Monday 22 November 2010

About The Music Used In A Drama Film

Generally drama films feature strong emotion and intense story-lines. This often leads to the music also creating a strong emotional feeling. The music in the opening is generally slow and low in pitch. The music is used to tie all of the different images together, so as one clip feeds to the next the music keeps a constant feel. However when there is a voice over the music is quieter so the speech becomes the more important aspect. The genre usually uses more classical music played by a large orchestra.


I am going to use 'The Boy In Stripped Pyjamas' as an example of an opening of a drama sequence. (Analysing between the times of, 0:00 - 3:14). In this post I will be focusing on the music and the soundtrack used. As the film begins we see a blood red screen which gradually turns into the Nazi flag. At this point the audience can hear a quiet, sad sounding piano playing accompanied by some string instruments. As the scene changes we hear the sound of a waving flag in the wind. The audience now sees a small group of children playing together running trough the busy streets weaving in and out of people acting like planes. We hear the children making aeroplane noises while running, (diagetic sound). Meanwhile the audience can still hear the piano playing, still slow paced but seems a little more upbeat. This continues throughout the piece and gradually it becomes louder and the string instruments become more apparent, this could reflect the childrens feelings of happiness while they're playing and also their innocence. In shots showing the grand house the music almost gives a regal sense to it showing it is important. As the audience watches the children run around the corner (2.56 ish) the non-diagetic sound of the piano and strings becomes slower and has more dramatic sounding beats. The piano dies down and the orchestral strings take over feeding more emotion in to the film opening by holding on to notes.




No comments: