Music makes the movies

National Film Score Day, April 3, aims to recognize the musical masterpieces referred to as Film Scores, as well as the talented composers who created them.

Have you ever had the experience of going to a theater and watching the opening scenes of a long awaited movie? The music begins to play and the sound grows from one note until the whole theater is filled with the sounds of a beautiful orchestra. The music you hear in a movie is called a Film Score.

The movies get a lot of attention, but the film scores are often what keeps them alive. According to classicfm.com,  these are some of the most familiar film scores:

• Frozen: Composed by Christophe Beck
• James Bond Theme: Composed by Monty Norman
• Superman: Composed by John Williams
• Alien: Composed by Jerry Goldsmith
• Avatar: Composed by James Horner
• Star Wars: Composed by John Williams

Popular soundtracks are often shared with people and they end up becoming bestsellers. Sometimes, songs from those movies are played on the air. You may recognize songs from some of these best-selling soundtracks: ¨

• Saturday Night Fever (1977)
• Grease (1978)
• Flashdance (1983)
• Purple Rain (1984)
• Titanic (1987)
• Waiting to Exhale (1995)
• Space Jam (1996)

So who is responsible for these endearing film scores? According to https://www.connollymusic.com, a film composer writes the score for the movie, the original music that is going to be going into a film. They are constantly demonstrating of the score to the film’s creative team to see if it’s able to fit in with the scene.

We rarely pay attention to what aspects are needed to make a successful film score. First, the composer needs to make sure the soundtrack matches the tone of the film. Second, he or she needs to make sure that dialogue can still be heard and understandable, if that is expected in the scene. Lastly, in many films, especially reality-based films, the composer needs to make sure that sound effects and scores are recorded at the right scale. While we don’t really pay that much attention to these things and only see the final product, much time and effort is put into it behind the scenes. (cambridgeaudio.com)

Film scores are very important for a film because, whenever the audience is in the theater, they get so bombarded with images and information that they don’t really pay attention to the sounds going on in the film as well. Film scores are one of the most important aspects to a film because it keeps the viewer captivated and interested.

The opinion of the composer and the filmmaker on the soundtrack is also very important for a successful film. According to www.filmindependent.org despite the genre of the movie, it comes up to the decision of the film composer and film director to see if all the aspects for the film are good enough to show the audience or if they need to do some last minute adjustments. When making the film score, the composer has to use a strategy that will manipulate the audience’s emotions and keep their eyes drawn to the screen.

The next time you are watching a film, as well as paying attention to the signs, colors, actions scenes, pay attention to the soundtrack and really notice all the hard work that comes not just to put into the movie itself but the scores as well.