blog

Music To My Ears

Music can make or break a film.

I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve been watching a film and the perfect song has come on at the perfect moment. I might have never heard that pop song before but it exactly sums up the emotions of that moment. I then go out and buy the soundtrack and listen to the songs over and over again, forever associated with that film, that moment, that emotion. It happened to me with (500) Days of Summer. The soundtrack to that was fantastic. I now can’t hear ‘You Make My Dreams Come True’ by Hall and Oates without picturing most of this sequence.

Instrumental music is just as key. Every single time I hear this music, I get chills and I get immediately transported into the world of Harry Potter. It ebbs and flows, crescendos, crashes, builds, wanes, explodes – there is so much magic and emotion in the music that when I listen to the music, I can often quote lines of dialogue from the movies as I listen as it’s so completely tied in to one another.

Music is something that can be overlooked or underestimated, particularly in low budget films. But it’s astonishing how much music increases the overall production value. In much the same way that spending a little bit of time and money on cameras and sound equipment, finding the right music and having a composer who is willing to work on developing the sound with you is so crucial to the overall presentation of your film.

I was very lucky to have found Tzuriel Kastel via Twitter and he’s been fantastic to work with. There isn’t much that’s more exciting when you’re nearing the end of post-production and you slide some music under the picture locked cut to see it really come to life. Which is, actually, the point that we’re at now, excitingly enough. It’s taken a very long time to get here, but the end is in sight, which is incredibly liberating and (if I may say so) a big relief!

It won’t be too long, all things going well, before the short is finished. Which means that then we’ll have to start focusing on DVDs, festivals and all those fun things – as I think we have some money left in the budget!

Right, I’m going to stick on some music and get some more work done. Where should I go this time? Dancing with John Travolta in Grease/Saturday Night Fever/Pulp Fiction? Making pancakes with Mara Wilson in Matilda?

Oh, I know.

Saving the universe with The Doctor.

Links:

(1) Comment

  1. This post sums up how I feel about music in TV and Film. Also, Murray Gold is some kid of God! (or Time Lord?)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *