What exactly, does music contribute to film and its emotional aspects? Well, music holds a massive influence in shaping the film experience, manipulating emotions, point of view, and managing the perceptions of characters, moods and narrative events. Music itself is symbolic in language. It communicates emotions through sound instead of using the spoken language. The purpose of this paper will be to investigate the role in which music plays in conveying emotion within film, while supporting the argument that it is one of the greatest sources of emotion in film. This will be achieved by studying various other works, that will help in further explain why this is so.
Music, virtually always accompanies film. Hegel said that music in film is an absolute necessity while Zizek interprets it as a necessity in the form of contingency. It is predominantly made up of symbols in the form of sounds consisting of pitch, melody, rhythm, tonality, harmony and timbre. All of these components are implements used to present musical concepts and project emotion. There might not be a precise formula as to which sounds produce exactly which emotional response, but there is a long history of devices and empirical techniques originally learned from both trial and error in conjunction with observation and study as to how best to elicit a psychological response in the mind of the listener.
The major requirement for film music has been that it serves the purpose of the picture and is effective in fulfilling the director’s vision. It can be used to enhance the plot, reflect the theme and enhance the mood. It can help pinpoint the dialogue and it can also, at times, surpass the spoken word in conveying psychological elements. A good musical sco...
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...ics far beyond simply spinning a good yarn. The film experience must imitate in some way all three overlapping dimensions of subjective reality; the symbolic, the real and the imaginary. The method by which this is done involves very heavily the use of film music.”
Works Cited
Zizek, Slavoj. The Metasteses of Enjoyment, New York: Verso, 1994. pp. 35-36
Sonnenschein, David. Sound Design: the Expressive Power of Music, Voice, and Sound Effects in Cinema. Studio City, California: Michael Wiese Productions, 2001. pp.156
Copland, Aaron. What to Listen For in Music, 2nd Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957. pp. 256-258
Hall, Roger. Writing Your First Play. Boston: Focal Press, 1991. pp. X
Copland, Aaron. Music and Imagination. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968. pp. 192-193
Audiovision pp. 8-9.
Spande, Robert. The Three Regimes: a Theory of Film Music. pp. 2.
music to analyse—in fact, the music runs almost constantly throughout the film without very little
In this film, John Williams revived the technique of using leitmotif –a recurring musical theme or melody associated with a particular person, place, object, or idea that is “characterized by a single harmonic or rhythmic trait” (Brown 15). In films, leitmotifs are melodies or musical phrases inserted into a specific character’s music background specified. It was originally developed by Richard Wagner and commonly used in his¬¬ operas during the Golden Age. These are used by film music composers
The films musical score alerts the viewer to an approaching attack of the shark and they automatically build this association with the music in their mind. Horror films often make use of high string instrument notes that irritate viewers and increase tension. Music plays an important role in film editing and the editor must choose its placement wisely to ensure its intended effect on the viewer’s mind and
film score and the process used to formulate them. Usually, after the film has been coceptualized
Wu, C. Y. (2007). A Study of Joe Hisaishi's Film Music in Hayao Miyazaki's Animation. (Master's thesis, Taipei University of the Arts, Taipei, Taiwan), Available from National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations in Taiwan. (003604684)Retrieved from http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/cgi-bin/gs32/gsweb.cgi/login?o=dnclcdr&s=id="095TNUA5249003".&searchmode=basic
For this essay I will be looking at the work of Hans Zimmer to discuss how music in film engages the viewer and evokes emotion and pulls the viewer toward the film. Hans Zimmer is a German born music composer. Hans Zimmer’s love of music stems from his childhood when he learned how to play various instruments. Before Zimmer began composing music for films he was in a well-known band. The band was called The Buggles whom were famous for their song Video Killed the Radio Star. After the Buggles Zimmer played in other bands but never had another hit. As Zimmer has progressed as a film composer so has his list of nominations and awards. Zimmer has won 4 Grammy Awards and 2 Golden Globes and many more for his outstanding film scores. The reason I chose to write this essay on Zimmer was that his genres and music score are extremely versatile ranging from animations to comedy to dark thrillers. This is important to highlight as it shows Zimmer can create almost any atmosphere with his music whether it be sad or creating tension that all cause us to engage with the film. Zimmer's use of themes and introduction of different instruments allowed him to create these wonderful engaging film score. In this essay I will look at three films by Hans Zimmer these are The Holiday Rush and Rain Man.
