Part I: Five Easy Pieces (1970) Based on the conversation between Bobby and his girlfriend, it is obvious that his girlfriend has a strong interest at country music and wants to sing some of those pieces. This let us understand the popularity of country music during that time, and it somehow reflects the social background of Bobby and his girlfriend. Back into that time, country music is more accessible to the public, and it relates better with people’s daily lives. According to the lyrics of this song, it talks about how a girl should support her man, and without saying that Rayette is Bobby’s girlfriend, only by listening to this song, we can figure out their relationship. The lyrics help us to understand better that maybe sometimes Rayette …show more content…
may not understand Bobby’s world but she still always be at his side, and it also kind of sets the tone of their relationship and give us a broad idea of how their relationship will go throughout the film. At the beginning of the scene, there are diegetic sound effects of the construction sites since Bobby works at there. Then the music changes into non-diegetic because the images are still at the construction site but the song “Stand By Your Man” starts. It is clearly that those people who work at the construction site cannot hear this music, so it is easily defined as underscoring. Then Bobby drives back home, and I think at here the music is still non-diegetic because there is no sign showed that he turned on the radio of the car. When he was at home, the music becomes diegetic since his girlfriend is using the record player to play this song. This song is definitely a love song and it talks about romance; therefore, it is definitely a good fit for this scene because it is about Bobby and his girlfriend. By having the sound effects of construction, it let us understand what is Bobby’s job and briefly let us know the time period as well. While I am watching the clip, I pay attention at the lyrics of the song, and it was sung by a woman singer, which gives me the feeling of it is the narrative of Rayette, and that is what Rayette thought about her relationship with Bobby. It makes me have a better understanding of their romance instead of just knowing that they are in a relationship. There are many more complex emotions involved into this relationship by simply adding this song as the underscoring music. All those information are given to us through the music, and that is definitely the magic of music. I played this piece before and it is definitely one of my favorite Chopin’s preludes. It is a short piece but with lots of emotional feelings inside the music itself. I think it is a good choice by using this prelude; first of all, it is in e minor, which somehow captures the sad feeling of Bobby’s father’s health issue, and this piece reflects the atmosphere of the family during this time as well. Since Bobby comes from a musician family; therefore, this piece also relates to their social background because this is a classical romantic-era’s piece that almost every pianist play it at some points in their lives. It is obvious that the music at here is diegetic because Bobby is playing in on the piano, and this also reflects the fact that he is from a music-oriented family because they have instruments at home, ad lots of portraits of famous composers and musicians. Generally, when people talk about classical music, they will relate it with wealthy families or someone who has a high social position in the society. This is one of the reasons why using classical music at here since Bobby’s identity during this clip is the son of this wealthy family. Comparing to the first scene, the music used over there is country music, which represents Bobby’s worker identity. By using different kinds of music, it shows the difference between social spaces. However, I think this is the public’s stereotype toward different genres of music, and I do not agree with those stereotypes in the reality, but they do exist. In my opinion, music should be treated without any bias and it is for everyone. When the music starts, the camera first moves closer to Bobby’s fingers and the music score, and then it moves to the violin. We can also see that Catherine is tapping her fingers (maybe counting his beats) while he is playing. Then it moves to another violin, and moves to the wall, which shows many photos of his family members playing the instruments and other great composers portraits, such as Chopin, Mendelssohn and Mozart. Those camera shootings let us understand better what kind of family does Bobby come from, and how classical music is playing an important part in their family. It seems like everyone in his family has a strong music background and appreciate and understand music in a more professional way. Therefore, it makes us easily accept the fact that Bobby can play the piano because of this background, and those photos are more like history of this family and their relationship with classical music. By showing us those frames, it actually helps us to get more into the music. As I said before this prelude is in e minor, and it gives us this nostalgic feelings when we look at the photos and pictures of the family, and it somehow reminds Bobby those old good time when he spent time with classical music. I first thought that Bobby might put lots of his emotions and efforts while playing this piece because first, it is such a beautiful piece, and secondly, regarding the health issue of his father, it is definitely a good way for him to express his feelings through this prelude. However, after hearing their conversation, it totally ruins the aura that he just built with this piece. He said that he could not feel anything through the music, and I felt offended as an audience. When we watch the scene and listen to his playing, we are concentrating and truly trying our best to feel the music with his interpretation, and then he said he did not put any thoughts into it. I felt like Catherine actually felt offended as well because she was so touched by the music. Also, I think Bobby’s attitude toward the piece or the classical music is not like Catherine. She appreciates and respects those music, but based on Bobby’s reaction, I feel like he does not treat classical music the way that the rest of his family treats it. Generally, when musicians come back to the pieces that they played before, they can interpret it better because they get more experiences and have more feelings and understandings of the piece. However, Bobby said that he played that piece when he was eight-year-old and he could play it better then. To me, after listening to their conversation, it kind of ruins the feelings and