, the soundtrack is what gives the movie its existence. Soundtracks must fit the movie perfectly, and in some cases people remember a certain song before an important event that occurred in the movie. A soundtrack plays just as big a role as the movie itself. If the plot does not fit the music of the movie, then the movie itself would not make any sense. Diner is a pleasant movie made in the 80’s