欢迎来到留学生英语论文网

当前位置:首页 > 论文范文 > Music

The Power Of Music In Video Media Music Essay

发布时间:2017-04-11
该论文是我们的学员投稿,并非我们专家级的写作水平!如果你有论文作业写作指导需求请联系我们的客服人员

Indiana Jones. The Nightmare before Christmas. Back To the Future. Star Wars. Final Fantasy. God of War. Halo. What do all of these video games and movies have in common? They all have fantastic soundtracks. Have you ever wondered how these brilliant soundtracks were composed? Well, you have now. This essay will focus on the composition of music for video media, and how the process differs on both sides. Video media consists of two categories for the purpose of this paper: Interactive & non-interactive virtual entertainment. In other words: movies/TV & video games. I want to know the difference between the two because I want to know how it is done, and which path would be better for me. For you, this means that you will understand the impact of music in your video media, and how your video media would never be as impactful or emotional without the musical foundation. And you will understand the amount of work a composer has to go through.

Within this video media, there are multiple types of music. There is ambient music, and themes. Ambient music (also known as Underscore) is the background music found in nearly every single piece of video media today - and it also divides into two categories: Mood Underscore & Dramatic Underscore. Mood Underscore is used to set, well, the mood. It is not nearly as noticeable as its brother - Dramatic Underscore - which also sets the mood, but is much more closely tied to action. Then there are themes - which (again) divide into two different types - Title themes and Character Themes. These are both pretty self-explanatory, title themes are found in the opening titles and the closing credits, and the character themes are the themes you hear when certain characters are introduced - and are replayed whenever that character does something important to the plot (Assessment For Learning). An excellent example of character themes would be Darth Vader's theme: The Imperial March by John Williams. It is an excellent example because of its popularity. 30 years after it was initially released, everybody instantly recognizes that song, even if they haven't seen any of the 6 movies. And throughout the original Star Wars trilogy, that little melody (or motif) played whenever Darth Vader was involved with a specific event within the plot (eLibrary/HUE). By the time you are done reading this paper, you will know how different composing music is for video games and films, and how important music is in both sections of video media.

Chapter 1: Film, TV, & Animations

The ambient music is a crucial part of nearly any piece of video media. The type of ambient music depends, however, on the visual content. There are the two types of ambient music, or Underscores: Mood and Dramatic (Assessment For Learning). In movies like Transformers or James Bond, they tend to have Dramatic Underscores -as they are more action-packed, and therefore the music naturally follows the action because of the sheer amount. In more gentle movies like The Notebook or Titanic, there isn't much action to compose music for, so they have Mood Underscores. Ambient scoring tends to be most of the music for a film. However - ambient music isn't necessarily an easy task. In the past, I once had to make music for my friend's Spanish project. However - I didn't (and still don't) speak any Spanish, and because my friend had gone on vacation, I was stuck with an 8-minute Spanish film that needed music before Monday, and it was a Sunday afternoon. From what I could gather after extensive Google Translation, it was a parody of Lost, and after searching through my email, I found that this was the case. Lost tends to have a lot of Action Underscoring - simply because of all the drama that takes place within a time-frame of half an hour to an hour. Because this film was a parody of Lost - I decided to follow the TV show's lead and go with Action Underscoring. After 6 hours of hard work and trial/error - it was finished, and I was proud of myself. It was the first "film" I had composed for - and I had made it sound professional (for the most part).

One would think that composers have ample time to come up with a soundtrack for a movie. Most good movies can take upwards of 2 years to make. However, the composer only has a fraction of that time (in fact - it'd be about 1/48th of that time.) The traditional viewpoint that has been around for many years is the producer and composer converse throughout the entire production, with the composer getting small pieces as they're completed. In reality, it's much different. The composer gets a rough cut after it is all done filming, talks to the producer briefly, and has about 4-5 weeks to finish the entire song. A video-game and film composer, John Debney, has had experience with both fields, and has said that: "Hollywood, because of its belt-tightening for the last few years now is truly about shrinking budgets, shrinking time frames … so you're really thrown into the fire very quickly and have to be very nimble... it helps if you're a seasoned composer because you can jump in… knowing that you have four to five weeks to write a score, you jump in and open your individual bag of tricks…" (Cherry)

The classic norm of working closely with the producer throughout the entire process is more often found in movies that focus heavily on music, like The Nightmare before Christmas. In these types of movies - one of the most crucial parts of the movie apart from the actual music and video is syncing them together to the millisecond. It can end up in being many days of many small edits that are very time consuming to get right - but it's worth it in the end. (eLibrary/Compton's) For example, when an explosion happens in a movie, right at the climax of a song, I want the explosion right on the downbeat, not right before or right after, and it can make quite a big difference in certain areas (especially if you are an audiophile like me). However, visual & audio cues don't just happen in the middle of a song. You may hear in some movies, like in The Sorcerer's Apprentice scene in Fantasia, that instrumentalists actually play very short (~1 second) pieces every time something important happens. For example, in The Sorcerer's Apprentice scene in Fantasia, when the first broom comes to life - the first hops it takes are cued by a bassoon playing a single note, and then the clarinets enter with the upbeats - which then leads into the main melody. This visual/audio cueing takes place again when Mickey uses the axe to destroy that first broom he created - with a crash cymbal taking place each time Mickey struck the broom, and a downwards chromatic scale (Every note goes down a half-step) taking place during the entire destruction of the broom. It then happens a third time as all the broom pieces form into new brooms - with a 5-note riff occurring every time a group of brooms came back (Fantasia). The cueing difficulty can range from being very easy, to extremely difficult- depending on the movie.

