hi everyone welcome back to my youtube
channel my name is meredith e. phillips i'm
a writer reader and bunny mama
today i'm going to be continuing my
series on music to write by by looking
at
film scores. Now. I'm going to try
hard not to get distracted by the movie
itself, because i do
love all of these movies, but focus on
the actual
score for the film
So let's go ahead and jump right in.
We're going to start by jumping back to
really the birthplace of film scores.
This is back in the
30s, the early 30s, and into the 40s.  When
movies were first
shown in theaters to audiences they were
silent films--they hadn't figured out yet
how to record
sound to go with the movie.  So things
like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton films
are all silent films.
And in the theater with the audience
there would usually be
a pianist or an organist, or if you were
at a really fancy theater somewhere
there might be some sort of orchestra,
and those musicians would play
music while you were watching the film
so that you weren't sitting in just a
completely silent
theater. But most silent films did not
have
music that was composed specifically for
that silent film.
Sometimes there would be sheet music
that was sent to theaters with the film
reels
to provide for the musicians, but a lot
of times they would just ask the
musicians to
play some music while the film was going
on. And so a lot of times the music that
they might choose...
it might not really match up to the
story.  If there was something exciting
going on in the movie the music might
not quite match up with that kind of
excitement level.  And it wasn't until we
had
sound in film, in 1927 with "The Jazz
Singer,"
that people realized...oh.  We gotta write
some kind of music to go with this movie.
So in the late 20s and into the very, very early 30s,
the music that you would hear in these
films
was sort of background music. It wasn't
anything in particular that was special
it didn't really match still with what was going
on on screen.  In 1933 you have "King Kong"
which had a film score written for the
film by Max Steiner.
Max Steiner is a huge composer
in the 30s and 40s he did the music for
"Gone With the Wind" among others and he, along with the composer that I would
like to highlight, were really the people
who brought the idea of
music for film into prominence. So Max
Steiner is really important though to
note because one of the things that he
created was the idea that the music
should match what was happening on
screen.  So if there was a big surprise
the music should indicate some sort of
surprise.  He also came up with the idea
to use themes for different characters.
I think one of the most famous theme music for characters
probably comes from the "Star Wars"
trilogy. John Williams did
Leia's theme and Han's theme and Luke's
theme.Darth Vader has music that when
you hear it you know Darth Vader's
coming, but that idea of matching a
character with the music
came from Max Steiner.  And if you watch
"King Kong" from 1933,
you'll see how he does that.
There's music that plays when you see Ann on screen.
There is specific music that's played
when Kong is on the way.  There's another
prominent composer at the time:
Erik Wolfgang Korngold, who created some
of the most iconic action-adventure
swashbuckling movie music that you will
ever hear.  And this is the music that I am
recommending for you to use
while you are writing.  Korngold had
actually written a lot of classical
concertos, operas, things like that.
When he ended up in America in the early
30s, he
was invited to make music for 1935's
"Captain Blood" starring Errol Flynn and
Olivia de Havilland.  And the music
in this movie is absolutely perfect.
It follows the story of a young doctor
who ends up helping an enemy soldier who
is wounded and for this offense he
is enslaved and eventually he breaks
free from the slavery
and becomes a pirate on the high seas
because why not! And it's Errol Flynn
at his most Errol-Flynniest and he's
absolutely perfect.
But the thing that really helped
catapult him and Olivia de Havilland
into that stratosphere of stardom was
the music in this film.
Of course the two of them have brilliant
chemistry they're great actors,
but the music really helps to solidify
the adventure that is in this film.
It's absolutely gorgeous swashbuckling pirate kind of music.  So if
you're writing anything that has pirates
in it please
check out the music from "Captain Blood."
So let me play you a quick example
of the music from "Captain Blood."
You can also check out the music from
"The Seahawk" and
from "The Adventures of Robin Hood." All of these were done by Korngold
and all of those movies star Errol Flynn.
So let me play you a quick
clip from "The Seahawk."
Future Editing Meredith here. It is
straight up killing me to like cut the
music so it's not just like...
the entire opening portion!
Please look these up--they're so good. I'm
just like "No, I can't cut it!!  Where am I
supposed to cut it?!"
I'm trying to limit these to like 30
second clips.  It's..it is...it's difficult. Okay. Back...back to the video.
Korngold though did
not just do this sort of swashbuckling
action adventure type music,
which i think that's what he's most well
known for and it is fantastic music, but
he also did other music for other films
that's a little more
classical sounding in nature.  So if
you're looking for something a little
more like that you might check out the
soundtrack for "King's Row" and I think if
you listen to the opening
portion of this you'll see where maybe a
certain John Williams got some
inspiration for his star wars theme later on...
