Soundtrack Research #2

Taken

Even though Taken differs from our storyline, from researching the different types of music that exists within our genre it has become useful for us when deciding what type of soundtrack we would like because the music has taught us what different effects it can have on a film, such as the way it can add, and constantly increase the amount of tension felt within the audience. Most crime and action films use soundtracks which involve a type of piano; this is partly because of the availability and wariation within different types of pianos, which can create such exasperating sounds which fit within their criteria.

 

An example of this in Taken is the movie credits song The Dragster Wave by Ghinzu, the composition of the wind fits perfectly with the mood the producers of Taken want to portray. This is what we need to take into consideration, because our main aim is to increase the tension, and using realistic sounds from a piano can easily make the tension escalate. However, finding a pianist who is willing to give up their time and compose a successful piece of dramatic music is proving difficult for us. Another problem we are facing when it comes down to decision making, is that we do not think having a piano-style soundtrack would be suitable just for an opening scene, especially with a minimal duration time of 2 minutes. Taken 2 uses an interesting sound clip called Tick of the Clock which presents an apprehensive vibe through the beats. This sort of sound would generally be used when someone in the film is running out of time/is against time. In our opening two minutes we could use something similar for our antagonist because it promotes the creepy and nostalgic feeling, however we do not reveal too much action which results in whether using a soundtrack similar to this track would be relevant or not. The sound is very effective due to the simplicity of the composition, the sound doesn’t keep the same tempo, it fades in and out through different speeds which would help create enigmas and psych the audience up.

 

This sort of music sways towards the orchestral category which is something we are taking a favour too. The benefit of using an orchestral sort of music is that the tone and pace changes throughout the music, meaning it would be able to fit into different scenes and still work as well as what we would want it too, not only does it do that but it also adds more dimension to the clip. We have been thinking about adding the sound of a heartbeat over the top of one of our soundtracks when suitable, this is because it adds additional tension, still making the film seem very contemporary and realistic. The heartbeat allows the audience to empathise with the characters because it gives them the opportunity to look at situations from the characters perspective. However, our main concern is the positioning of the music, because we would like to use different soundtracks suited to different scenes, this results into more research and deliberation.