...ide of people, which is generally excited by happiness in the central case (Matravers 174). Music is not the whole part of the feeling; it just causes it (Matravers 174). When the volume from the music goes up, emotions will rise (Matravers 174). As the music goes down, the emotions decline as well (Matravers 174). The connection between music and emotions are similar to a mirror (Matravers 174). Whatever happens to the music, the human feelings will follow.
In conclusion, I have demonstrated how Coppola exploits a wide array of sound and editing to create suspense, intensity, and anxiety in the sequence to affect the audience’s emotions, using diegetic ambient sound effects, non-diegetic music, voice over and four editing types. With this sequence, Coppola has shown the savagery of war and our complicity in this violence as an audience.
middle of paper ... ... In final analysis, the motion picture is the one that goes deeper inside the spectator’s mind. Other mediums such as still picture and theatrical play also provide the visual and aural elements for the spectator, yet they seem to be inferior to the motion picture in that they lack the reality, affinity, and creativity in terms of use of time and space. The levels of emotions such as attention, memory, imagination, emotion, and unity, which were introduced by Munsterberg, indicates how the spectator perceives the elements of the film and ends up with it.
...successful collaboration of sound, colour, camera positioning and lighting are instrumental in portraying these themes. The techniques used heighten the suspense, drama and mood of each scene and enhance the film in order to convey to the spectator the intended messages.
Sound is an incredibly relevant part of filmmaking. Although often misunderstood, it helps to generate a more realistic episode by recreating the sonic experience the scene needs. Its main goal is to enhance the emotions that each section is trying to convey by adding music and effects alongside moving images. Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960), is one of the most popular films of the XX Century (Thomson, 2009). Commonly recognised as a masterpiece for its cinematographic, editing and musical values, it changed cinema forever by “playing with darker prospects (…) of humanity such as sex and violence (Thomson, 2009)”. This paper will analyse the sound effects used in the shower scene and its repercussions
As an audience we are manipulated from the moment a film begins. In this essay I wish to explore how The Conversation’s use of sound design has directly controlled our perceptions and emotional responses as well as how it can change the meaning of the image. I would also like to discover how the soundtrack guides the audience’s attention with the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds.
Sound is what brings movies to life, but, not many viewers really notice. A film can be shot with mediocre quality, but, can be intriguing if it has the most effective foley, sound effects, underscore, etc. Sound in movies band together and unfold the meaning of the scenes. When actors are speaking, the dialogue can bring emotion to the audience, or, it can be used as the ambient sound. Music is one of the main things to have when filmmaking. The use of Claudia Gorbman’s Seven Principles of Composition, Mixing and Editing in Classical Film gives audiences a perspective of sound, and, how it can have an impact on them.
...n, the use of sound in films is highly significant in the development of the plot and in turn the development of the theme. Although, the sound components play a very significant role individually, it is through the combination and manipulation of such components that the sound design of the sound track has a greater impact emotionally upon the audience. Moreover, the effectiveness of this emotional impact can be significantly increased through the implementation of an effective combination sound to the image. Such combination can be seen within Gravity which exhibits a soundscape that successfully assist in bringing the world of the film to life. Sound is important to films and is an essential feature, many a time an audience will not even self-consciously acknowledge the music or sound effects but if they weren’t there the viewing pleasure would not be as pleasing
The importance of music in movies is highly regarded for manipulating the viewer’s emotions and helping them immerse into the story. Music is one of the prime elements in cinema. Without it a movie would feel dull and unexciting. There are three elements in a movie: one is acting, the second is picture, and the third one is music. It is a holy trinity; if incomplete, there would be a lack of sensation and excitement. Both acting and picture can stand independently from one another, but music is the one that makes the movie memorable.