So take a quick listen to the intro to "King's Row."
Next let's skip a little bit forward
into the 40s.  There's actually two films
I want to highlight that came out in
back-to-back years:  1946 and 1947.
We'll start with 1946 and "The Best Years
of Our Lives."
Hi it's Future Editing Meredith, just
popping in because I'm trying to find
a...like movie poster for "Best Years
of Our Lives" and
I like this poster that i just popped up
there. However...
the poster artist has done a disservice
of the
highest kind to Dana Andrews.  Dana
Andrews--
and I will insert a picture of him--is a
very gorgeous man and I'm sorry but this
poster makes him not look great.
So anyway, sorry Dana Andrews!
I'm defending your honor!  Okay, bye!
This movie is...absolutely a gut punch of a movie.
It's fantastic.  I think it's a movie that
every American should see for sure,
but if you're from somewhere else you'll
probably enjoy it too!
It follows the story of three soldiers
coming home from WWII and the challenges that they face
getting reacquainted with their families
and their friends and getting back into
just civilian life and "normal life" after
they've survived this horrific event.  The movie
is extremely emotional and poignant and
absolutely gorgeous, but the thing that
for me in almost every scene pushes me over the
edge into tears is the music! The music is by Hugo
Friedhoffer, which he did do quite a few other film
scores during his career, but I think
this is
by far his most well known and his best.
He did win
the Academy Award for best film score
for this and it is
absolutely the most Americana sounding
music
you've ever heard in your life.  It's so
perfect. It fits that time period so
beautifully.  It has these melodies that just pull on
your heart strings.
As you watch the movie and listen to the
music there's parts of it that are very
inspiring and encouraging
while other parts are highly emotionally
charged. This one is a hard one for me to
listen to while i write just because i know the
movie really well and I'm thinking of the scenes that are
happening while the music is playing.  But
if you've never seen the movie--which you
should remedy that
and watch it--but if you've never seen it
this could be great music for an
emotional scene
or if you're writing something from the
mid-40s,
this is your music. This is it. Because
it fits that time period so perfect.
So take a quick listen to the film score
from "The Best Years
of Our Lives."
We're gonna skip quick one year ahead to 1947
and we'll be taking a look at the film
score for "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir."
This is an absolute gem of a film that i
feel like
most people don't know or don't talk
about very often which is a real shame
because it is such a gorgeous film.  It's...it's a delight.
It follows the story of a widow and her
young daughter who end up purchasing
this home by the sea and she is warned before she moves in that the home is haunted.
But she brushes off the real estate
agent and purchases the home anyway.  And
it turns out the house is haunted by the
old sea captain
who used to own the property.  And at
first he's very cantankerous
and gruff with her, telling her that she
needs to get out, but eventually they
form a sort of friendship.
And no spoilers here, but the end is one
of the most beautiful endings to a film that I can
think of. It is perfect.  The other great thing about this film--
and this is totally getting off
track which I told you I was gonna do
but here we are and I'm not gonna stop
so--
the film also has George Sanders in a
smaller part
and he is one of my favorite character
actors. He has this beautiful
deep British voice and he's so
evil and it's just a delight!
"I hear he went up to London,
left his little bride all alone. It's too bad."
But of course for this video we're going
to talk about the music! The music is by
Bernard
Herrmann, who did a ton of music
throughout the 40s and the 50s and into
the 60s.  He's probably most well known
for composing
the music for the movie "Psycho" and for
the music in other Alfred Hitchcock
films like "North by Northwest;" he also
did the music for "Citizen Kane," which of
course came out earlier in the 40s and
starred Orson Welles.
But of all of the iconic scores that
Bernard Herrmann had
written in his lifetime, he said that the
music that he did
for "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" was his
favorite. It's
a bold and dramatic score in parts and
soft
and very emotional in others. There's a
sense of wistfulness about it,
a sense of longing, and it's just highly
atmospheric.
So i think if you're...certainly if you're
writing a romance, this is the music for
you.  If you're writing anything with
characters who are just longing for
something that they can't seem to get to
this could be really great music to
write to for that.  So take a quick listen
to the music from
"The Ghost and Mrs. Muir."
The next film score I'd like to
highlight is from 1990 and it is "Edward
Scissorhands." The music is by Danny
Elfman and
it is just the most magical sounding
music.
If you know any of Danny Elfman's stuff,
he tends to do very whimsical
fantastical kinds of music that really fits the sort
of Tim Burton feel that he has composed
a lot of music for.
