Filmmakers Sometimes Get It Wrong - Music Is Just As Important As The Visuals In Film

In a previous post I attempted to explore how and why music can be such a powerful medium. Within that post I briefly touched on the use of music in filmmaking. Being a keen short filmmaker and scriptwriter myself, although admittedly I haven't produced anything for a while, I always have to consider what type of music to use in my films. So for this post I want to really delve deep into the role music can play when filmmakers use music in films.

As far as I can ascertain film music provides two main functions. Firstly it supplies, quite simply, the film with a soundtrack and secondly it's there to spatially deepen and emotionalize the whole story. Music is generally considered and composed after the production of the film itself, although I would rebut this because for me music often comes before the scene is written. For me music inspires creativity, it can inspire a whole scene long before the scene is written.

Music and Emotions

Music in film is usually an additional, intensifying device to augment the visual aspect. Music can be a very powerful feature of any film. In my opinion music doesn't just always enhance, it has the ability to move the narrative along all by itself.

Music can manipulate emotions. Mix it with visuals in a film and you can have a very affecting medium. But music can also translate emotions into meanings within the context of film to generate a certain mood.

It's important to remember that within the industry many filmmakers and directors subscribe to the notion than when it comes to film an audience is there predominantly to watch something, with the music being an augmentation. This if course can be true but I think music is far more of an independent creature than that, with the capacity not just to augment but transform a scene and turn it into something new.

Music, Coffee and Cigarettes

The music which accompanies a sequence in a film has a profound effect on the viewers interpretation of that scene. The music selected is often used to elicit specific emotions. Take for example the indie comedy Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) starring Iggy Pop, Cate Blanchett and Bill Murray, to name a few. It's a film consisting of eleven vignettes where each one constitutes a scene of the film. While each scene is an independent story in itself there is a common thread throughout connecting the vignettes together.

The music chosen is different in each vignette, but is chosen from established music artists. I found that the effect was subtly influential on my understanding of the period in which the scene was set and the socio-economic group being portrayed within.

In the Somewhere in California vignette we are witness to Iggy and Tom meeting up in a diner and discussing the viability of fusing music with medicine. They both enjoy drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes to celebrate the fact they have ‘given up smoking’, and as they have given up Tom submits the idea it is therefore acceptable to have just one cigarette. What is essentially a harmonious subject matter is explored by both characters with a large degree of uncomfortable awkwardness. This happens because certain things which Iggy says is misinterpreted by Tom who then becomes defensive and a little hostile.

All the time this scene is played out we hear the mellow tones of a Hawaiian instrumental of Jerry Byrds Serenade to Nalani. There is a stark contradiction between the visuals and the music in this scene, the uncomfortable dialogue the two characters are engaged in seems so incompatible with the relaxing ‘easy to listen to’ melody drifting in the background. This odd relationship between the music and the visual elements of the scene is so contradictory that there is almost a new separate meaning created, which is hidden somewhere within the scene, it’s mild and discrete but it’s there.

Distinctive Electronica In Film

Turning to a very different genre now I must consider the films that have been brought to us by a very clever director and writer in John Carpenter. He was the horror master of film back in the 1980's and responsible for films like Halloween (1979), Assault On Precinct 13 (1976), The Fog (1980), Escape From New York (1981) and latterly Ghosts of Mars (2001). Not only did he manage to build intensely pronounced atmosphere into his films he also managed to build a very distinct late 1970's and 1980's heavy, eerie synth music score into his films, with the exception of Ghost of Mars. While Carpenter did not always create all of the music for his films he was co-writer and producer for much of the music he used in his films.

Take a listen to the main theme for Halloween, if you tell me you can listen to this and not get the creeps I will NEVER believe you!

And here's another classic theme from John Carpenter's Assault On Precinct 13, the sound is ominous and suspenseful, which captures the whole mood of the film throughout.

Music and the The Modern Day Master Of Cult Filmmaking

I'd also like to consider another director, a strong independent filmmaker, whose film style has made him more infamous than famous! Quentin Tarantino's style of filmmaking is synonymous with violence, protracted and intense dialogue scenes and, let's be honest, a particularly unique coolness. He has accomplished something that few directors achieve in their lifetime, he has achieved a cult status. Perhaps there are parallels with Kubrick here, in the sense of a real film auteur.

However, watch virtually all of his films the soundtracks dominate, particularly in Pulp Fiction (1994), Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2 (2003 and 2004) and Django Unchained (2013). What is striking about his choice of music is that he never uses original music, all of the music that features in his films are from established artists, often using musicians from the 1960's and 1970's. He brings together a very eclectic mix of songs to help tell his story.

(Writer, Director, Producer, Actor and Author Quentin Tarantino.)

It really is quite striking how important music is to his films, here's what he said about his relationship with music and filmmaking.

“One of the things I do when I am starting a movie, when I’m writing a movie or when I have an idea for a film is, I go through my record collection and just start playing songs, trying to find the personality of the movie, find the spirit of the movie…then, ‘boom,’ eventually I’ll hit one, two or three songs, or one song in particular, ‘Oh, this will be a great opening credit song.” - Quentin Tarantino
(Musicbed.com)

I don't wish to overstep the mark here but the parallels with Tarantino and my own creative process when it comes to music and filmmaking is uncannily close. But for me and my relationship with music and filmmaking it goes even deeper. Music is such an inspiration it can literally bring me scenes to my mind, sometimes whole new parts of a film is created simply because I chose to listen to a particular song. As far as I'm concerned with any film the music is just as important as the visuals.

Now then, we all know that the most famous music scene from Pulp Fiction, and it is totally deserved, is the one in which John Travolta and Uma Thurman compete in their dance off. There is so much tension throughout the whole film and this sequence provides a brilliant uplifting moment, it came as quite a surprise to me actually. The song is by Chuck Berry and called You Never Can Tell, another iconic use of sixties song. I could watch this sequence 100 times a day and still never get bored of it.

But this is not the song I want to show you. Take a listen to the song *Misirlou *by Dick Dale, released in 1962 and without lyrics it provides the music to the opening credits of Pulp Fiction. I think it's fair to say that by 1994 following the film's release the song became more popular than when it was originally released! The film basically reinvented this song to the point where for so many people on hearing the tune you are taken straight back to the film.

Finally take a listen to the main theme tune to Django Unchained, a very country and western song given new life by Tarantino, it's called Django by Rocky Roberts, which was used for the original spaghetti western back in 1966. It has a very country and western vibe to it, but as always when Tarantino uses music the song literally takes on a whole new context in Django Unchained.

I can not tell you how many aspiring filmmakers I see, sadly including some friends, who take any piece of music and slap it into their film with only a modicum of consideration. The result is quite often a very degraded film, where there is no fluidity between the music and the visuals. If you make films please consider very carefully the music you use, and do it justice.

Music in film has a profound effect on the viewing experience. It can change the entire context of scenes and give the whole film new meaning. Respect music in film.

Peace!

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