On one of the recent days of weather doom, I sat down and watched the documentary titled Score. It focuses on the development of the musical scores for movies and all the work behind one of the most important parts of a movie.
One of the most important? Really?
It ranks right up there. Have you ever watched a movie without any music in the background? Probably not. I recall the majority of the movie Castaway didn’t have music, at least as long as Tom Hanks’ character was stranded on the island. It was disconcerting to go that long without some overture ramping up the action.
If you watch a movie and listen, really listen, to the music, you will find a whole new world of enjoyment. In fact, you probably already have noticed the music subconsciously. Let me give you some examples. I’ll name some movies, and see how long it takes for the main theme to enter your mind.
Rocky.
Jaws.
Indiana Jones.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Superman.
Star Wars.
Pirates of the Caribbean.
I apologize if some of those might be stuck in your head for a while, but do you see what I mean? These are iconic themes, music that transcended the normal movie sounds you hear. If you didn’t recognize some, Google them, and you’ll likely find that immediate recognition.
When you dive in past the main themes, you will often recognize various elements of music which are devoted to particular characters, as well as notice the crescendos and decrescendos as the action increases or decreases. More and more, you’ll find elements that are not just orchestras playing music, but many movies like to have pop artists add a song or two to the mix. Some movies have more pop music than otherwise, and that appeals to a big segment of the movie-going crowd.
I enjoy listening to soundtracks; they provide good background sounds while I’m writing or working. If the songs have words, it’s easier to become distracted. Of course, I can just as easily be distracted by finding myself pretending to direct the orchestra as they soar into a movie song I really enjoy!
My 7th graders recently wrote movie critiques of various Star Wars movies. A majority of them included the music as part of their review. Most of those said how much they now noticed, once it was suggested they use that in their writing, the importance of the music and how much it had to offer.
Score pointed out how really, really cheesy the original King Kong movie was, but how the music saved the action scenes and made them more intense. The same goes for the shower scene from Psycho. If it weren’t for the sounds you hear in the background, you might notice how badly the attack started.
And there’s another important element to movies: sound. Many of my students wrote about the sound effects as well, though they were mixed on their feelings of them in the Star Wars movies. (Yes, I know there is no sound in space, but it’s pretty necessary to hear sounds when the ships blow up!)
One of the students was really intrigued by the sound effects. Every day, he was telling me about something new he had researched about how they came up with the sounds. It’s exciting when kids find these new ideas and want to keep learning more!
The sound effects are very important. If something gets blown up while they’re filming, the sound the explosion makes is nothing like what you hear during viewing. Sound producers endeavor to add more bulk to a lot of sounds, including scenes like car chases. Surely, when a gun is fired on the screen, the sound is added afterward since they don’t use real guns!
Think of the fun these sound people have experimenting with various objects and trying to find just the right sound to match the scene! I’m sure there are some sounds they use over and over, but I’d guess that every movie brings new challenges.
There is likely a lot of pressure on the music and sound folks, since a movie must be mostly filmed before they can get down to the nuts and bolts. To write music and perform it well, and to figure out the sounds to all the needed parts must be very stressful. These artisans probably watch each scene dozens of times before settling in on what will work best.
Maybe this is more in-depth than you care to go while watching a movie. But, especially on movies I’ve seen more than once, paying attention to these details gives me an added layer of enjoyment and appreciation. Maybe the next time you watch something, you’ll find some extra meaning to the soundtrack and sounds provided to flesh out these wonderful escapes from our everyday lives.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is amain, which means at full speed or with great haste, as in, “The composer worked amain to finish the music for the film score by the deadline.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!