Sound for film research

For this assignment I have chosen to do World War Z and Seven as the scene in World War Z is at first quite calm but then it becomes more intense while the scene in Seven is quite intense and disturbing from the beginning.

In World War Z the film score was composed by Marco Beltrami. Before making the film score for World War Z Marco Beltrami had composed film score for movies such as the women in black, Scream (1,2,3 and 4), Terminator 3, Resident Evil, Hellboy, etc. This makes him quite known for composing music to horror, thriller and action movies. Beltrami is known for using a percussive texture which consists of a bass drum, violin and many brass instruments in his compositions. He does this to create many high frequency sounds with the violin and brass instruments which create treble and a lot of low frequencies with the bass drum which create a lot of bass. This then then creates a layer of hits and stabs.

The movie itself is set in the early 21st century where a virus got spread which turns people into zombies, this creates a dark theme and atmosphere similar to a post apocalyptic world. The scene that I got given from this movie is the one in which the main character is travelling to Israel where there is a safe area away from the zombies. In this scene there is not much going on as it is mainly made of the main character travelling. This results in a calm atmosphere for this scene as there is not much going on and so some military like music would fit in very well while they are flying to Israel. The scene itself also ends as a cliffhanger as all that we get to see is the main character travel and once he gets to Jerusalem there is not much being said which creates a build up to what is going to happen in the next scene. For the ending of the scene I should use some wind instruments as well as some string instruments which will hold a single note for a long. Then I will be able to use automation which will allow me to increase the volume until the clip stops along with the music as then this will leave a cliffhanger.

Moving onto Seven, here the film score has been composed by Howard Shore who had before composed film scores for movies such as The silence of the lambs, Philadelphia, Mrs. Doubtfire and many others. Shore had also played in a jazz band in the early 70's which shows that he good understanding of music theory, this can also be proven as Howard Shore had studied at the Berklee college of music in Boston. Shore is known for making film score to Action, Drama, Fantasy, Horror and Thriller movies. After "Seven" Shore had moved onto composing music for films such as The Lord of the rings and the Hobbit. Throughout his carrier he has received many awards and nominations for movies such as The silence of the Lambs and The lord of the rings. Shore has also received a Honorary Doctorate of music from The Berklee college of music in 2008 and in 2016 he was appointed as a Officer of the order of Canada for his artistic contributions towards the music industry.

The movie itself is set in the late 20th century in America. The movies is about a psychopath who is chased by two detectives which just as World War Z creates a Dark atmosphere. The movie also creates a mysterious atmosphere as the detectives search for the Psychopath. The scene that I got given from this movie is the opening scene with the credits. In this scene originally the music was quite industrial with many effects to create a eerie and disturbing effect. Also when the name of anyone involved within the movie comes up there is a high pitched effect. Lastly and most importantly in the intro we can see many disturbing and mysterious images such as a book, a person cutting their finger tips off and photographs of people. This leads us to question what is happening and why it is happening. This also creates the atmosphere quite well for the rest of the movie. For this scene I am planning on using a low tuned bass where single notes will be played and at some times distorted. I am planning on also using some hyper real sound effects to match the activity in the background and to make the intro more interesting and disturbing.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Shore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_(1995_film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Beltrami

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_Z_(film)

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001937/

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006290/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/9b58672a-e68e-4972-956e-a8985a165a1f