 |
| Film
Music
|
 |
Since the epoque of The Lumiere Brothers cinematography has
changed greatly and today we do not watch silent films any
more, trying to guess the emotions of the characters by their
mimicry and separate words. Nowadays music is an essential
part of any film, TV program or commercial. Music is everywhere
around us – we listen to it in case we want to relax,
to raise the spirits or to feel nostalgic for some moments
in the past. We surround us by music and sometimes feel lonely
and uncomfortable if it does not accompany our activity. Such
human dependency on music cannot be left behind by those who
produce films, TV commercials and any programs aimed at the
audience.
The influence of music at people becomes a powerful tool in
the sphere of advertising and in cinematography, thus embracing
both commercial and cultural spheres of our life. Thoroughly
chosen music for a commercial or a film guarantees its success
and the achievement of the final aim. The interaction of audio
and visual material indeed can have an immense impact on people’s
behavior, mood and opinion.
The degree of sound influence on people has been a research
issue for many scientists since 1980s and till our days. The
scope of researches comprised experiments on physiological,
psychological and intellectual reaction of people on different
types of music and different variants of their combination
with graphic images. In 1980s, Thayer and Levenson (45) carried
out an experiment on the reaction of cardiovascular system
on different genres of music. The participants watched a depressing
film about accidents at work, accompanied by calm and stirring
music, which respectively decreased and increased the participants’
pulse. In 1990s, a series of experiments aimed at the ascertainment
of dependency of movies perception and soundtrack was conducted.
Lipscomb and Kendall (78) chose five different movie episodes
with soundtracks, intended for them by the composer. Then
they combined every piece of music with every scene and asked
the participants to watch all the combinations and to choose
the best combination of music and episode. The experiment
showed that people mostly chose the combination originally
made by the composer.
The most remarkable research, showing the influence of soundtrack
on the perception of the picture, was made by Bullerjam and
Guldenring (105). They created a film that could be interpreted
differently by people and three different types of soundtracks
for it. After watching different versions of the film the
participants were asked to answer several questions on the
probable end of the film. The experiment showed that the opinion
of people was greatly influenced by the music used in the
film.
Relying on all these experiments, we see that the interaction
of music and movie plays a significant role in the perception
of the film by audience. True professionals are able to make
such a combination of audio and visual material that it can
provoke any desirable emotions in people. However, among sound
men there exist such a term as “Mickey Mousing”
– “the exact, and by implication, simplistic synchronization
of visual and sonic events” (Cohen 25). This term is
usually used when the synchronization of the sound and the
movie does not carry an important meaning. They just imitate
each other, which does not fulfill the main function of the
interaction of music and movie - the attraction of human attention.
When the soundtrack is skillfully combined with the whole
movie or just a scene from it, they together evoke a number
of associations in the audience. Once heard and having evoked
some particular thoughts and feelings about the scene in the
film, this piece of music will evoke the same feelings again
and again as well as the scene, even separated from each other.
Certainly, the process of selecting a corresponding soundtrack
for a movie takes much time and needs hard work. It should
match the scene and convey the mood of the episode or the
whole film, which the author intended for it. In my opinion,
one of the most successful soundtracks for a film is presented
in Roger Michell’s movie “Notting Hill”
with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant starring there. The leitmotif
of the film is the song “She” performed by Elvis
Costello. The main characters of the film are a popular movie
star Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) and an owner of a tiny bookshop
in London William Thacker (Hugh Grant). William is a thirty-year-old
common man who lives with an odd friend of him in a flat and
runs slowly his business, which just lets him keep body and
soul together. He is modest and vulnerable. He is unlucky
in love and suffers long afterwards his disillusionments in
love. Anna is an actress at the height of her fame. She stars
in a succession of films, earns millions of dollars and has
a very rigid schedule of her day. She is admired and desired
by thousands of people; however she remains a secret for all
of them. Anna and William’s meeting becomes crucial
for both of them. Their love changes them and helps them to
get over all the difficulties in their way. They are from
absolutely different worlds, which have their own rules and
limits. Though the film shows the love and emotions of both
Anna and William, it still focuses more on the William’s
story and his sufferings. His love to Anna becomes a trial
for him. He falls in love with her and though he understands
the impossibility of being with Anna, he still can’t
help loving her. Nothing is easy in their love story, especially
for William, and we also feel his heartache owing to the music
successfully chosen for the film.
