Bernard Herrmann was born June 30, 1911 in New York City. He began his career composing for CBS radio dramas, where he met and began collaborating with Orson Welles, founder of the Mercury Theater Acting group. In 1938 they aired the Sci Fi radio drama War of the Worlds. This would lead to the collaboration of their first feature film, Citizen Kane, and the beginning of Herrmann’s brilliant and influential film composing career. When Herrmann arrived in Hollywood in 1941, he pushed away the traditional “Hollywood sound,” that was being produced by his fellow composers, and began creating an individual composing style that was unique, simple, effective, and would set the stage for future generations of film composers. Unafraid of pushing the …show more content…
He made his successful debut as a film composer, and received his first and only Academy Award for Best Score for All That Money Can Buy. Herrmann not only experimented with the size of his orchestra but with the instruments that it was comprised of. Always searching for a unique sound, he would add obscure and innovative instruments to his orchestra. In his score for The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) he was able to achieve an eerie feeling and sound by adding a theremin to his orchestra. Another example can be seen in his score for the film Journey To The Center Of The Earth (1959) where he used a serpent, a bass wind instrument, giving the viewer the impression that they are entering a world void of human contact. In 1955 Herrmann composed his first Alfred Hitchcock film The Trouble With Harry, thus beginning the legendary Hitchcock/Herrmann collaboration team. A successful partnership that lasted for eleven years and gave the film world a body of work that continues to inspire directors and composers to this day. During this time Hitchcock and Herrmann collaborated and produced eight films, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), The Wrong Man (1956), Vertigo (1958), North By Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1936), Marnie (1964). While these are just a few of the films Herrmann composed for, they are by far the greatest examples of his orchestration and composing
...ormation of novel to film, sees Hitchcock’s responsibility as auteur. Suggesting Hitchcock as ‘creator’, attributes to Vertigo’s “perfection” (Wood, p.129) as Wood argues. Stylistic features known classically to Alfred Hitchcock movies is also what defines Hitchcock as a classic auteur, his style generates a cinematic effect which mixes effectively with his use of suspense. In returning to Cook’s discussion, she references Andrew Sarris, who argues that the “history of American cinema could be written in terms of its great directors,” (Cook, p. 411) showing the legitimacy of authorship in popular American cinema. Ultimately Cook goes on to address the changes in authorship from the 1950’s until today, featuring developments in authorship within Cinema. Overall, both Cook and Wood presented a balanced discussion on the legitimacy of Alfred Hitchcock’s auteur status.
...lassical composers, I applaud this man for his creativity, style, but most of all for the great contribution he has made to the music and film world.
The film, Vertigo (1958) directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is classified as a genre combination of mystery, romance, suspense and thriller about psychological obsession and murder. Filmed on location in San Francisco and on the Paramount lot in Hollywood, California in 1957, the cultural features of the late 1950’s America were depicted in the films mise en scène by costume and set designs current for that time period. The film was produced at the end of the golden age of Hollywood when the studio system was still in place. At the time Vertigo was produced, Hollywood studios were still very much in control of film production and of actor’s contracts. Hitchcock’s groundbreaking cinematic language and camera techniques has had great impact on film and American popular culture and created a cult following of his films to this day.
Howard Shore is a Canadian composer who is famous for his film scores. He has composed the orchestration for over 80 motion pictures, especially the musical arrangements for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies. He won three Academy Awards for his work on the first trilogy. Shore has also composed a few musical pieces including one opera, The Fly. He also won three Golden Globe Awards and four Grammy Awards. He started learning and studying music at the age of eight. He advanced to educating himself how to play instruments, and performing in bands by the age of 13. At
After listening to all four movements of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, I have suddenly been awakened to the tremendous influence that the Classical Form of music has had on modern day works, especially in the area of the film industry which it is used to create drama, tension, and joy. History owes a debt of gratitude to composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven, who build upon the legacy of pioneers such as Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to create his own unique blend of symphonic compositions which will be revered throughout generations because of their continued appeal to the
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.
