From the course: Creating a Short Film: 12 Audio

Why use musical themes?

From the course: Creating a Short Film: 12 Audio

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Why use musical themes?

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- [Instructor] The most memorable scores throughout film history have almost always used memorable themes. - "Jaws", (intense music) "Star Wars", (epic music) "Superman", (epic music) "Psycho". (anticipatory music) These movies were all elevated by their iconic scores, but why? What do themes really do? Memorable musical themes essentially make a bigger deal of a cinematic thing. Villains seem more diabolical. Heroes seem more heroic. Sad moments become even more heartbreaking. But I'm not exactly sure why, but iconic musical themes aren't as common these days. Maybe it's because I was raised in the John Williams, Steven Spielberg heyday, but, I love the power of themes. Let's look at them in action here. Again, John Williams is without question, the best of the best. In " Raiders of the Lost Ark", we have essentially three themes throughout the film. We have the Indiana Jones theme. (epic music) The arks theme. (intense music) And the love theme of Indy and Marion. (romantic music) And the bulk of the score largely consists of variations on these three themes. They're used so intelligently though. And, also with tact. You know, the film starts, if you remember, you know, the whole thing, with the statue and the boulder and all that kind of stuff. But the Indiana Jones theme isn't heard noticeably in all of that stuff. Later, when he's running for his life, we start to hear the beginnings of the theme. (epic music) And that builds a little bit. As he gets away and has his first real victory of the film, then we hear the theme fully. (epic music) That teaches us that this theme is the sound of Indiana Jones being Indiana Jones. Moments later, when he finds a snake in his lap, and basically it gets told to deal with it, we hear the theme again. (epic music) So hearing this theme underscores the larger than life nature of Indiana Jones, and promotes him to the status of an iconic character. And maybe this is a little bit self-indulgent, but perhaps my favorite musical score of all time is Danny Elfman's first ever musical score, actually. The one for "Pee-wee's Big Adventure". The themes in this film are as quirky and unique, and as catchy as the film itself. And because these themes are so recognizable, they become great dramatic tools when used later in the film. Here's a couple quick examples of that. In the very opening of the film, Pee-wee wins a bike race, and we hear this iconic theme. (victorious music) We discover moments later that this was just all a dream. So this theme then becomes the sound of a false victory. Later in the film, after he's lost his bike, you know, gone on the big adventure and that whole thing, and then finds his bike again, we hear that same false victory theme once more. (victorious music) This theme tells us that this is indeed a victory, but will likely be short-lived. In another example, we have one of my favorite scenes in any film: this incredibly pointless breakfast-making contraption. It's an insanely complicated Rube Goldberg that makes a simple breakfast that Pee-wee doesn't even end up eating. And while it's making breakfast, we hear this all-time, favorite movie theme of mine. (playful music) So, this theme, during this sequence in the film teaches us that this is the theme of zany, pointless, playfulness. So then later in the film, when Pee-wee is actually running for his life from this big angry guy, we hear that same chaotic, but lighthearted theme. (playful music) And because we hear that theme, it makes the whole scene feel more comedic. We can laugh and not get too stressed about it because the music tells us that Pee-wee isn't in any real danger. It's just kind of crazy for a minute, and then it's playful and fun and zany, and it's all going to be fine. So again, memorable themes aren't as common now as they were in times past. But if you use themes thoughtfully, they can be a really powerful tool for creating your film score.

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