Film Music: Blog #4

I found that the film “Close Encounters of the third kind” was a very interesting movie where the music that went with it actually fit the film it’s self, unlike the film “Poltergeist.” In Close Encounters of the third kind you get the feeling of knowledge. The part where the ship and the “musician” are playing back and forth is very cool, it’s awesome that they could take something that is supposed to be scary and add a little fun. The piece that was used was very interesting because it wasn’t just played at the end of the movie; it was played throughout whenever someone was thinking of the aliens. For example when the man on the side of the road was standing in his truck he was whistling that exact tune and the little boy playing the xylophone was playing that exact tune as well.

 In Poltergeist you receive mix emotions with all the different sound effects added into the music. At time you believe everything is fine but then it turns out to completely opposite. However I do like the use of the child’s melody in the dark music, it really gave the music & the scenes a creepy feeling to the audience. It was also very funny to watch everyone’s reactions to the demon and the clown.

The movie “Up” was fantastic! It was awesome that they used the opening theme was used throughout the movie, but at certain times you do not even notice it because of everything going on in the film. I loved the fact that they started off showing them as children & then as they made their life’s speed up and you watch them grow old together the music gives all the emotions. The music is all happy and cheery, but when Ellie gets sick it starts to get slower and sad and once she dies it is all depressing, which really gave the audience the full affect. (I saw some people tearing up, along with myself.)

I just think it is so awesome how movies have come so far in so little time. It started out with no talking and the film lasting about 3 minutes to it being two hours long, cartoon and in all color. It was also awesome to see how they use to use like so much equipment to make just a scene of music to where they can do a whole movie’s soundtrack at the press of a button on computers. Technology really has been a very large impact on music and films aging. They go hand in hand with each other. If it was not for film we would not have some of the technology we do today and if it was not for technology we would not have the films we do today. I’ve never realized how much the world has really improved and advanced after all the years. 

Film Music: Blog #3

The film “The Best Years of Our lives” was very boring to me, it just wasn’t a movie I myself would pick to watch. The music in it went very well and helped to make the movie but the movie had no flavor to me. In this time of the movies they started to add color, which did not make sense to me why they would not have made the movie color. I do agree that yes black and white can sometimes make a film more interesting but this movie just did not make any sense to me. It switched screens all the time, and a certain times the music would just not go with what was going on in the film.

“High Noon” was an awesome movie and I would love to watch another western in class. Yes, I’m a big western fan and that is all thanks to my grandfather and my mother. The music in the film went very well with everything that was going on. When you saw either the marshal or the bad guys you would hear the piece that was played at the introduction to the film. Then when you would see the Russian lady you would hear mysterious music, and with Mrs. Kane you would hear more sad and gloomy music. The film was one to really keep you on your toes the whole movie because they kept playing the same tune by in different tempos and scales.

It was very cool to think that they could make you think one thing was going to happen and then the complete opposite happened and it was all thanks to the music in the film. You would have thought at the end that the marshal was going to die, but he actually lived. I also believed that the towns’ people would have helped the marshal but it turned out nobody wanted to help him but one man. It is so amazing what music can get you to think is going to happen, but that is just like what they said in the book most of the music is meant to make you think differently or to have it sneak up on you.

However the film “American Graffiti” was absolutely pointless and had no meaning to the film. The music was very good, it helped make the movie and to really put you in the time of the film. It was really neat how they could go from having classical music in a film then having pop music and rock n’ roll. It really helped us learn that so much can happen in a little period of time.

Film Music: Blog #2

The film “Robin Hood” I definitely liked a lot better than any other films we’ve watched so far in class. Not just because they talk a lot more than there is music but because I love more action films than anything. The music went right a lot with all the fighting they did in the film and it really helped keep me on the edge of my seat. It also had more romantic temped music when Robin Hood and Maiden Marian were together; it was a symbol to the audience that they were falling in love with each other.

“Top Hat” and the music in this film really were like the total opposite of “Rodin Hood.” Yes, there was romance in “Robin Hood” but “Robin Hood” it had much more fighting than romance. “Top Hat” was complete romance, as you watched two young actors fall in love with each other. It also had confusion as you watched them fall in love, but the music gave you that tone to let you know, but when they fell in love the tone and tempo was more on the keys of soft and elegant to show the audience they were together. The Dynamic of the films music was loud yet soft and happy to show the happiness in the relationship that the young couple had. It’s funny how the melody its self actually makes you fall in love with Jerry Travers.

It was really cool when we watched the film during class about the different composers and you get to see how they got the music on the films. How they actually did it looks very complicated and time consuming but when compared to today making these films actually took little to no time at all. It was awesome to see the way the composers could time the whole entire symphony to play at the exact time they needed to in the film. It was like the maestro has control of every movement and note played by the symphony under one little stroke of this stick. The book showed how they would take and put punches in the film so that it would go through the projector and give “cues” to the composers to play certain parts of music as the exact time the punch would show up on the large screen in front of the composer.

Slowly but surely this class gets interesting, it’s very cool to sit back and look at how much film has come in all these years and how much film has and still does affect our lives every day.

Film Music: Blog #1

I found that the “great train robbery” had music that actually went with the whole theme of the movie. The movements of the robbers were very fast, and very upbeat and when the people went after the robbers the music becomes more of a “chase like” tempo. The robbers were very mysterious and they tried to make themselves look dangerous, so the composer of the music made the music have an allegro tempo. The composer used a minor scale for the film, which really worked and gave it the emotion that the robbers were up to no good.

The book talks about how composers use music to create a mood, which is how they make the video fit it’s self, and make the movie make sense. You’re able to understand the story of the film without words, all you hear is the emotions in the music. Also the book talks about wall to wall music, which is just like it sounds. Its how the music will start from the very beginning of the film and the music will end at the very end of the film too. Many songs of the early 1900’s, called Lumiere clips have wall to wall music.

The film “A trip to the moon” has a lot of music in it, and it helped bring more of a comedy flavor to the film, which to me was very funny. The music started to speed up and sound very fun when the astronomers were being chanced by the people on the moon. It was funny because even though there were no words the tempo and scaled of the music made the chase fit. The mood of the whole film was more comedy then, serious like it was in the film “The Battleship Potemkin.” In that film there was fighting, rebellion, and grieving emotions and each emotion had its own type of music. This film had more of a minor scale and chromatic scale verses having a major scale as in the first film.

I love how you can watch movies that have no words and the music brings in the emotion and everything that words could do. “The jazz singer” had some words in the film, when he was singing but they mainly used music and word cards. The emotion the music used brought you to tears at some points, like when he wanted to help his father after his father disowned him. The music also brought you to smiling and happy when he was singing and then flirting the Mrs. Dale. Music can give so much emotion to a film, the way I see it music brings a story in its self to a film.