Movie Music

 Music is without a doubt one of the most important aspects a film can have. The audio has the ability to drastically change the mood of a scene, the reaction of a character, the time period in which the movie is set, and so much more. The intensity or emotions of a moment can be altered to an extent that doesn't even seem possible due to music choice alone. In cinematography, we have even seen certain music become iconic and immediately associated with a movie or event. This could be the daunting and terrifying music playing in the horror/thriller Psycho (1960) as Marion is attacked in the shower, or the emotional, heartfelt delivery of "My Heart Will Go On" sung by Celine Dion in the movie Titanic (1997). As a group, we have been discussing the music that we want included in our film. We are breaking things down scene by scene, and sometimes line by line in order to create the best movie we can. All of us understand the incredible effect that music can have when used correctly, but we also keep in mind the terrible effect it can have if it doesn't quite fit the mood, actions, or reactions of the moment. Especially in a short film, each scene holds an extreme amount of significance and there are no lines that fail to contribute to the development of the story. Our goal is to make sure that the music flows as well as the film does and to use it to our advantage in our storytelling. However, there is the barrier that surfaces when it comes to requesting permission to use songs from certain artists. While this is something we could do, and have considered doing, we have ultimately decided against it. In order to plan our movie in the most organized and effective way, we need to know what music we will be using before we begin filming. It isn't difficult or to reach out to a celebrity singer or artist, but it is very difficult and quite rare that they respond- especially in a timely manner. For this reason, we have unanimously chosen to use royalty-free music in our film. After doing our research, we have found a decent amount of music that is royalty-free and we are excited to use. One of the group members, Blake Booysen, used royalty-free music for his AS-Level final project and made the initial suggestion for us to follow suit. Overall we are excited to add music into our film, mostly because we all understand and respect the emphasis it can add. As a whole, this group is going to be working together a lot on editing and we really can't wait to see just how much better the film will become once we add the music. I personally think the decision to not depend on artist approval was the best and most efficient one we could have made.