A standard movie is one and a half hours long. Film composers are usually ordered so much music that they can cover half of the soundtrack – that is, about 40-50 minutes. All this is given from two weeks to two months, depending on how much time remains before the release of the tape.

Most often, the composer’s work begins with the director inviting him to the editing room and showing a rough cut of his tape. “I need disturbing music from this place to this,” says the director. “With a special dramatic emphasis on the moment where the hero finds someone else’s size 60 sock under the bed and guesses everything.” The composer listens and makes notes in a notebook. Setting the boundaries of future melodies is called “spotting” – having received exhaustive instructions, the composer can only compose something that fits into the time frame specified by the director. This is actually not so simple – whoever wrote music for cinema constantly remembers both the Procrustean bed and the Damocles sword – therefore, in order not to go beyond the boundaries, many authors use special formulas or computer programs that help calculate the tempo. An already written melody that does not fit into the “window” assigned to it can be accelerated or slowed down.

There is another way to write music for films: the composer is simply allowed to read the script or watch the storyboards, and, inspired by these materials, he writes the melodies. Many songwriters like this method much more, because it gives space for creativity and additional time to complete the task (the music author does not need to wait until the film is shot and edited, so that he can start work even before the start of filming – for example, Hans Zimmer wrote the music for the film “Inception”). As a result, the director receives a more universal and independent work, which is not tied to a specific scene and is theoretically capable of sounding anywhere in the film.

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Film music is meant to create an atmosphere. Each genre has its own style. Many youth groups became popular thanks to their compositions written as soundtracks for popular films. Many horror films and thrillers “stretch” our nerves even more with tense, sometimes ear-cutting music. Drum rolls often predict the appearance of a ghost or a maniac from behind a wall. Cool rock music at the end of the action movie, as it were, hints that the enemies are defeated, and the main character is the hero. But the gentle-slow motives of the melodramas make the lacrimal glands work even more intensely.

Often it is the music that becomes the main advantage of the picture. And the actors are not very good, and the script is so-so, and it feels like the director has just graduated from college, and he likes the film. Often and previously unknown collectives and singers became famous after working in a famous picture.

Every world famous director has his own musical preferences. Hearing only the title song, you can guess whose hands this creation. Take only directors like Tarantino and Kusturica. The soundtracks for their films are very unique.

Many filmmakers use dissonance between picture and sound to heighten the atmosphere. For example, Stanley Kubrick used the music of Mozart in his painting A Clockwork Orange. The classics were able to show even more sharply all the cruelty about which the film is narrated.

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Film music functions consist of many things, and they are needed in a film to help the story connect. The most famous feature of movie soundtracks is to set the atmosphere in the movie. This is one of the most important and powerful features of movie soundtracks. Creating atmosphere is key in a film as it gives viewers a clue about the overall tone of the film. If you pair the bright and playful melody with the supernatural scene in a horror movie, it immediately seems less intimidating, more silly and more comedic. Another example would be the use of heavy metal music in a science fiction film like Narnia. It wouldn’t be the best choice.

However, soundtracks have more features than that. For example, music conveys emotion. Even when the character has a neutral expression, you can literally hear his or her emotions in the background music. Charlie Chaplin’s films and the very first episodes of Mickey Mouse represent this category. Since there is no dialogue in the film, music is all the film needs to bring the emotional flow. Music is also used to psychologically unite the audience as a whole. One example would be the use of a majestic melody for the climax. Another specific example would be the use of the national anthem. Music may contain social, cultural, geographic and periodic links. In particular, pseudo-authenticity is often used, which means that music that is perceived by Western ears as a specific place, as opposed to real music that can be heard in that place (which is sometimes quite different). This feature can be seen in movies that are set in areas other than where the movie is being produced. Examples can be found in many Disney films such as Mulan and Aladdin. Historical references can also be made using a style of music representing the era. These functions make the story flawless and create significant dynamics in the plot of these moving images.

If you still cannot recognize the importance of music in films, you should remember that every cult film has instantly recognizable themes. Take Star Wars, for example. Star Wars has consistently been named the best movie ever. Its unmistakable soundtrack has been around for over three decades and remains the best-selling orchestral soundtrack of all time. However, one song stands out in particular – “Main Title”. One bar in a song and you immediately associate it with the movie and represent the world of Jedi, lightsabers, and stormtroopers. Hence, you can find good themes in movie parodies as the soundtrack becomes a representative portrayal of the original films. Plus, these good tunes can replace a movie into an iconic statue – Jaws and Psycho is a good example. Other examples of a good theme involve a unique character representing each genre of films: the first in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Indiana Jones, Rocky, and James Bond.

From the very beginning of the film, the film’s soundtrack and score are directly linked to the film’s success, creating an important symbiotic relationship. An underrated movie soundtrack heightens tension, creates humor and evokes emotion. A movie soundtrack can make the difference between being a dust-collecting DVD in the corner of shelves, and forever engaging in film history. One cannot thrive without the other; visual perception is auditory, while auditory perception stimulates the visual, giving it a deeper meaning. Many people underestimate the importance of a humble movie soundtrack, ignoring it and believing that it adds little to the films, how wrong they are.

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If for an ordinary user this is not such a terrible disaster, then for videographers and everyone who works in the video industry it is just a disaster.

Think for yourself. A good editor makes editing to the music, painstakingly working on every measure, musical accent, creating a lot of creative work. This means that the music is determined until the moment when the in-depth editing began. No other music can be added to the finished video. More precisely, it can be applied, but all the art of editing, with musical accents, mood is likely to be lost.

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Since its inception, cinema has been inextricably linked with music. When the Lumière brothers showed the first films, they invited pianists to drown out the crackling of the apparatus, then the improvisation of pianists for films of all stripes was replaced by collections called Music for Photo Plays, differing in mood, and then real composers came to the cinema.

A film composer is the one who creates the magic of sounds that acts on the subconscious of the audience and controls their emotion.

Writing music is not an easy process, and there are many factors that directors and producers must consider in order to find the right composer.

For example, the way of writing music: a music book and preliminary playback of melodies for the director on some instrument or an electronic method of writing in special computer programs Logic Pro, Digital Performer, Cubase, etc. and a file on a computer that the film crew can listen to on their own.

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