But the Edward Scissorhands music is so
beautiful.  It's very poignant
and again emotional at parts but it's
very beautiful music and I think you
could use this certainly if you're
writing any kind of
fantasy novel, middle grade i think would
be great for this,
certainly if you're writing a romance
fantasy which is sort of what that film
genre is, this would be perfect for it.
Similar to the sort of atmospheric nature of the music for "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,"
this music has that same quality to it.
So if maybe that music from the 40s isn't
quite your jam, this is sort of a more modern take on
that type of music. Take a listen real quick to the
Edward Scissorhand soundtrack.
Okay, we're down to the final portion
here and I think
if anyone is making a video on movie
soundtracks...
can you -not- talk about John Williams?
I don't know but I'm going to! So I'm
going to highlight two of his
movies that he's composed music for, one
that you're probably very familiar with
and one that you're maybe not as
familiar with because it's a little bit
older.
I do highly encourage you though if you
like John Williams music,
then you need to go back and listen to
Max Steiner
Korngold, all of those older composers
because
John Williams has said himself those are
the people where he
drew a lot of inspiration from. So in
order to appreciate
where we are today with film scores you
need to go back a little bit
and listen to some of the older stuff
because that's where it's coming from.
The first film score i want to highlight--and
this one I'm going to give a little bit
of a caveat to it--and that is the music
for "Jurassic Park." I think this is...it's
absolutely my favorite
action adventure film for sure. How can
you turn down crazed dinosaurs running
around and trying to eat people?  Like...
it's perfect, right?
And it's got it's got everything you
could ever want from like a summer
blockbuster movie, right? And
the music is just perfect. It's
absolutely perfect.
It's very beautiful in a lot of spots,
but if you need something that's really
high energy it has tracks for that as well.
The only problem with listening to music from "Jurassic Park"
is most of us, I think, have probably seen
that movie.  And we're very familiar with this is the
part where the t-rex is attacking,
this is the part where they're running
from those...like ostrich thingies...
this is the part where the velociraptors are getting into the kitchen...
like we know all of those scenes in the film and
so, I don't know what it's like for you, but
for me when I hear the music
if i know the scene it's coming from,
sometimes it's hard to then focus if I'm
trying to write or do something else
because then I'm just like "Oh my gosh,
this is the part where the velociraptors
are running after them!!" and i get really
excited about the movie and then I'm not
focused on the writing... SO
if you do that i wouldn't recommend
listening to the "Jurassic Park"
soundtrack, but
if you haven't seen the movie
I...oof...that's a real shame for you
but then you could listen to the
soundtrack and not be distracted knowing
what was going on in the movie at the
time. That's sort of my first
half suggestion. But if you are looking
for a John Williams soundtrack that is
very John Williams-y,
but you haven't seen the movie i would
highly encourage you to check out the
soundtrack for
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind" which
came out in 1977.
There are a lot of tracks on here that
are almost
sort of ambient sounds and very jarring
tones, more than a straight melody.  So if
you're writing anything that is very
suspenseful or
has a horror element to it some of those
earlier portions from the soundtrack
might be absolutely perfect for a really
tense scene you're writing. However there
are some absolutely
gorgeous portions of the soundtrack that
would be absolutely perfect to use if
you're writing a scene that's filled
with a lot of wonder and joy.
And if you've seen the
movie i'm talking about the portion at
the end of the
film. So good.
If you haven't seen "Close Encounters" you
need to. It's absolutely perfect. If you
ever have the opportunity to see it
in a theater, do that. Do it. But anyway,
the music is an absolute delight so
let's take a quick listen
to the music from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
Okay I hope a couple of those were new
for you and that you'll check them out
while you're writing.
If there are particular movie scores
that you really enjoy using while you
write,
please let us know in the comments below,
or if you check out any of the ones that
I've listed and really enjoy it let me
know, too! There are of course
a ton of other movie soundtracks that
have great music to go with it. I can
probably do a part two to this if you're
interested.
If that's something you're interested in
let me know again in the comments below.
If you liked this video give it a thumbs
up
and if you'd like to see more content
from me, I do post videos on Tuesdays and
Fridays so do go ahead and hit that
subscribe button!
You can also find me over on Instagram
at meredithphillipswrites.
Thank you so much for joining me today!
Bye!
That was a really awkward way to put all that *unintelligible muttering*
...would play in the theater you...okay I'm
really i need a script for this or
something geez...okay...
When movies were first...UUGGRRRHHH
Is this film dirty...
hold on!  It dirty...