A Genetic Odyssey’ is an interesting movie to watch. There were many thoughts that passed my mind as I watched the movie. First of all, it was interesting to visualize the movie back in the day, assuming how one single man lived in Africa approximately sixty thousand years ago. It is quite amazing to have traced the records so far behind to find that Adam could be the father of homo sapiens after all. The better question arises when there are different sizes, races and shapes to each human being.
Hitchcock has characteristics as an auteur that is apparent in most of his films, as well as this one.
Films were a new exciting form of entertainment from their debut in the early 1900’s to today, the film making business hit a growth period in the 1920’s. It was a time when movies came and went quickly and films that had no pretense of being art were made in mass. During this time of rapid change in the film making business, a certain aspiring director began his dream of working with cinema. Eventually, the talented and mysterious director, Alfred Hitchcock, played a huge part in establishing his and others’ masterpieces as an art.
Director Nicholas Ray was lucky to have a talented composer create an original score for Rebel Without A Cause. Leonard Rosenman was born in 1924 and studied music in New York and Europe. His work as a film composer and arranger is very traditional, and has been regarded by some music critics as "insignificant." However, Rosenman received Academy Awards and Oscar nominations for his work. Along with film scores, Rosenman wrote theme music and scores for numerous television shows. The score in Rebel Without A Cause is much like another film starring James Dean, East of Eden.
Think about your favorite movie. When watching that movie, was there anything about the style of the movie that makes it your favorite? Have you ever thought about why that movie is just so darn good? The answer is because of the the Auteur. An Auteur is the artists behind the movie. They have and individual style and control over all elements of production, which make their movies exclusively unique. If you could put a finger on who the director of a movie is without even seeing the whole film, then the person that made the movie is most likely an auteur director. They have a unique stamp on each of their movies. This essay will be covering Martin Scorsese, you will soon find out that he is one of the best auteur directors in the film industry. This paper will include, but is not limited to two of his movies, Good Fellas, and The Wolf of Wall Street. We will also cover the details on what makes Martin Scorsese's movies unique, such as the common themes, recurring motifs, and filming practices found in their work. Then on
It is no doubt that Martin Scorsese has heavily influenced the emulating of American film making from European influences. He is a prime example of a ‘New Hollywood Cinema’ director, not only from his ethnicity and background, but from his sheer interest in this form
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.
The introduction of sound to film started in the 1920’s. By the 1930’s a vast majority of films were now talkies. ‘If you put a sound consistent to visual image and specifically human voice you make a “talkie”’ (Braun 1985 pg. 97). In 1926 Warner Brothers introduced sound to film but, other competing studios such as FOX, didn’t find it necessary to incorporate sound to their motion pictures production, as they were making enough money through their silent movies. Warner Brothers decided to take what was considered a risky move by adding sound to their motion picture, a risk taken, as they weren’t as successful in the silent movie department. But this risk paid off with the hit release of ‘The Jazz Singer’ in 1927. Though sound in films was then acceptable and successful it wasn’t until the 1950’s that it became feasible to the public as sound was introduced to cinema by the invention of Cinerama by Fred Waller. The Cinerama used 35mm film strip and seven channels of audio.
There are thousands of movie composers in the music industry, a few who triumph and whose work is well known to almost half of the world. One example of that can be the famous Maestro John Williams. John Williams is the musician for Jaws, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, E.T and lots more. But there is a piece which everyone recognizes, and that is the theme from the movie Jaws. Imagine Jaws without the music. People would not feel scared; they would laugh at the plastic shark. And that is why music is one of the most important elements in cinema. John Williams in a late interview said this: “The music is part of a whole, which if I try as a composer to take that part of the whole, like in a concerto. I would not succeed, because the attention would go only for the music and not for the picture” (John Williams Interview). In Jaws, the music blends with the picture and acting; there are no imbalances. The picture and the music need to be in perfect harmony. Therefore, in Jaws, every time the daring melody comes out; the audience knows something bad is going to happen, and the music may anticipate a particular situation, but without the music overpowering the actors and sound effects.