Music In Films Analysis - 1

Today's seminar started with Anthony and Chris talking about the pieces of music in films that they chose to analyse and why they believed they worked within the setting of the film.
The first one up for discussion was the Gravity (2013) soundtrack - Don't Let Go by Steven Price.

 Although I haven't seen the film or heard the soundtrack before, Anthony gave us a brief breakdown of it, then we listen through the first 5 minutes then he started analysing it. He began by saying that it really helps the film and is a very powerful soundtrack due to the emotions it encourages the audience to feel through the orchestral strings mixed with the loud bass/trumpets. As the narrative develops, it isn't the most visually entertaining or dialogue strong film so the use of this powerful soundtrack really helps the audience connect with the character and empathise with her.
My thoughts on the soundtrack were much the same as Ant's as I really got a sense of calm and relaxing but slightly eerie feelings when it starts, but then you feel a real sense of danger and intensity as it goes along which makes the audience want to know if the character this music is relating to makes it or not. The use of this soundtrack then is very good as a narrative device for a number of reasons, mainly being that it takes the actors' performances and the visuals on screen, and amplifies them through this contrast between calm and danger.

Next, Chris talked to us about a piece of music from the film Blade Runner (1982) called Memories of Green by Vangelis.

Once again I have unfortunately not watched this film or heard the soundtrack before, but once again Chris gave us some brief context of when this song appears in the film and the impact of it. He said that throughout the film the audience is constantly left questioning if the main character is a human or robot, and this soundtrack appears when this fact becomes significant in a reflective part of the film and the contrast of the piano and synthesiser noises that keep panning across it are very symbolic of what the audience thinks about the character. It also, due to its pace, is quite a slow and reflective piece of music with these beeps from what sounds like a heart monitor really fit the context of the film.