M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady In the Water in an excellent example of using background music to make the movie audience feel specific emotions towards specific characters in the story. The movie is based on a child’s bedtime story about how each person has their own purpose and no one knows that purpose until it is time to be the person they are purposed to be. The movie is set in an apartment building in Philadelphia and tells the story of a sea nymph named Story, played by Dallas Bryce Howard, that is chosen to go to ‘man’s world’ and inspire a chosen Vessel to initiate great change in the world. Story doesn’t know who the Vessel is or even what gender they are, only that when the Vessel sees her they will feel something “like pins and needles”. The story is really told from the prospective of the main character and care taker of the apartment building Cleveland Heep, played by Paul Giamatti. Once the two characters meet the plot really begins as Heep begins by thinking that Story is just a lost girl that needs to go home and almost immediately after meeting Story, Heep encounters the Scrunt, which is a creature bent on stopping Story by killing her. As the plot moves on he learns the secret about who she is and by interacting with other characters in the building that all fulfill specific …show more content…
While the story isn’t clear about his motive and we never really know if there is a reason for him hunting Story, it is clear about his intentions to kill her. The backstory of the bedtime tale is that the nymphs and scrunts are enemies and they create a sort of balance between good and evil. The background music choice for the scrunt is very dark and dangerous sounding, mixing the sound of deep bass drums and chaotic, screeching strings. Rising crescendos and tempo forces the audience to feel the dread and helplessness the scrunt
The story in its simplest form involves two main characters and the storyteller, Rat Kiley, a well-known truth stretcher. The main people that your interest in this story is concerned with are Mark Fossie, a solider with the team of medics that Rat was with, and his girlfriend Mary Anne Belle, a young woman of barely 17 years of age.
The social generation has taken over. If you don’t tweet on the daily, receive dozens of instagram likes, or know what the heck Tumblr is, you better get Googling because you’ve been left behind. It’s easy to get caught up in all the likes, retweets, comments, and ratings. We seem to need this sense of validation through numbers. We are never offline, we are permanently logged in. In Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows he searches for the consequences in the power of technology.
One of the techniques used to promote fear and suspense into the audience is the use of the music. This technique makes the audience afraid of the shark, whenever the theme song is played the audience is to expect another horrific attack from the deadly shark, which adds a lot of suspense and build-up to the scences following. Spielberg uses this particular sound to build-up the scene, such as in the beginning when the shark attacks the girl swimming. Spielberg uses this non-diegetic sound which is only heard by the audience, not by any of the characters in the film. A non-diegetic sound defined by film sound says, a sound neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be prese...
In the beginning of the story Schmitt explains that there are people who are crying in the hallway of her apartment complex. Schmitt and her husband found themselves contemplating whether or not to ask around to figure out what happened to whom they thought was the old grandpa on the second floor that they assumed had passed
The Great Depression of the 1930’s caused widespread poverty, but the popular culture of the time did not reflect this. People wanted to escape from this harsh time so movies, dancing and sports became very popular. Radios broadcasted boxing matches and boxers became stars. The heavyweight champion James J. Braddock aka “Cinderella Man,” gained popularity. James Braddock gained fame by winning many fights and proving everyone wrong when they said he was too old and couldn’t win.
In the background he uses music and sound effects to add to the dramatic visual images he creates. Finally Steven Spielberg uses specific dialogue to show the victims feelings and emotions. At the beginning of the film the soft, relaxing underwater noises of communicating sharks instantly sets the scene and creates the feeling of being deep underwater. The familiar beach sounds have a calming effect, which immediately lulls the audience into a false sense of security.
In the beginning and sporadically throughout the film we hear tribal music playing, this allows the audience to adjust themselves to the mood of the film. It is here that we meet four main characters on a boat that seem to be coming back to the Sea Islands. The audience is able to overhear a conversation from two of the women in the boat, Yellow Mary and Viola talking about their past when they used to run along the banks (where the boat dropped them).
