Pages

Friday, October 28, 2016

Music in Film

I hear too many people say that the music in movies isn't important. It's sadly false. In the words of George Lucas, "The sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie." I have to say, I couldn't agree more. As a film buff and high school musician/composer, I'm actually excessively passionate about this subject. I don't know how, but I'm going to do my best to explain just how right Lucas was when he said that quote.

Music in movies can be used to make you feel a certain way without even realizing it. There are so many great example that I don't think anyone could list all of them after a decade of writing. That might be a hyperbole, but I'm just trying to get the point across. I've been spending the last twenty minutes trying to figure out how to explain my strong opinions on this subject, but I still haven't thought of anything. I figure I'll just try to use some examples, but it's really up to movie watchers to decide if they agree with me.

If you've ever watched something sad in a movie, when you listen really carefully, there's always emotional music playing on in the background. If you've watched something triumphant happening in a movie, then the music would portray similar emotions. You can list off all the thoughts and emotions that you can think of, and every single one can be put to music.

I don't know about everyone else, but I've never seen a really good movie with really bad music. Similarly, I've never seen a really bad movie with really good music. It's not one or the other, it's a good movie and good music or a bad movie and bad music. The movie effects how good the music can be, and the music effects how good the movie can be.

Take Lord of the Rings as an example (any of them, they're all great and done by the same composer: Howard Shore). There are so many different leitmotifs (I'll explain one day) within in the movie and they're all so pronounced that you can almost tell what's happening in the movie without actually watching it. And in my opinion, you can't listen to the Hobbit theme without smiling out of the pure joy that the music portrays.

Another great example is Pixar and it's movies (except Big Hero 6, it's not a very good example). Pixar knows how to use music to multiply the emotions you feel by ten times. They build a theme between two characters and use that theme later on to really make you sad or happy, depending on the situation of course.

It's much more difficult to explain how important music is in movies than I thought it would be. Just watch any movie without the music and you really get a sense of what I'm trying to say. 

No comments:

Post a Comment