FLT 214 Sound Design

1. Shaolin Shaon
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 1

2. Source:
The Synergy of
Film and Music
_Sight and
Sound in Five
Hollywood
Films
• Peter Rothbart
• T H E S C A R E C R O
W P R E S S , I N C .
Lanham • Toronto •
Plymouth, UK
2013
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 2

3. A Word about Leitmotif
 most common of musical devices used in support of a
film’s narrative.
 can help unify, amplify, and clarify a film’s story line
and message
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 3

4. According to Claudia Gorbman,
“The thematic score provides a built-in
unity of statement and variation, as
well as a semiotic sub-system. The
repetition, interaction, and variation
of musical themes throughout a film
contributes much to the clarity of its
dramaturgy and to the clarity of its
formal structures.”
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 4
Claudia Gorbman
professor of film studies at the
University of Washington, Tacoma.

5. To explore Leitmotif , lets know -
What are semiotic systems? There are five semiotic systems which include;
A way of thinking of communication
and language is a system of signs
and symbols that are used to convey
meaning which are called semiotic
systems.
the linguistic,
visual,
AUDIO,
gestural and
spatial systems
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 5
Both the visual
and aural
elements are
reinforced by our
association of
leitmotif that has
become stored in
our individual
and collective
cultural
memories.

6. Leitmotif
 A leitmotif is
 a musical idea that becomes
associated with a noun: a
person, a place, a thing, or an
idea, an emotional state or an
activity.
 an aural code created by the
composer to communicate with
the audience.
 A process of association, linking a
recognizable musical gesture with
a dramatic or psychological aspect
of a film
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 6

7. Leitmotif
It serves many purposes.
provides
continuity
in a film
Provides
familiarity
to the
audience.
Kasautii Zindagii Kay |
She's Back
• https://youtu.be/7b3PAfV2KNo
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 7

8. In other words, like any other language, music is acquired, learned in a specific socio-historical context that
gives musical events the capacity to engage the listener in a process of meaning making.
In Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywood Film, Kate Kalinak correctly posits that
• “film music’s power is derived largely from its ability to tap specific musical conventions that circulate
throughout the culture.”
Anahid Kassabian indicates that
• “the relationship of any musical event to any particular meaning can only take place in a larger system of
conventionally agreed on meanings.
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 8

9. Forefather of Leitmotif
 The Romantic-era German
composer Richard Wagner brought
the concept of leitmotif .
 in his operas, carefully codifying
musical themes with his
characters and plotlines.
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 9
Wilhelm Richard Wagner
a German composer, theatre director,
polemicist, and conductor
who is chiefly known for his operas
(or, as some of his mature works were
later known, "music dramas")

10. • a person,
• A place,
• A thing,
• An action, or
• An emotional state.
The leitmotif
becomes a
sonic
shorthand for
that which it
represents:
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 10
Early Leitmotif……..

11. Tony Thomas emphasizes that
 In his Film Score: The Art and Craft of Movie Music, the well-
respected film music composer Tony Thomas emphasizes that
 “once the leitmotif is linked to the action, emotional or physical entity,
including either a person, place or thing, it can be liberated from the
immediate synchronization between the aural and visual realms. Its
own, independent aural appearance is sufficient to conjure up all the
baggage that comes with the previously established association.”
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 11
Conjure= ভেলকি ভেখান

12. Monothematic Approach to Music and tone…….
 Some films use a primarily monothematic approach to
music, reiterating one theme (which can be considered
a singular leitmotif by itself) while presenting no other
discernibly important themes.
 Others use the music simply to set the mood, the
atmosphere (in the industry called the tone) of a film, and
intentionally avoid the use of recognizable themes
entirely.
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 12
reiterating =পুনরাবৃকি
discernibly=ভবাধগম্যোবব

13. Monothematic Approach to Music
 A term used to describe a piece of music constructed on a
single Theme, either in one movement or in several,
throughout which that theme is used; any incidental
material that appears is of little structural importance.
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 13

14. Composite Score
 containing musical cues, usually entire pop songs, which on first listening
bear no immediate thematic relation to each other.
 But the songs are often used specifically because they are pop songs, their
pop-ness is the leitmotif, and can also serve to set the overall tone of the
film.
 The Graduate is an excellent example of a composite score.
 Directors Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee favor this approach as well.
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 14

15.  The danger in not understanding the importance of
music in film is in using it to massage a poorly timed
sequence or to cover an ill-conceived edit, or worse,
simply to fill in some awkward silences in dialog.
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 15
Composite Score

16. NOTES
1.Claudia Gorbman, Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music (Bloomington, IN:
Indiana University Press, 1987), 90–91.
2. Kathryn Kalinak, Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywood Film
(Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992), 15.
3. Anahid Kassabian, personal correspondence with the author, August 3, 2009.
4. Tony Thomas, Film Score: The Art and Craft of Movie Music (Burbank, CA:
Riverwood Press,1991), 67–68.
1/5/2021 FLT 214 Sound Design 16