How music manipulates the audiences’ emotions in film

To understand how film music manipulates the audience’s emotions I researched ideas/concepts from composer Debbie Wiseman

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b055g10j – BBC Radio 4 – Giving Up Music for Lent

A short section on Trevor Cox’s radio show ‘Giving Up Music for Lent’ features an interview with composer for film and television Debbie Wiseman. Trevor begins the interview by asking ‘How is music used to create emotion in the audience?’ to which Debbie responds ‘Whatever’s happening visually you believe the music’ and ‘Music goes straight to you heart’. Debbie continues to explain the example of Psycho where Janet Leigh is driving down the road in a car and the music is telling you danger and fear. In this sense the music in movie scenes creates a direct emotional link to the audience which reveals more about the scene.

Debbie quotes Elmer Bernstein when he said ‘Music can tell the story in purely emotional terms, but the film by itself, cannot.’ This stresses the critical role that music has in the emotional aspect of film. Debbie gives an example of her music work in Wolf Hall where she scored the scene of the character Amberlyn on her way to execution. Debbie scored the scene simply with a light harp and mandolin melody, making the point that music had to leave space for the emotions of the actors. In addition how ‘sometimes the absence of music is the most effective’. Debbie concludes her interview by reiterating how ‘space in music, certainly in film is very important because when the music does enter it has so much more to say and so much more power over the audience’.

When producing the Perils of Patricide music, my main focus will be the emotion/atmosphere of the scene and how that tells the story. For example in a scene based around the Leshy creature the emotions/atmosphere will be fear and mystery. The music will emphasize these emotions/atmosphere and create that emotional link to the audience which reveals the eeriness of the Leshy creature. In addition I will allow space for the visual emotional elements to come forth by sometimes having an absence/minimal use of music. For instance in a scene with the family at dinner there is a tense atmosphere in the room which I will emphasize through the light use of a low droning note.

Purposes of music in narrative film

In ‘Hearing Film’ by Anahid Kassabian she introduces three purposes of music in narrative film. Identification, mood and commentary.

Kassabian points out identification when she writes ‘Identifying music can convey or evoke all of the things mentioned in the definition of leitmotiv-“a character, a place or an object, a certain situation, or a recurrent idea of the plot” – as well as period, time, depth of field, and certain sociological factors” (Kassabian, 2001, 56-57). In this regard, identification adopts the musical term ‘leitmotiv’ meaning a recurring melody that is associated with a character,  place, situation or an idea. For the Perils of Patricide, a common leitmotiv will be the theme for the Leshy creature which signifies eeriness. The Leshy theme alters slightly each time it comes into the film. However, the main melody remains the same for the audience to identify the Leshy creature.

With regards to mood, Kassabian maintains that ‘While it is mainly simple enough to describe the mood being expressed by an instance of music, the very notion of mood music raises a difficult question: whose mood is being expressed? It may be a character in the scene, a character in the film but not in the scene (and who may or may not enter after the music has already begun), or another subjectivity altogether’ (Kassabian, 2001, 58-59). In essence, the mood of the music tends to revolve around the mood of the characters in or not in the scene. In the Perils of Patricide, the music will mainly follow the mood of the protagonist Amelia unless the focus of the scene is other characters.

To expand on mood, in ‘Audio-Vision’ by Michel Chion he breaks down music into two types . Empathetic and anempathetic music. In terms of empathetic music Chion writes ‘On one hand, music can directly express its participation in the feeling of the scene, by taking on the scene’s rhythm, tone, and phrasing…’ (Chion, Gorbman and Murch, 1994, 8). For anempathetic music Chion writes ‘On the other hand, music can also exhibit conspicuous indifference to the situation, by progressing in a steady, undaunted, and ineluctable manner: the scene takes place against this very backdrop of “indifference.” (Chion, Gorbman and Murch, 1994, 8). To summarize, empathetic music is music which matches the mood of the scene where as anempathetic is music which is indifferent to the mood of the scene. The Perils of Patricide music will be entirely empathetic music that matches the miserable, eerie and tense mood of the film.

Kassabian later explains the term ‘Commentary music’ when she points out that ‘Commentary music, for example, might tell us that a seemingly romantic situation is actually humuorous, or that the daisy-filled meadow contains some unseen danger… ‘ (Kassabian, 2001, 59). Essentially ‘commentary music’ is music that comments on the action on screen.

Sources

Kassabian, Anahid. Hearing Film. New York: Routledge, 2001. Print.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b055g10j – BBC Radio 4 – Giving Up Music for Lent, Trevor Cox.

Chion, M., Gorbman, C. and Murch, W. (1994). Audio-vision. New York: Columbia University Press.

The music for The Perils of Patricide is influenced by a range of composers. The music is a combination of dark ambient and fantasy elements.

I will be doing semiotic analysis of my influences based on Ferdinand de Saussure’s model of the sign. In semiotics for beginners David Chandler explains Saussure’s model of the sign in two components when he points out ‘a ‘signifier’ (signifiant) – the form which the sign takes; and the ‘signified’ (signifié) – the concept it represents.’ (Chandler, 2001)

I will explain the signified AKA connotations of my influences and how this will be incorporated in the music for The Perils of Patricide.

Jed Kurzel is an Australian film composer and musician best known for his scores for ‘Macbeth’, ‘The Babadook’ and ‘Snowtown’. ‘The Webb’ layers Atmospheric synths whilst a constant lo-fi piano key plays on top. The connotations of this piece are dreary, mysterious and sombre. For the tension building scenes in the manor house where nothing too dramatic happens I will incorporate atmospheric synths to create a dreary vibe.

Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto and Bryce Dessner are film composers who collaborated in producing the score for ‘The Revenant’. ‘Killing Hawk’ layers very spacious atmospheric synths with violins in short chord patterns. In addition the violins are harshly played at some parts in the song. The connotations of this piece are dread, anxiety and madness. I’ve adopted the same approach of combining both electronic and orchestral instruments, in my case, orchestral VSTis. I plan to utilize virtual orchestral instruments such as violins and percussion. Combining both electronic and orchestral elements in this way will support creating a sense of anxiety and madness particularly towards the ending scene of the film.

Trent Reznor is a singer-songwriter, record producer, and film score composer who frequently collaborates with fellow composer Atticus Ross when producing film scores. ‘The Way He Looks at me’ consists of a constant unsettling beat, keyboard notes and a range of textures and effects which take up a wide range of the stereo field. The connotations of this piece are eeriness, unease and irritating. I will utilize this composition style of incorporating a range of textures and effects across the stereo field. For example with scenes involving ‘the creature’ I will utilize relevant textures and effects which add to the eeriness of ‘the creature’ character.

Sources

Chandler, D. (2001) Semiotics for beginners. [Online] Available from: http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/sem02.html [Accessed 18th February 2016].