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.
