Ailbhe Mooney

How does Music in Film Impact the Audiences Emotional Response to a Scene?

Global Context - Personal and Cultural Expression

Goal - To create a film and a soundtrack to the film that will have the ability to impact the audience emotionally, through use of various techniques used by professional composers for film and through use of different elements of music, based on my research.

Introduction

The objective of this project is to able to tell a story almost entirely through music, and leave an impact on the audience. To complete this project, I researched the impact of music choices on an audiences’ emotional response to a scene. This included music theory, the impacts of different types of music and how when music is associated with something it can impact a person’s emotions. Along with this I created a short film, (this includes writing a script, creating a storyboard directing and editing) with a choice of songs to be used in it. This included 2 pieces of music created by me in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), and 2 songs from other artists, that I think were suitable choices in attempt to test my research. I used the different musical techniques to hopefully create an emotional response from my audience, while relating the music choices to the storyline of the film.

Process

I came across a YouTube video called “How Pixar uses Music to make you Cry” by the Youtube Channel “Sideways.” Immediately I thought that this concept could be very interesting to experiment with. The main idea behind this technique is to associate music with a particular character or action, as opposed to a particular emotion. The way in which Pixar plays with the audiences emotions is by using music to show a relationship between characters. For example, if a certain theme is played throughout 2 characters’ entire relationship, then, during a scene in which they can’t see each other anymore, that music will be played again, to evoke memories of their relationship, and therefore make the audience cry. The technique essentially establishes a relationship between 2 characters and the audience, therefore losing a character not only makes the other character upset, but also the audience.

I really wanted to test out this theory, along with other ways in which I could use music in film, so I created a survey to get a general idea of what type of music people associated with each emotion. I began to experiment applying these elements of music in a DAW. I had never really used one before, so it took a lot of trial and error to understand how to produce a piece of music, however I did have prior experience in video editing and the format is fairly similar, so eventually I got used to it. Then I started to think about the story I wanted to tell through my film, and I decided to relate it to current circumstances. I filmed all of my footage and began to edit it together, using the music that I created, along with music from other artists that I thought seemed suitable for each scene, based on my research.

Conclusion

Finally I finished editing, and this is my final product!