Music in Movies

"Music and movies have lasted longer than any marriage in Hollywood."
-Charlize Theron, Movies Rock


A 2-hour special on CBS last Dec. 7th, Movies Rock celebrated the most memorable songs from films over the years. Performers included John Legend and Mary J. Blige singing "As Time Goes by" from Casablanca, Usher performing "Singin' in the Rain" from the movie of the same title - to name a few. Near the end of the show, there was a video of Martin Scorsese talking about the importance of the movie's score in filmmaking. And Harrison Ford introduced film composer and 45-time Oscar nominee John Williams as his former co-star that never appeared in the movie. Which makes sense, music is actually another character in a film. It's this thing that you don't see but affects your mood while watching the movie. I admit to not noticing the score in the movie most of the time, yet it still enhances my viewing experience.

I recently made a video with characters having actual dialogue for the first time, and let me tell you, that was one of the most difficult editing experiences of my life. Shooting indoors is fine as long as you have the acoustics worked out. But outdoors, in the middle of DC with vehicles zooming past, on a windy day, is another story. While editing the video, I knew I had to rely heavily on background music. Mainly because I wanted to cover up some of the noise because Final Cut is not really famous for editing audio. It's brilliant for video... but that's about it. So I took a lot of sound effects and scores from iMovie and a few from the Heroes DVD (since the video was like a spoof on that show).

What a difference the music made. No, I still didn't get to clean the noise out. I just took audio out from any non-speaking shots and put in background music. But that actually set the mood for some of the scenes. Like in one of the earlier scenes, so as not to distract the viewers from the noisy trucks passing by and the wind gusting through our ghetto boom mic (pictured), I took the audio out and replaced it with a suspenseful background music from iMovie. It helped because in that scene the character was walking down the street (in "Hong Kong"), yet kept stopping because he felt that somebody was following him.

The video's far from perfect as everything was done in a short of amount of time. But even though it was not one of my best, I still find the project important because it was a learning experience for me. Mental note: next time rent a real boom mic and get something to block the wind. Also, get glasses (which I did recently after this experience) to notice the smudges on the lens filter during the shoot and not during editing when you don't have time for a re-shoot anymore. But most of all, I learned the importance of music in movies. It's not just to cover something up but to set the mood and enhance the viewing experience.

Watching Movies Rock made me think of a few of my favorite scores and songs in films:

• The score from Jaws - whenever I hear the "dum dum dum dum..." I feel like I have to look around. That was such a classic moment in the film that up to now it's still part of pop culture.
  
• Tara's Theme from Gone With the Wind - one perfect example of how you don't have to have dialogue or lyrics to tell the story. The marriage of music (especially the strings) and Vivien Leigh's facial expressions were all that took to let the viewer feel that through the challenges and sufferings of war, you will still find hope.
• Singin' in the Rain - iconic. For me the best and most creative choreography in a movie. And that was just done by one man. Even Usher - one the best entertainers in the world right now - admitted that he had a difficult time trying to re-create it. Watching it makes me want to take tap dancing classes. And anything that gets me to consider learning how to dance, is something magical.
  
• And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going from Dreamgirls - this was a good combination of music, acting and simple yet powerful cinematography. But the acting of Jennifer Hudson was the one that affected me the most as a viewer. Sure it may have been more difficult for Ms. Jennifer Holliday doing it live on Broadway almost every night. But I didn't see it.
  
• The score from Schindler's List - "The very famous and very sad violin solo stands out as a single voice of plead that represents millions of ordinary Jewish people who lost their lives in the holocaust." Couldn't have said it better myself.
• The score from Ringu - the original Japanese version of The Ring was so creepier than the Hollywood version mainly because of the score. It's like this scratching/screeching thing that I couldn't figure out and sounds so low tech but it scared me out of my seat. Seriously. I almost choked on a nacho and I have 2 of my friends that can attest to that.
• The Sound of Music (pictured) - come on, how can I not place this? Oscar winner everybody. I love the first part of the movie where it shows beautiful shots of Salzburg (been there woohoo! Thanks CFC!), and then the music builds up and suddenly you're on top of a mountain and Julie Andrews is twirling around. Amazing cinematography, amazing first scene. It hooks the audience at the start of the movie. And sometimes, that's all you need.
• The score from the Indiana Jones movies - every time I hear that I feel like I wanna chase a train or jump on rocks or something.
  

I know there are a lot more great songs (Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany's, the theme from Shaft, Disney songs, As Time Goes By from Casablanca) and scores (Psycho, Gladiator, LOTR, Star Wars, Back to the Future). But this entry is running long as it is.