emotions that I have built while I was listening to his playing, and it let us know that inside Bobby’s mind, he does not want to be a classical musician and does not feel like this is a way for him to express his feelings. At least, this is how I feel after watch the whole clip. During that period, films are trying to target younger generation, so they use more pop music styles in the films to attract them. Therefore, pop score gets more used in films, and in this particular one, in the first clip, it uses a pre-existing pop song and the lyrics can be heard clearly. It reflects the popularity of using pop score during that time. Also, it also does not get rid of classical instrumentation because indeed there are many uses of classical music as well. So it is a good combination of pop songs and classical music, which creates the hybrid “classical” construction that is popular among that time period. We have studied The Graduate, and those two films have some similarities, which is using lots of popular songs, and they use those songs to build the characters or create some feelings of the social spaces. For example, in The Graduate, Dave Grusin composes many music in this film and they creates the senses of social rituals, such as the music in the high-class hotel. This is just like the country music and classical music that have been used in this film that also shows the difference of social spaces. They also both heavily used pop songs from compiled score. For The Graduate, “Carborough Fair” appears many times and it somehow describes the relationship between the main characters, and for this film, “Stand By Your Man” is also from pre-existing pop songs and it also kind of gives us a general feeling of the main characters relationship. However, The Graduate does not use many classical music, but in this film, when I saw the opening credits, it actually uses many classical music. Even though Ben and Bobby are both from wealthy family, due to their different family backgrounds, the music associated with their family are also different, so this is one main reasons why there are more uses of classical music in this film. Part II: Blue Velvet (1986) When the “Blue Velvet” first starts, the images on-screen are flowers, children, which gives us the feeling of hope, and the song itself creates the softer and brighter feelings as well. There are also bird whistling, which reinforces the delightful feelings at the opening. However, when the father gets a heart attack, the music is still going on which actually creates weird and creepy feelings. The sound that makes by the water tube and the barking sounds of the dog actually create the tense feeling to the audience. Also, the visuals are colorful at the beginning of the scene and make us feel like it will be a happier film; however, after the father gets the heart attack, it is kind of a twist for the audience because we do not expect this when we see the beginning of the film. When the camera shootings move to the grass and keeps going deeper, the music is off and it has the diegetic sound effects, which gives the audience a tense feeling of crossing those grasses, and then many insects appears on screen and the sound effects at here try to imitate the sound that the insects make. It makes the audience feel uncomfortable when listening to the sound and watch the visuals. After the insect scene, it suddenly changes into another delightful scene with music that captures are brighter feelings. I feel like in this almost two and a half minute scene, there are two twists that appears, and it makes the audience experience totally different feelings in this clip and being confused and getting curious at what will going on next. I think this clip actually reflects the main theme of the film because apparently what we see may not be what it is, and it may have a twist when we go deeper. I think the overall mood it creates is ambiguity, confusion and uncertainty of what we have seen and definitely captures the “darker inside and brighter outside” feeling. As I mentioned before, that when the father gets heart attack, the song “Blue Velvet” is continuing in the film, which it does not fit the ongoing scene, so it is definitely unexpected for the audience. Also, right after the insect’s scene, it suddenly changes into some radio music that audience does not expect at all. We think it may continue to create something that makes us feel uncomfortable but it suddenly change into something that is totally different. In my opinion, there is not much transitions between different music or sound effects in this clip; therefore, it surprises the audience for many times because they do not give any musical cues before it changes into a different sound or music, and provides many unexpected effects. By seeing this opening scene, I think the rest of the films may contain many twists not only visually but also musically. Based on the beginning of this clip, it seems like this is a nice little town, but after seeing the whole clip, the audience may expect something darker happen later in the film. Generally, it sets the thriller and uncertainty feeling for the rest of the film and makes the audience understand the bigger theme of the film at the beginning that this film is not about the beautiful surface, and it kind of prepares the audience for what will going on later in the film. In my opinion, the sound effects and the music in this clip actually has a blurry line to distinguish them and somehow they are equally important to develop the scene.
This relates to the usage of sound effects in Raiders of the Lost Ark because it uses many non-musical sound effects in the film as well. For the insect scene in this clip, the non-musical sound effect actually is loud, and it makes the audience be aware of it and listen to it carefully. Unlike other sound effects we saw at early films that they usually makes it less important than the music that they used in the film. The similarity between this film and Raiders of the Lost Ark is that they both make the sound effects become obvious to the audience and it is easier for the audience to notice them. There are also insect scenes (at the beginning the spider scene) in the Raiders of the Lost Ark, and John Williams also emphasizes the use of non-musical sound effect at there. All this shows that the non-musical sound effects become more important for films because it can set the atmosphere and the tone of the film just as music can do, and moving into the contemporary and modernism era, the music we hear in the film somehow is more atonal and experimental, which it makes it even harder to argue about the harmonic and ,melodic difference between sound effects and
music.