Themes in a movie are extremely important, title themes especially, as they usually set the stage for the rest of the movie, and are also an identifier for that movie. For example, if you play the Star Wars theme, it will click in almost everyone that the music is from Star Wars. The same goes for Mission: Impossible, Superman, Back to the Future, and the Nightmare before Christmas. Character themes tend to be more important for the plotline, as they tend to be used for foreshadowing the plot. They are also used (of course) for introducing the main, plot-sensitive individual characters. Yet again, Star Wars is a great example - Darth Vader's theme is used repeatedly through the entire 6-movie saga. Indiana Jones is also a great example. In fact - John Williams' theme music in general tends to be well-known. Star Wars', Superman's, Indiana Jones', & Harry Potter's are all made by him. He is a perfect example of making music that is memorable for years to come.

In a typical movie score, all the music (including sound effects by the orchestra if needed) are recorded all in one sitting - in one full score. (e.g.: A normal piece of music for one player is about 2-4 pages. A piece of music for one player for a film score is often ~20 pages, depending on how music-centric the movie is.) The music itself is produced and performed after all the initial filming is done. The composer talks to the producer, exchanges ideas, gets a rough cut from the producer, and uses their "individual bag of tricks" (Cherry). After the music is composed, an orchestra is hired (if the budget allows an orchestra instead of a synthesized orchestra), and they record in a recording studio, with the composer looking at a screen above and behind the orchestra, while the orchestra looks at the composer for any cues that are necessary. After all the music is recorded and done, it is given to the sound crew which implements it into the movie. The movie is then released, and it's all done with. You will notice how difficult this all seems. There is no question about it - it is a very difficult task. But, in well-done movies, you'll notice that there will be some parts (especially in touching movies) that the music will not be loud or obtrusive, but it will impact you in a way that contributes to good reviews of the movie. Now, to transition to an interactive video media…

Chapter 2: Video Games and their Music: How are they different?

Composing music for video games is quite a bit different than composing music for films, yet they have their similarities. As games continue to progress in the quality of graphics, plot, and voice acting, they have been getting closer to becoming more like interactive movies. The music should also follow suite and become more like movie music. Except - there are some complications.

In regards to ambient music, games tend to have much more Dramatic Underscores than Mood Underscores, as most games tend to be more action-focused. There are some exceptions, of course. For example - puzzle games like Bejeweled 2 or Peggle (both by PopCap Games Inc.) have Mood Underscores, as there isn't so much action necessarily. In Bejeweled - you have a grid of multiple types of jewels, and to get points, you must make a combo of 3+ jewels, and to do so you must have two adjacent jewels and have them swap spots. Overall - not a very exciting game - and a Dramatic Underscore wouldn't make much sense to the player (imagine music for a film like Transformers for a game like Bejeweled. It doesn't make sense.) Dramatic Underscores are most often seen in these game genres: Action (Call of Duty series), Adventure (Half-Life Series), Strategy (Command & Conquer Series), RPGs (Role-playing Games) (World of Warcraft), and occasionally Racing & Sports games. Mood Underscores are commonly seen in Casual (Bejeweled), Family (Flight Control), & Simulation (The Sims series) games. This doesn't differ from films that much - as Dramatic Underscores are used for more action-y games, just like they are used for more action-y films.

There is a distinct difference between video game and film composition with the amount of time a composer is given, and what he is given to work with. In the film industry, the composer is given a rough cut, a little talk, and a swift kick into the composer's work area, with 4-5 weeks to compose an average of ~100 minutes of music. For video games, this is very different. To start off, video game composers aren't nearly as rushed. A game can take anywhere from 1 year to 4 years to complete, or more (This is definitely the case for Blizzard's Diablo III, which has been in production for over 6 years). This means that the composer has a lot of time to complete their work. John Debney, a long-time movie composer and first-time video game composer notes how "the creative process in writing for games is potentially a much more leisurely affair, a much more creative affair, because the composer gets a longer time to try things out or to write other kinds of melodies for different areas of the game." They aren't rushed, so they can produce more quality music. However - there is a catch. In film composition, the producer gives the composer a rough cut of the whole film to work off of. The composer for a video game does not have this luxury. S/he may get a gameplay or technical demo here and there, but for the most part, they remain in the dark. The developers give the composers a storyline, the setting, the entire flowchart of all the actions possible within the game, a lot of talk, and a gentle push into the composer's studio.

