This is a beautiful example of how music can set the tone and influence the mood of a film. Hearing this instantly brought me back to the emotion surrounding this scene. One of my favorite examples of the significance of a well-composed score is the Pixar movie WALL-E. Music makes up the bulk of the communication with the audience throughout the first half of the movie. I used the film in my classroom to introduce my students to tone and mood. Music makes movies better 🌱
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Yeah, WALL-E is a really interesting movie. When I first saw it I was rather young and don't think I realized that it was missing dialogue at the time. It wasn't until I went back that I noticed, showing just how perfect the music for the film was since it filled in all of the voids without the audience even questioning it. Then of course there is Cast Away, which is almost devoid of music and is also a powerful use of silence.
Yes, such an accurate description of how well-composed the score for WALL-E really is! Most of my students did not realize there wasn't dialogue either until I asked them to reflect on it. I have never thought about the impact of silence in Cast Away, or any other movie. I think we are trained to hear, and there is so much sound in our world, that unless you stop to think about what you are hearing (or not hearing) the impact of sound simply does not register in our consciousness. Probably exactly the characteristic of human nature that allowed WALL-E's creators to insert music instead of dialogue without us noticing. 🌱
I'm gonna have to watch WALL-E again at some point soon. It is crazy how much sound there is that filters into our ears constantly. I've noticed with some people that they have a real problem with sitting around in a silent atmosphere. If they don't have the tv on in the background, or some podcast, or some music going, they start to get anxious. Also, while I don't think it's necessarily a good piece of music per se, John Cage's 4'33" does make an interesting artistic statement about that fact.
So very true. I always love when the electricity goes out during a storm because then we can hear the silence instead of the relentless noise that is always in the background. I will check out your music recommendation - thanks! 🌱