Sound as we discuss in our discussion question section, sound plays a significant role in every scene, it helps the audience in many ways such as to know the audience what is going to happen or to get the into the character. Now on days many directors increase realism brought on by sound inevitable forced acting styles to become more natural the scene can be identifying a digetic sound. Many people may think that the sound effect that a director use in a movie, novella or documentary is the same, they are totally confused, its two types of sound such as digetic sound and non digetic sound
In this film, John Williams revived the technique of using leitmotif –a recurring musical theme or melody associated with a particular person, place, object, or idea that is “characterized by a single harmonic or rhythmic trait” (Brown 15). In films, leitmotifs are melodies or musical phrases inserted into a specific character’s music background specified. It was originally developed by Richard Wagner and commonly used in his¬¬ operas during the Golden Age. These are used by film music composers
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...
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
In the 1940’s, top songs included Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke!” by Tex Williams, and Hank Williams’ “Lovesick Blues.”2 These songs share similarities with today’s hot country songs, such as Luke Bryan’s “Drink a Beer,” “Carolina” by Parmalee, and Cassadee Pope’s “Wasting All These Tears.”3 We find we can draw common themes over the seven decades of music, such as leisure activities, southern states, and heartbreak. Further research conducted by Kakde, Ghanekar, and Sindhu of Kavi Associates to test their text reader program was performed using Billboard’s top 20 Country songs from the years 1985 to 2010. Their findings confirmed the themes of heartbreak and country life as well as identifying others such as family, religion, and memories. In an analysis of the frequency of these themes, country life was sung about most often, followed by heartbreak and family. The states most often sung about include Texas, Alabama and Tennessee; with many other southern states maintaining multiple lyrical mentions of their own.4 This data confirms
In brief, the audience can see how this 1931 sound film could be shaped by sound in a number of ways. Considering that sound at this time was a new phenomenon it is understood why mostly diegetic sound was used over nondiegetic sound. This director also showed the audience how the story could be affected by sound with examples like the clock becoming a character and storyline of its own and also the murderer being identified with his whistling. With the lack of sound and the collage of images during specific times, the director was able to create a mood without music or sound. Apparently this was a technique that was learned throughout his many years of silent films. These details were what brought the story together and would not have been done so precisely without the technique of sound.
The vast majority of sound used in the film is non-diegetic, especially the musical ideas, which is
Country Music is everywhere. It may come blaring from a neighbor’s house, blasting the radio from a car or truck, or even playing quietly in a restaurant; but why exactly is Country Music so popular for people to listen to? When it comes to Country Music, the lyrics comes straight from the artist`s hearts where people can relate to them; the rhythm and beat are unique to the specific song, and the artist knows exactly how to tell a perfect story in the song.
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
A listener could possibly see it as Lil Peep trying to pick up a girl from the club and gets rejected because she has a boyfriend, so Peep goes off to fight this dude to claim his girl for a night. Understanding the meaning of the song can be a bit difficult, but if you follow verse by verse, you can see that Peep is trying to get his significant other back because of how they loved him. Lil Peep wants that last chance with his past relationship; he provides that in the song with “One more chance, baby, gimme a kiss. Ya got one more chance at a night like this” (Lil Peep). Peep meant his words, he meant his feelings, he just plasters that all over the wall and proves that what he is saying is what he is
Also, even those music that are performed by the orchestra, it is more in atonal and really has very little harmonic and melodic effects. By creating music like this, it somehow creates the mystery feelings and that fits the whole concept since finding the Ark is a very mystery journey and everything is unpredictable and I think the music really captures
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
In films the sound plays a major role in how the film is portrayed. The sound effects the tone of the show as well. The sound in E.T. has a lot of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds going on throughout the film. The diegetic sound is when we first start the movie and there are owls sounds and people running through the woods. Sounds like these also appear in Stranger Things.
The role of music in modern film has a large impact on the audience. Wether its creating suspense, release, building up a a scene, breaking down a scene, or attracting attention to certain characters or objects, music undoubtably makes a difference on how these movies are presented. When looking at music in modern film, three general tendencies can be noted from each example. The incorporation of the principles established by Wagner’s music dramas; the assimilation of ever-changing trends in popular music; and the constant search for fresh, new sounds, including resources from across the globe, are the three general tendencies noted. While each composer created an individual sound, these tendencies are found in each listening example presented
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.