The History/Elements of Film Scores

The History of music in Films:

Before the 30's all film productions were silent. As the years progressed music was then added to films to make them more interesting and to heighten the experience for the audience who were engaging within the media product.

During the 50's when Jazz music was introduced the music score that was placed in films had changed. Because of this it was less expensive for musicians as an entire orchestra was no longer needed. This continued through to the 60's.

Current score writers such as John Williams still use these techniques.

Within the 80's and 90's it became possible for the first time for a single composer to produce an entire scored piece of music because they used a synthesizer to produce the many sounds of the instruments.

With todays technology, we are able to create film scores that contribute to the movies plot to enhance the film and make it more engaging. Additionally, the film scores that are added to different media products convey different emotions for the audience and enhance the genre, e.g, satirical, horror or fantasy.

Elements of Film Score:

TEMP TRACKS - A temp track is a film score which already exists and is used during film production during editing it acts as guidance for the mood or atmosphere.

Film score composers are sometimes asked to imitate a specific composer or style in their temp track. Some directors prefer temp scores so much that they decided to use the temp score instead and reject the original score written by the film composers.

STRUCTURE - Films have different themes depending on the type of character they are, the event or even the story line. Therefore the way the music is played varies, for example, scattered amongst identical music.

SCORE MUSIC - A majority of films have around 40 to 120 minutes of music in their production. However, some films have little or no music within their film, or others may have music running throughout.