Alan J Moore's Film Music Chat

One of the main contributing factors to a movie’s success is its soundtrack. Music is an essential element in most plays and dramas. Shakespeare made efficient use of music in his famous plays. Movie makers realize that a lot of the movie’s business at the box office depends upon the music recording. There are many ways to incorporate songs in a movie. Musicals are one genre which is exclusively based on songs and lyrics. However, even if it is an action movie, filmmakers find ways to include some soundtracks into it.

In fact, Bollywood films are renowned for the excessive song and dance sequences they have. Hollywood movies too use orchestral or synthesizer score or even a new hit song to add to the interest element. Sometimes a movie’s popularity is increased by its musical score. Celine Dion’s “My heart will go on” for Titanic stayed on in public memory long after the movie left the cinema halls. The soundtrack of Love Story is one of the most enduring ever, and who doesn’t download music from Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. Many a times, blockbusters become classics because of their excellent scores. Hence, composers and song writers are in great demand in Hollywood.

There are different types of motion picture music. One is the underscore category like the score for Steven Spielberg’s E.T. Another is the category of original recording like “Hungry Heart” for the movie Perfect Storm. Finally there is the song that is written especially for a movie like “Over the rainbow” for the hugely popular Wizard of Oz. Each of these types is used frequently in movies and requires different recordings, contracts and royalties.

Songs are used in movies to show all kinds of emotions. A romantic setting is enhanced by an appropriate love song. Similarly music has been used to make people laugh and cry. In fact the story itself can be narrated through cleverly inserted songs. Moreover, with a great background score, emotions and dialogs acquire more significance. If a producer wants to use an existing soundtrack for his movie, he can do so by negotiating with the music producer. Often, a pre-existing, hit song can help create the mood required in the movie. The soundtracks of many movies come out and go on to become huge hits in their own right. These days with digital music recording, adding new songs to movies is becoming easier.

My Fair Lady was a complete musical whose main claim to fame was the witty use of lyrics to show every mood. Similarly, Chicago and Moulin Rouge used songs and extravagant dances to create the required atmosphere. Even if the movie does not use songs every other minute, it will show action with a background score playing regularly. Who can forget the scenes of Psycho with the spine tingling music in the background? The audio mastering was such here that the score heightens the audience’s fear and any time one hears the music he quickly associates it with Psycho. Such is the power of appropriate music in cinema!

Kansieo.com

The most effective and frightening soundtrack example I can think of is from Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Psycho. Famed soundtrack composer, Bernard Herrmann, created a chilling effect using piercing and screeching violins played in their highest registers. As the film progresses, when you hear that sound cue repeated, you know something really bad is going to happen. Another famous cue that works in a similar way is the 3-note phrase in the low string orchestra that announces the presence of the killer shark in the first Jaws film.

Soundtracks moments like the one in Psycho are great for portraying outright evil and horror but underscoring the feeling of fear can be done in subtler ways too.

Ordinary Actions Become Extraordinary

Sometimes the soundtrack notifies the audience that what they are seeing has a darker meaning. The movie Michael Clayton, which I saw this past weekend, does this a lot. The on-screen events are quite ordinary – a women is getting dressed for work – yet she is accompanied by a chilling soundtrack.

The music acts against the scene, contrary to it. It is telling us that these events are not ordinary and have importance beyond their actions. In fact, the music is telling us that these normal events are somehow scary. Something terrible is going to happen.

The Audience Knows a Secret

Sometimes the audience is let in on a secret, maybe a dark secret, that the central characters in the story don’t yet know about. You watch as events unfold and you see them getting further and further into trouble. Here again, a dark or suspenseful underscore can work wonders by building the tension against what is happening on screen.

The Inner Struggle

Lets say, in your story, your main character, a salesman, is boarding an airplane but we in the audience already know he has a terrible fear of flying. The flight attendants are welcoming families and other travelers on board the plane. The airplane cabin is filled with rather innocuous, but pleasant background music. Then we cut to the main character boarding the plane. Now the music changes to full-on frightening, horror soundtrack. The music portrays his inner psychology – his feelings of fear.

News Event/World Crisis

If you create documentaries or news programming, then you may need, at times, to show painful footage from current world events. This is another time where dark underscore works well. It sets the underlying emotional atmosphere for the accompanying footage.

Part of every media producer’s soundtrack arsenal includes the ability to underscore fright, fear, and events that are difficult or harrowing. Horror music tracks are like the dark colors, the dark shades in your soundtrack toolkit. Using them paints a chilly or terrifying picture.

Caffeinated Content