Class9

I’ve never been a fan of horror films. I’ve always found them much too scary. Ever since I was very young I would always cover my eyes or look away whenever even a preview for a horror film would appear on screen. Yet I later discovered that covering my ears instead of my eyes renders the horror films much less terrifying.
I find that it is above all else, the soundtrack in horror films that makes them scary. The heart stopping way the music swells and then falls into silence then swells again makes me jump in my seat much more than the appearance of a scary looking monster. The sounds of heartbeats, low drones, and eerie melodies manipulate audiences far more than audiences realize. I remember listening to the soundtrack of “The Matrix” as my sisters watched it from another room. The scene where Neo loses his mouth scared me to death and I hadn’t even been watching it! The sounds of him shrieking wordlessly and the nervous tone of the music were enough to provide me with a clear enough image of the scene to elicit fear.
Next time I watch a scary movie I’ll mute it and see if it manages to scare me at all. I doubt it will.

Class8

I watched two documentaries earlier this week. Both were about hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans. Though both documentaries covered the disaster in much the same way; with interviews of survivor’s accounts, the films had a very different feel to them. I believe that this difference in mood was due to the two completely different soundtracks that were used. The first film used a lot of traditional New Olean funeral procession music that involves big band instruments. This gave the film a reminiscent quality. I made me think of the many generations of people that grew up in New Orleans, and how they had become a displaced people. The second film used rap music composed by one of the poor black women whose story is followed throughout the film. The tone of her voice, lyrics, and the mood of the music spoke much more of the poor quality of life in New Orleans, even before Katrina, than it did about history. This is yet another example of how different soundtrack choices can completely change the perception of a film.

Class7

I watched the documentary Capturing the Freidman’s yesterday in my documentary film class and was surprised at the effect the soundtrack had on the film. My professor told me that the main theme song that plays throughout the film was performed and recorded in Italy by a professional big bang. This is unusual in documentary film, where the budgets are usually small and the soundtracks often seem homemade. The big band score in Capturing the Freidman’s made it seem less like a documentary and more like a Hollywood fiction film. For my class, this brought up questions of authenticity in documentary; for when a documentary starts to feel like a fictitious Hollywood film, the truth of it is questioned, and documentary is supposed to be based on truth. It seems almost unfair that a theme song can have the power to completely change our perspective on a film.

Class 6

I've been watching a lot of science fiction films lately for my English class on science fiction and one thing I can't help but notice is how important the soundtrack is. Science fiction tries to get the audience to believe in an alternate reality, and a lot of the time it is the soundtrack that allows this to happen. The various beeps and that ficticious technical instruments make helps the audience believe that these instruments are indeed doing something. Sound effects give the ficticious technology more of an impact. The light sabers in Star Wars for example, would not have been nearly as effective as a believable weapon without their signature sound effects.

Class5

The other day in one of my classes we watched a clip from the reality TV show Trading Spaces that aired on TLC from 2000 to 2008. I used to watch it every week with my dad and his girlfriend before they passed away in 2007. When my teacher put on a clip from the show and I heard the familiar Trading Spaces theme song, I was filled with nostalgia. Hearing that theme music brought me right back in time to all those evenings I used to spend watching the show with my dad and his girlfriend.
I’ve always found smell to be an incredibly powerful for triggering of memories and feelings of nostalgia. Music and sound can also bring back moments from the past. The theme song of a television show or a movie associates itself so strongly with that show or movie that it flips a switch in our brains reminding us of where we first heard it and how we felt at the time. The Titanic theme song for example, will always remind me of Leonardo and Kate with their arms open wide, leaning into the wind as they ride the Titanic across the ocean.

Class4

Yesterday in my Documentary Film class we watched a segment of a documentary about anti-feminism in Iran. The documentary was shot in a car using only two cameras; one camera captures the driver, the other camera captures the front passenger. During the first ten minutes of the film only the passenger, a young boy, can be seen. He spends the entire ten minutes talking with the driver, his mother, whom we do not see.
After watching this clip we had a class discussion and I noticed that the majority of the class had formed an opinion of the mother even though no one had actually seen her. The sound of her voice created an image of her in our minds, just as the sounds of birds chirping allows us to know there are birds nearby without actually having to see them. We didn’t need to see her face to know when she was angry; her tone of voice was enough.

Class3

Last night I watched one of the Star Treck movies from the original series. Towards the end of the film the crew discovers an uncharted planet that they believe to be Eden. They land on it, and as they descend from their space craft and take in their surroundings they seem quite pleased with themselves. They decide to further explore their wondrous discovery, and for a moment I thought to myself “Wow! They really have discovered Eden!” Then I noticed the eerie music that began to play and immediately knew that the crew was in fact in danger.
If the sound designers had not included that little bit of music I would have had absolutely no idea that the crew was in danger. It amazes me that one simple little melody can say so much. The meaning of that scene would have been completely different if the music had been a grand celebratory composition of joy. However that particular piece of eerie music, used as a kind of warning for danger, was chosen in order to create suspense in the viewer. It gives the audience a bit of insight that the characters on screen do not have. If it hadn’t been for the music I would have been just as clueless about the planet as Captain Kirk was.