The soundtrack “She” sets off the whole film,
playing in the beginning of the film and in the end. This
device foregrounds the message of the movie and makes an emphasis
on Willaim’s love story, as it was intended by the director.
In fact, the song briefly tells us all that can be read between
the lines in the film. Accompanying the very first and the
very last scenes of the film, the song is perceived differently.
When we hear it for the first time, it is just a story of
a popular actress, who is an idol for millions of people.
She
May be the beauty or the beast
May be the famine or the feast
May turn each day into a heaven or a hell
At the end of the film, it is no more Anna’s story,
but the story of Willaim’s love to Anna. The whole scope
of William’s sufferings, his disappointments and his
happiness, his pain and his joy, his sacrifices and his love
– all is heard in the song.
She
May be the face I can't forget
The trace of pleasure or regret
May be my treasure or the price I have to pay
Me
I'll take her laughter and her tears
And make them all my souvenirs
For where she goes I've got to be
The meaning of my life is
She
William becomes that very person who gets to know her inner
world and her true nature, the person to whom she opens her
heart and casts off her image of a glamorous haughty star.
“She may not be what she may seem inside her shell”.
Another soundtrack in the film is the song “Ain’t
No Sunshine” performed by Lighthouse Family. While “She”
is the major theme song, this soundtrack fits a particular
scene in the film. It accompanies an episode of William’s
loneliness after parting with Anna. What is special about
this combination of music and movie is that the director manages
to show a whole year of William’s waiting and suffering
in a three-minute scene, which would not make such an impression
on the audience without the song fitting it perfectly well.
The example of the film Notting Hill shows how important the
soundtrack is for a movie. It reflects all the emotions of
the characters, it might either a background for all the vents
happening in the film or might be placed in the forefront
– anyway it supplements the story and makes it fascinating
for people. If to put aside the psychological aspect of the
role of soundtrack in the film, certainly music in a film
contributes much to the promotion of the movie and its box
office success. People may not watch the film several times
but they will listen to their favorite song again and again,
buying disks and downloading it in the Internet.
To make a conclusion, numerous researches of scientists and
simple worldly observations show that music is an essential
part of any film or TV program, which makes it a finished
work of art. The dependence of a person’s mood and opinion
on music is proved by various experiments, which show both
physiological and psychological reactions of a person to different
genres of music. Therefore, the right choice of a soundtrack
for a movie or a particular scene is a crucial point in the
work over a film. It may either reduce to nothing all the
previous work or to make the film a masterpiece. by the example
of “Notting Hill” and its major soundtrack “She”
we see how important to make music fit the picture in order
to create the utmost impression on the audience. The film
“Notting Hill” won several awards in Britain,
including a Brit Award for the soundtrack, a British Comedy
Award and the award of the British Academy of Film and Television
Arts.
Works Cited
Bullerjam, C., G?ldenring, M. “An empirical investigation
of effects of film music using qualitative content analysis”.
Psychomusicology. 13 (1994): 99-118.
Cohen, A.J. “Understanding musical soundtracks”.
Empirical Studies of the Arts. 8 (2) (1990): 111-124
de Villalvilla C. “The princess and the book worm”.
Triviana reviews. 2 June 2008
<http://triviana.com/film/nfilm/notting.htm>
Lipscomb, S.D., Kendall, R.A. “Perceptual judgment of
the relationship between musical and visual components in
film”. Psychomusicology. 13 (1994): 60-98.
Notting Hill. Dir. Roger Michell. Universal Studios. DVD,
2001.
Thayer, J.F., Levenson, R.W. “Effects of music on psychophysiological
responses to a stressful film”. Psychomusicology. 3(1)
(1983): 44-52.
|
|
