The THEME for the 3rd Annual 72Hr Film Shootout
Posted: Friday, June 09, 2006
THIS YEAR’S THEME IS…
OBSESSIVE/COMPULSIVE
PLUS: Music Challenge
Every team is required to incorporate music into their film. Examples include an original score, characters whistling a tune, or a music video. Although musical creativity will not be a component of judging, it is a required element that the organizers would like filmmakers to utilize to enhance the narrative of their film as it relates to the theme.
>>DOWNLOAD THE HANDY SUBMISSION CHECKLIST & THEME DOCUMENT!!!
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Weekend contact (Saturday, Sunday and Monday, 12-6:00pm): Tana 917.881.8031
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A Note About Techniques Used in Film Music
Music is often used in films to involve an audience emotionally. Members of the audience can follow the story line as the visuals unfold, and can understand the emotions of the characters. However, as Brown (1994) says, it is the combination of the visuals with music that makes the viewers feel those emotions. For example, when watching Psycho we not only attribute fear to the unfortunate heroine when we watch her murder; we also feel fear, a sensation heightened by the visual impact of the camera work and the shocking musical accompaniment. Indeed, Brown (1994) writes that a critic for Time magazine objected violently to this scene because he considered it gruesome and far too explicit. On closer examination of the film, though, the portrayal of the murder does not actually show the knife entering the victim’s body. What causes the horror is the combination of Herrman’s score and Hitchcock’s macabre genius in editing the camera shots.
Music is used in two modes within films: diagetic and non-diagetic. Diagetic music is music which occurs within the narrative of the film. It is attributable to some source seen in the film, such as a radio, a record player, a musical instrument, a juke box or an orchestra in a concert hall. The characters of the film can hear this music. Non-diagetic music is music which is not part of the narrative, not attributable to a source in the film, and is unheard by characters in the film. This type of music is usually used to add affective colour to the film, and play on the emotions of the audience. It can be used to cue the audiences to feel uneasy; to build up tension; to flag an approaching disaster or to signal a love affair. Some composers, such as Korngold (composer of the music for the 1940 film ``Sea Hawk’‘) associated particular characters with a non-diagetic musical theme, in the leitmotivic style (see below) most commonly attributed to Wagnerian Opera. This type of music is, for the most part, used to cue events in the narrative, although non-diagetic music playing at a counterpoint to the narrative can achieve interesting results.
http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/~judyr/ghostwriter/music/paper/node7.html
