Unit 38 Soundtrack: Production for moving image.

Unit 38: Soundtrack

Moving image productions can be labelled anything from Film, animation, music videos and advertisement. Within these mediums a larger aspect is Sound.
 In film, soundtrack is almost as important as the acting presented on screen, the soundtrack is what ties together the emotions of the screenplay and the audience together, various films include soundtracks produced for the film or existing music. Cinema is one of the greatest ways of using a song or piece of music to its best ability to simply express every emotion present through a combination of diegetic and non- diegetic sound.

FILM

‘Selma’ – The film uses various music The Film is a chronicle of Martin Luther King's campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. 

The soundtrack in this film brings out the emotions of the march to the audience, the song titled‘Glory’ is the indigenous track of the film, created by Common and John Legend this song won an Oscar for best original song. This track begins with the iconic line by Martin Luther King ‘One Day’ from his ‘I have a dream’ speech. It represents the whole march through spoken word and a song structure over a simple 4 chord pattern of A,G,F,E,E,F

Although audio is not 100% of the time just music, in this part of the film audio from a radio station is used this is diegetic sound as the scene is from a car despite the raid not directly in frame. The use of radio audio enables the theme of 1960s America to bring cultural awareness also providing a feel to the audience, this is a archive audio technique. In adverts in television, music is also advertised in addition to the product for example, the sound is used to a psychological benefit on the idea of advertising as the music may be the memorable part of the advert.

TV: ‘Empire’

Empire is a series that is largely based on music, this series has a combination of diegetic and non-diegetic sound as is about actual music performances and production of music.
This program is based on the themes of Love, Jealousy,Money,  Passion, Power and loyalty; of which 3 make up the genre of drama. Therefore soundtrack is invaluable to this Television Series, encompassing emotions and aids the story telling.
In the episode ‘Et tu, brute?’ a Shakespeare saying meaning and you Brutus? Questioning ones loyalty.

The series has a combination of diegetic and non diegetic sound as is about actual music performances and production of music. However it also consists of non diegetic sound within the scene of Cookie and Lucious where he admits how he feels. The lighting is dark and warm with a soft focus on the pair, the colour provides the melancholy look of the scene and music to match. Without the music in this scene the story would be half told, it would of be less interesting and would really not exhibit the themes to its full advantage the relationship between the audio and image are usually linked most of often then not this use of audio is used for emotional effect. The tempo is very slow but consistent.

• –Handheld devices such as Phones, iPads and tablets. Applications such as YouTube is a great way of showing moving image such as animation.

YouTube Animated series ‘Ray&Clovis’ by animation production company TheoryAnimation. 

STAR BOARS

‘Star Boars’ – Episode 19.  This episode begins with the structure of a movie a mimic of ‘Fox Studios’ with the opening tune Fanfare composed by Alfred Newman. From the start there is a constant use of music the next scene is a parody of Star Wars which is what this whole episode is based on.

This image is where the beginning of this episode is and the current music in this is scene is a continuation of the Star Wars opening track. This introduces the film in a humorous way.
Music is still present but at a very low frequency and steady tempo.  There is a large roar from the crowd which helps to bring alive the scene and conventions of a cinema experience. The use of this steady and quiet music brings a feeling of foreboding as the sound is present but not at its peak meaning something is about to happen.

At this point there is a drum roll in the music providing that peak and then drops into a mysterious rhythm moving stepwise in notes each time; this in itself is funny as the character Ray is doing an interview with the crowd.

For this scene, violin triplets are played to suit this short scene of a ‘light sabre battle’ again mimicking Star Wars.