welcome to now you see it
film brought forth an art form centered
around seeing motion on a screen but
film is far more than only visual music
plays a huge role in the heightened
realism of the part of a different film
scores can completely alter the mood of
a scene and filmmakers carefully pick
their soundtracks or film scores to
convey certain emotions or ideas I want
to look at the psychology of music how
our brains respond to different auditory
stimulation in movies to talk about
music in a film I should distinguish
between a soundtrack and a score a film
score is written specifically for what's
happening on a screen while a soundtrack
contains songs independent from the
movie itself that weren't made only for
the movie most films have both and one
example is Forrest Gump which has a
soundtrack of songs not solely
associated with the movie
and a film score with music written
specifically and only for that movie
to really understand the importance of
the music in a film you should compare
final cuts of movies with the intended
film score and cuts with removed or
edited music the famous psycho shower
scene is so much less frightening
without its score my favourite example
to show the importance of music in a
film is the altering of this scene in
the Pirates of the Caribbean depending
on the music the scene can become
triumphant creepy or comical
you
using music to psychologically altura
see has been around since the silent era
silent movies used to be accompanied
with a live piano player who would play
along with the movie at first the music
didn't interact with the movie at all
and was only there to avoid silence in
the theater
but later piano players would either
improvise along with the movie or
receive sheet music to play along with
the psychology of the accompaniment was
pretty straightforward when the screen
shows a villain the piano player plays a
diminished minor chord which sounds
eerie and unnerving
you
heroes get uplifting anthems
chase scenes have a fast tempo and sad
scenes are slow and somber
these early psychological musical
techniques set the standard for film
scores in modern cinema and while the
orchestras have gotten bigger and the
score is more effective the general
ideas of silent film piano accompaniment
have remained the same
the shower scene in psycho is a perfect
example of the psychology of music and
film in the scene Marion crane gets
stabbed to death in the shower and the
scene features one of the most effective
film scores in history the screeching
sound of the violin mimics sounds we
biologically associate with stress and
danger the sound mimics cry for help a
study by the University of California in
2010 found that nonlinear alarm sounds
give us an emotional response that
instinctively unsettles us
psychologically bernard herrmann the
composer of psycho purposefully
constructed the film score to mimic
these unsettling noises and the effect
makes the scene significantly scarier
and more unsettling
and jaws we hear the music before we see
any danger
this technique unsettles us in a
different way the anticipation of the
danger is what makes each scene so scary
the fact that we know something bad is
about to happen and the characters in
the movie don't know add suspense to the
scene we are warned of the danger
through the film score and have no
choice but to watch the horror unfold as
the music slowly speeds up so does the
camera and we feel psychological terror
from the disorder of the music and the
anticipation of the inevitable
the majority of film scores though
purposefully stay in the background and
only provide subtle cues to the audience
film score pioneer Aaron Copland gave
five ways a score serves the screen and
most of them stay in the background the
first is to create a more convincing
atmosphere of timer place this one is
pretty self-explanatory
many genres and settings have their own
style of music to go with the style of
the film score puts us into a particular
setting or genre a classic example would
be the Western which has a very distinct
sound so when Bill and Ted go back in
time to the West the music changes along
with them how's it going with Western
this is just like frontier 'la yeah
second music can underline psychological
refinements unspoken thoughts or unseen
dangers get shown or reinforced through
the music we may not see the danger but
the music reminds us it's there
cotton-headed ninny-muggins
you just expect that's weird
yesterday we went food shopping for like
15 minutes
I used a computer before I went to store
when I came back my history of scon the
cache was cleared and the cookies have
been reset huh third is to build a sense
of continuity if the music between shots
or scenes is the same we relate those
scenes to each other this includes
montages or flashbacks
Citizen Kane uses musical cues as an
indicator of a flashback
why he was with mr. Kane and me the
first day mr. Kane took over the
Inquirer and catch me if you can the
music is a cue that the chase is on
fourth is to give a sense of finality
Copland notes that this takes place
usually at the end of the film or after
some major triumph the triumphant sound
of the music psychologically links us to
the triumph on screen
and finally Coughlin says sometimes
music is just there to fill the silence
interestingly he states that this is the
hardest film score to do because the
audience shouldn't notice it holiday
that recognizes that May 21st other
Mother's Day
thank you that's got a boys
in a clockwork orange Kubrick has
uplifting orchestra music play while
extreme acts of violence occur on screen
the contradiction between comforting
classical music and destruction adds
tension and unease to the scene
film scores enhance the emotion of a
scene but sometimes directors choose to
not use any music and this can work just
as well in No Country for Old Men the
vast majority of the movie has no music
but mostly dialogue and ambient noise
and it totally works hearing nothing but
a man struggle for his life is pretty
menacing the storming of the beach scene
in Saving Private Ryan overwhelms the
senses with the sounds of gunshots
explosions and cries for help instead of
a film score
our brains often subconsciously react
differently to a visual given the music
playing behind I think it's really
interesting because of how subtle film
scores can be and yet how vital they are
to a movie
the psychology of music is one of the
most important cinematic techniques in
film the emotional and thematic
potential of these techniques is
limitless and I've only scratched the
surface so take your favorite film watch
it again and pay close attention to the
music and how it enhanced the film maybe
without you even noticing how does that
sound
thanks for watching all of the books
that I recommended even if he didn't I
wouldn't be offended
I had a dream that