In this thesis I will explore the question: How can music be used to enhance a story, show character development, and contribute to creating a film’s identity in audience’s collective memory?
I will use a plethora of secondary research, including books, articles, and websites, to perform an analysis of how music can affect an audience when viewing a film. What kind of music should be played, and when music should be played to achieve the desired emotions are core questions that lie at the basis of this thesis which I will establish through the analysis of various other films, as well as in relation to my short film, I’ll be Home in an Hour.
With a focus on character driven films, this thesis will look at how the directors and composers of these films use music to develop their characters. Furthermore, it will look at some of the most famous scores and soundtracks through movie history to gain an idea of what made these scores so iconic, and how in turn it made their respective films so popular to this day. With an exploration into how music can contribute to creating a film’s identity and place it into audiences, specifically western audiences, collective memory, I can use the research and knowledge gained from this to examine how effectively I’ll be Home in an Hour uses music in relation to the story it is trying to tell, the emotions it aims for viewers to feel, and the development its main character, JD, goes through during the course of the film. Furthermore, I can take this information with me into the future, determining what about the music could have changed to improve the quality of the film, and use this when producing other films to more effectively utilise music.
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