When the composer gets the storyline, setting, and flowchart - they are actually more important than they seem. Specifically the flowchart. (Note - this only really applies to the games that have more Dramatic Underscoring than Mood Underscoring [Action-based games]) If you've played any good action-focused game, and paid attention to the music, you may notice that the music changes depending on your current situation (eLibrary/BCE). That type of soundtrack is called a dynamic soundtrack - which most action-focused video games have nowadays. That is where the flowchart comes into play. For example - take the game Dragon Age: Origins by Bioware. That game has a potential of over 80 hours of unique gameplay. 80 hours is a lot of time - and having the same music would be quite boring after 80 hours of hearing it. Dragon Age: Origins is an RPG that takes you across an entire country - with different environments all over the place, from a destroyed castle infested with demons, to a marketplace in your typical medieval city, and everything in between (and some areas that are out there). Each area has their own unique environmental music, as does every unique building (i.e., the blacksmith shop will have its own music, but each house that you can enter will have the same music.) within that area. Each area & every building (except for non-unique buildings and buildings in which no battles will take place) also has different music when in a battle, different music when you are close to winning the battle, & different music when you are close to losing the battle. There is also different music for important plotlines, side-quests, or potentially when talking to your party members. (i.e., you will hear different music if you talk to your romantic partner and different music if you talk to a party member who doesn't like your character very much.) That is, suffice to say, a lot of music to make. I wouldn't be surprised if that was a good 15 minutes of music. Now just imagine that much music in 10 areas. It's like an explosion of music. I personally doubt that any composer could that much music that's good in 4-5 weeks. I know I don't have that kind of skill yet. John Debney compares composing for a film and for a video game, saying that when you are writing music for a film, you write a piece of music that belongs in a specific place in the film, that will chronologically lead into the next piece/part of the film. But with video games, it is like a 3-D Puzzle - you must make the music flexible, that it can change with the game (Cherry).

Theme music in video games is a tricky thing. Character themes aren't that important in video games, except in some certain games - usually games that focus heavily on plot and storyline, and less on actual gameplay. Title themes are also only important in certain games - like Halo. Credit themes are usually completely ignored, and often just skipped.

As described beforehand - film music needs to be synced with the actual video - as it is crucial in many circumstances. When it comes to video games, however - the syncing used in movies is slightly different in video games. The only times that they are both used in the same way are when there are little cut scenes or mini-movies within the game. Normally such scenes are pre-rendered (Your game console or computer isn't rendering any of the game, it's just playing back a movie file) for compatibility's sake. Otherwise, the "syncing" that occurs is usually the sound designers cueing the music to the different events, and making sure that they are timed correctly so the transition between the two pieces is seamless. All of this work, however, does pay off. In well-done games, one will notice the ease of the transitions and the timing of the music during plot scenes. All of this together makes a good soundtrack, which contributes to a couple things: emotional impact in the player, good reviews, and good soundtrack sales.

Conclusion:

As you can tell, film and video games certainly have their differences, and they also have some similarities. They actually have quite a lot of both. The general comparison of film and video games is that video games are much more straightforward and linear than video games. The composer gets a rough cut, so they know what they're composing for - so they can sync it up. They make a full score that has music from the beginning to the end, and they have about 4-5 weeks. Visual/Audio cueing is much more important in movies than in video games, and themes are generally more important in films than they are in video games. Video games, on the other hand, are not straightforward at all, as you are given a general idea of the game's atmosphere & a flowchart, and that's it. Score-wise, it is comprised of many small songs (usually), and it is not linear in the slightest. All the songs that could possibly blend into another must be able to be blended with ease (i.e.: Blending does not mean starting with a march and ending with a waltz). And they get a very large timeframe that is exponentially bigger than what movie composers have. I think that the video game industry and the film industry are both two separate species, but with similarities. For an aspiring composer like myself, I think that if they need a lot of time, not a lot of visual stimuli, and a big imagination - they'd be better in the video game industry. And, if they work well under pressure, have a neat little "bag of tricks", work better when syncing to movies, and prefer things more linear - then I think they'd be better in the movie industry. As for me - I'm not really sure. I like parts of both. I like the large timeframe, and a lot of little small pieces. But, I personally find it easier to compose to some sort of video. But then I also like video games. So, I think in the future I'm going to lean towards being a video game composer, since I like video games, a large timeframe, and have a big imagination. And, I have some friends going into the video game design industry. I may end up making music for my friends - it all depends. Now that you've read this essay - you can walk away knowing what a Dramatic Underscore is - because it is that important. And as an added bonus, you can support composers when they ask for bigger titles in movies and games. They earned it.

上一篇:The Development Of Punk Rock Music Essay 下一篇:Different Musical Culture In Various Regions Music Essay