LessonPage:Film scoring for musicians:Creating continuity

This school is:

Narrative film production - Wikiversity Film School and School of Music - Wikiversity Film School

This course is:

Film scoring

The pages in the course is:

Introduction to film scoring

Create the sound of fear from a single note

Create other moods from a single note

Create the sound of joy using a delicate rhythm

Create other moods from delicate rhythms

Pop quiz: Music which tells a story

Create a mood with a melody

Create a story with a melody

Pop quiz: The Spy Story - Who is who?

DVD-Video: Scoring your first scene - The Promotion

Create four motifs - Mama, papa, baby, and Goldie

Create continuity with a single motif ← You are here!

Foreground / Background music - soft vs. loud

Pop quiz: Watch a short movie - George Lucas In Love

DVD-Video: What is a "Spotting Session"? - Only A Dream

DVD-Video: Write two musical cues for Home Wrecker

More musical theory

Butchering Midi - The starwars theme

DVD-Video: How would you score Green Tea Smoothie ?

DVD-Video: Write a film score for Blindman's Bluff

Write a film score for Seduced by the Dark Side!

Creating continuity with a motiv

Applying a motiv to a movie.

If you use the same motiv throughout the movie, you create continuity.

And if you play the motiv in different ways, you create new moods.

Melody creates continuity three ways

Another use of melodies

You can use melodies to create continuity.

1. All the shot of a scene

In a scene, you need some kind of sound which makes people feel that all the images are from the same scene. (Same location, same actors, same subject, same goals, etc.)

An easy way to create continuity for a scene is to have the same background sound (ambient sounds) and the same musical theme throughout the scene. Therefore, playing a short melody, or even a single note, or a simple rhythm during an entire scene gives the scene continuity. But what works best is to use musical themes.

2. Adjacent scenes

Two scenes can be tied together with music. When music from one scene continues into the next scene, it brings the two scenes together.

3. Unrelated scenes

Even though two scenes are not related, the action in one scene can be tied to the action in another scene much later, by playing the same music in both scenes.