This week, we started the seminar with Daryl and Emma talking about the pieces of music in films that they chose to analysis and share with us why they thought they were effective in the film.
Daryl went first and actually chose a TV series instead of a film which was an episode from The Wire (2002-2008) being the final episode of the final series right near the end has The Blind Boys of Alabama - Way Down The Hole played.
The reason Daryl said he chose this specific piece of music from a very long TV series is because it is the opening song for episodes in the first series which makes it iconic already as the audience will realise this and feel an element of nostalgia causing them to reminisce to the first series. The fact that this is played over a visual montage of around 30 different characters and locations that have appeared in previous episodes shows the intention to take the audience on this journey through all the episodes and act as a summary to the series as a whole by ending as it began.
My thoughts on this song in the context of the montage (bearing in mind I have never seen an episode of The Wire) were that it fit a montage sequence very well, with the tempo being not too fast but still repetitively rhythmic with pauses and a variety of intensity in different parts that really corresponded to the way the montage was edited. Finally I thought that the genre of the song was very fitting to the context of some of the montage, a very soulful and almost religious style of song marking the end of the series making it even more iconic.
After this, Emma showed us two pieces of music from Inception by Hans Zimmer; these were Dream Within A Dream and Time.
Firstly she talked about Dream Within A Dream and said that in the context of the film when this is played, the main characters have just completed their 'mission' just in the nick of time, and are all waking up from the layers of dreams in which they are asleep, just before the dream collapses.
The soundtrack here is very well used as it has a very upbeat tempo which fits with the action occurring within the visuals as well as building up the tension and suspense due to the repetitive and fast use of the strings. The heaviness of the drums and almost foghorn like sound adds to the gravity of the scene and really draws the audience in through the building of this dread and fear that the characters won't make it. This combined with the strings creates a menacing contrast between the two different pitches of the instruments which makes the scene more chaotic and powerful at keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.
The second score was Time which is used right at the very end of the film when all the characters are seemingly O.K and have finished the mission.
This is a slow but emotive piece of music which gradually but constantly builds as the scene progresses to add more layers of instruments to it which once again adds depth and texture to the scene as well as building emotions in the audience of relief, happiness and success, as the main character is finally home and happy. The crescendo at the end just as he sees his children puts a twist on the song as it abruptly stops these feelings of relief and makes the audience wonder why the music has faded out, and replaces it with suspense and almost shock as we see the totem wobble but not fall over as the film quickly cuts to black. This ambiguity is really helped by the audio as it doesn't give any indication as to what the ending actually is and allows the audience to make up their own mind which is a very effective way of manipulating the audience to make them feel incharge and increase the audience engagement.
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