By Connor James
The biggest factor in setting the tone of movie scenes is the music behind them. Film Score is often overlooked by everyone watching, but viewers are still affected by it whether they acknowledge or not. In the cinema production world, the mood of what you are watching is a combination of what you see and what you hear. The result of these two factors is what the viewer feels. The mood of a production is the responsibility of the director, and it is looked at by most film experts as the most important element of a motion picture.
Let’s first take a look back at the history of music in film..
From the late 1800s to the early 1900s, the film industry was in “The Silent Era”
The silent era of film consisted of movie theaters having to provide their own music, which would be provided using a phonograph or a live performance by hired musicians. A concert and movie combo for the price of one? Count me in!
The mid 1900s was entitled “The Golden Age of Film Scoring”
This is the peak of film scoring as composers and musicians alike started their film score careers. Music pieces were now being written exclusively for film projects and created an extra element of mood for the viewers at the time. A highly influential composer at this time is Max Steiner, who, according to an article by Film Independent, was regarded as “The Father of Film Music” for his work in the 1933 film King Kong, where he used a style called leitmotif, which is a technique that specific instruments or themes are assigned to individual characters and or events.