How do film-makers manipulate our emotions with music in films?

Ok, over the past week Stephen and I have been researching the visuals & sound within movies, and for this intervention we intend to be looking at the history of movies and how it can change the atmosphere and mood with the audience.

Brief example of visuals an audio within films

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So why is sound important?

Many would argue that the visual aspect in movie’s is more important than sound,but audio is arguably on par with video, it plays a big part in conveying and immersing the audience into the foreground of a film. It is the choice of music, effects and voices that are all used within films that will determine or affect the overall perception, mood and atmosphere with the audience. It is also a means to lead the narrative, for example, the movie jaws always played a daunting tune whenever the shark was near or about to attack, which added to the story line as well as adding a tingly creepy feeling which effects your mood and perception on the whole film.

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Looking at the era of Silent movies helped us get and understanding in to how

movies have developed over the years. It was through the use

of intertitles which can be seen above that drove the narrative during that

time. But it was the music and effects playing in the background that was used

to help immerse the audience into the movie experience, as well as building

the emotional effect it would have on its viewer. Interesting fact to note, is that

the audio was overlaid in silent movies, meaning it could easily be changed or

manipulated to suit whatever supposed scene on screen, whether it was

romantic, emotional, scary or and action scene, building the viewer up as the

movie progresses on.

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So now I'm going to show two examples of the same scene, which shows how music can be manipulate and changed, to change the way you think, judge and feel about a movie. This is and example to show how film-makers can change a directed scene, by just simply changing the overlaid music, changing the effect it can have on its viewers and emotions.

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Composer Bernard Herrmann quoted, that music on the screen can seek out and intensify the inner thoughts of the characters. It can invest a scene with terror, grandeur, gaiety, or misery. It can propel narrative swiftly forward, or slow it down. It often lifts mere dialogue into the realm of poetry. Finally, it is the communicating link between the screen and the audience, reaching out and enveloping all into one single experience.

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The 1960 movie Psycho is a good example in terms of “Bernard Herrmann’s” quote, that music is the communicating link between the screen and the audience. The shower scene from the movie is a good example to show how sound can be important and misleading if not presented in the directed scene.

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So what are emotions, emotions basically rule our daily lives, it is a decision we make based on whether we are happy, angry, bored or frustrated. These are all elements which we experience whenever watching a film.

So now were going to show use, the audience, three different movie examples, and see how each person reacts and responds to each clip. We would also like if use could circle and rate how use felt for each of the examples on the questionnaire.

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As to conclude, we found this to be and interesting question to research, giving us an insight into how important sound really is, showing us how easily sound can be used to change the vibe, mood and atmosphere within a scene. We thought the movie psycho was a good example that showed this, and how a clip without sound can seem none threating and feel more like a comedy horror rather than a horror. This all helped and showed us how film-makers manipulate sound within scenes, to provoke the way we feel and how we connect to the film emotionally.

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