EVOLUTION OF THE SOUNDTRACK

The soundtrack of a film has got these elements:

- The characters’ dialogues, recorded by sound technique during the filming

- The dubbing: it allows to replace the dialogues that have not been recorded correctly, or to add new sonorous elements (screams, laughs…)

- The sound ambient: they can be effects that support the original elements and which are provoked by the characters’ movements: steps, doors… There are more sonorous effects that can’t be created in the filming room, such as nature sounds, animals, machines, shoots…

- Music that can be background music or screen music.

These are the functions of a soundtrack:

1. To give an ambience, to situate or locate in the age and place when and where the movie happens/passes.

2. To create the atmosphere and tone of the film (action, romanticism, mystery, fantasy…). Music has got a psychological influence on the spectator, because it adds tension, happiness, sadness in order to get the character’s emotion closer to spectators. But it can also produce the opposite effect.

3. To increase or decrease the rhythm according to the action of the scene.

4. To supply unnecessary dialogues.

5. It supports the narration giving continuity to the movie: it gives unity to the montage of the different scenes and it fills the empty passages. This kind of music is not notorious for the spectator because the composer doesn’t use spectacular or brilliant melodies or instrumentations. But its function is very important.

6. To use the technique of the “leitmotif”, a musical theme that is associated to each character or action, and each time it’s heard (exactly or with some variation) the character or action appears.