What is Scoring for Films and How Music Can Help You Make Your Story Memorable
Every song tells a story. Even instrumental music tells audiences a story: a sad melody that accompanies two lovers as they walk down the street; or a drum-filled exciting story of a great battle between two medieval armies.
It’s almost impossible to compose a song without a story behind it, or that doesn’t elicit some kind of emotion in its listeners. Maybe that’s why humans are prone to listening to music almost on a daily basis; that way we always have a story other than our own to go along with us through the days and give us emotional strength through difficult times.
Film scoring is just the same. When talking about the importance of music in film, we need to address the emotional aspect that music delivers. These songs and original scores provide this emotional strength to films and audiovisual projects in general and give the audience an extra element than just the acting for them to connect to.
Essentially, music for film adds an extra dimension to the project. Instead of just appealing to the audience’s visual senses, directors and audio professionals appeal to the auditory senses as well. It’s actually pretty simple: the more senses that are appealed to, the more engaging an individual will find something.
Yet there are plenty of ways to achieve this. Film scorers can also mix their compositions with other sonic elements, such as a quickening heartbeat to accelerate the audience’s heartbeat, or a prolonged silence to leave viewers in wonder and anticipation. For these reasons, soundtracks, and film scoring in general, are a pivotal element of films and audiovisual projects. Without them, an entire dimension is neglected, making it much more difficult to keep the audience engaged throughout the whole film.
Film scoring in action
When we talk about scoring for films, we cannot help but think of ‘Star Wars’. Every time we close our eyes and imagine Darth Vader’s heavy breath, we also hear John William’s epic Imperial March playing.
In fact, just by hearing the name Star Wars, we can hear the main theme blasting in an epic way. The franchise is also responsible for having some of the most memorable film score pieces: Duel of the Fates, Luke and Leia and Battle of the Heroes. Each of those pieces is able to transport us to the scene where George Lucas used that specific piece, and we would know exactly what would be happening in the film without even watching it.
Now, let’s consider for a moment the shivers we all experienced when we saw the ring appear for the first time in ‘Lord of the Rings’. Did those emotions just emerge solely from the sight of the ring, or was it the violin melody that elicited those feelings? Was it perhaps the sight of the menacing Nazgul or was it the bass line that evoked the anxiety we all felt as the hobbits were running away from them?
Now, let’s think about the classic Disney songs. The vast majority of them include a bit of both lyrical and musical elements. ‘The Lion King’, for example, starts off with “The Circle of Life”, a song without which the movie would not be the same.
If we were to think about the many thousands of thousands of movies and thousands of notes that are composed to make films more memorable, the list would be infinite.
The Importance of Scoring in Films
Star Wars isn’t the only classical soundtrack that exists in our minds. Hans Zimmer and his compositions for ‘Pirates of The Caribbean’ have also reached critical acclaim. From happy violins to rushing bass lines, the franchise also builds on power and memorability thanks to its amazing original soundtrack.
These are songs that not only fit directly with the action going on in the moving images but also give listeners the very same emotions they had when they saw the movie for the first time. As it is, if we listen closely, we realize that the music flows, from slow to fast, very much like the ocean waves themselves. The combination of these elements, musical elements, sonic elements, and storytelling elements, is what gives scenes that extra punch of power and make them memorable.
Film scoring is imperative to modern films because it creates an extra layer within the overarching dimension of the film, and for an audience that is so used to being bombarded with information, music and film scoring becomes the key factor in keeping viewers interested and emotionally engaged throughout the whole film. Musical elements also provide the film with a much higher chance of success because of their effect, as they largely contribute to that feeling of ultimate satisfaction once the film is over.