The films musical score alerts the viewer to an approaching attack of the shark and they automatically build this association with the music in their mind. Horror films often make use of high string instrument notes that irritate viewers and increase tension. Music plays an important role in film editing and the editor must choose its placement wisely to ensure its intended effect on the viewer’s mind and
Some scores actually prove so important to a film that they become so well-known themselves that you cannot to begin to think of the film and not think of the music involved. In this film, it is the sound of the shark, the duh-dun, which I believe had the greatest impact on the audience as it helps build up tension, to let us know when the shark is approaching. The music is introduced slowly and quietly and the buildup of the slow tempo which eventually crashes into a louder pitch creates suspense, tension, and fear because as the tempo becomes quick, it is an indication the shark is closer. In a simple yet terrifying scene we see two fishermen attempting to capture the shark by using a roast to use as bait. They put a large hook through the roast and fasten the chain to the pier, and toss in the bait into the ocean. As soon the shark takes the bait we hear the music of the shark and right away the suspense happens. The shark rips the pier loose and drags it out into the ocean with one of the fisherman caught in the wreck. As the man attempts to swim back to shore we see the pier turn around and head back to shore. As soon as this happens the music gets louder and the tempo begins to increase. As the man swims back to shore and pier follows the tempo increases even more building up the tension as to whether or not this man make it safely to shore. It isn’t until the man is able to
Right from the beginning, it poem seemed pretty dark. The speaker was already talking about gassing the little woodchucks. It shows the hatred she had toward the woodchucks rather clearly. It goes on with her talking about the “humane” methods she had use to drive the woodchucks away but did not work -- “Next morning they turned up again”(Kumin 15). This was probably the trigger that made her begins her monstrous actions.
The narrator explains that one night “I frightened two children in the woods, on purpose: I showed them my pink teeth, my hairy face, my red finger-nails, I mewed at them, and they ran away screaming” (Paragraph 25). That situation shows that people are understandably afraid of her, and she knows it. Another situation unfolds that show that even when the Narrator is trying to be friendly and not trying to frighten anybody that she still scares people. This happens when the Narrator reminisces “I detached myself from the brambles and came softly toward him (a man sleeping after having sex with a woman)… He woke up, he saw my pink teeth, my yellow eyes, he saw my black dress fluttering; he saw me running away. He saw where.” (Paragraph 36). This eventually leads to the Narrator’s death as the man then leads the mob of villagers to the Narrator’s house where they kill her.
Music can decipher a narrative event by indicating a perspective. To unify a set of diverse images and provide rhythmic and formal continuity and momentum, a film’s structure is more often than not, directly articulated by a musical structure. Music can assist the dialogue and visuals of film and often is inaudible (e.g. music is meant to be heard unconsciously, not consciously). Music has been used by directors to reinforce or strengthen certain weak scenes in film and then on the other hand when music is not needed to reinforce a scene
Specifically, the absence of background music in “The River” portrays the nonconformity as it deviates from the pattern of the first movie. It facilitates hearing the growling sound in the opening and closing scenes which introduce unprecedented impression related to the situations in the film characters. It also symbolizes the uncovering of an ugly truth for Hsiao family. This absence helps make the untraditional sexual desires of Hsiao family members look bare and realistic. Furthermore, the absence of music leaves the film watchers feeling lost and alone just Hsiao family members because they are left to experience their reactions to the film individually without any guide from the music.
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.
Music follows us everywhere we go. It’s a big part of our lives and it is now significantly used in films. Before the 1930’s, films have started out completely silent. But after that period of time music began to infuse in the world of films and it played a big role in it. According to Fischoff, a media psychologist and a professor in music studies on films explains how we do not just experience films visually, but we actually experience the film through our ears. Music plays upon the audience feelings and it communicates the scenes to them, it makes us feel the events and the atmosphere that is happening in the film. Fischoff says that people remember memorable films from their break out hit, he gives an example of the song “My