Music is an integral part of the documentary and its a part of the screen I pride myself on, I have a taste for music but quite often it can take onerous amounts of time to find the right track and incorporate the pace along with the on screen action.

THE PURPOSE OF MUSIC

Storytelling purposes – can give other meaning through underscore themes and meaning that is not apparent
Emotional content/character – give complexity to the characters
Punctuation – stings – that transition between scenes, recurring fragments

Michael Rabiger, author of Directing the Documentary says:
“Music should not inject emotion, choice of music should give access to the inner life of a character or the subject, and music can signal the emotional level at which the audience should investigate what is being shown” (Rabiger, 1998, 310)

This quote highlighted by Kim is an important way to consider the value of music in any film and any documentary. The absence of music and the “sounds of silence” can often be one of the most powerful tools in regaining or attracting the audiences investment in the unfolding story. The absence of sound in a film which is laden with dense sound effects and musical backing is used as a pivotal moment where the character has an emotional breakthrough, a change occurs or potential an emotional breakdown occurs. I use the absence of music when there is strong emotion conveyed by the character, I use this technique to actually get the audience to refocus and actually pay close attention to the simplicity on screen. It will not be complicated what I am displaying, but what could actually be derived from the on-screen imagine can be far more powerful than any kind of twenty thousand piece orchestra (however that would be impressive).

I have found some absolutely sensational tracks on the Free Music Archive website.

I am currently tossing and turning between either music which is upbeat, corporate styled tune to give away that kind of playful and sentimental feeling in an true life organisational video for a website or purely piano, pieces which are emotional, have repetitive melodies and strong inspirational ascending notes which build for the heartfelt finale.

My musical pieces I have selected are by Chris Zabriskie from his piano ‘Preludes’ album. Although preludes translates to an action or event serving as an introduction to something more important, the pieces are great transitioning and backing pieces to give my subject density and guide the audience through her strong emotional descriptions. I have chosen seven Prelude tracks which I will try to condense into three to four tracks I will use in my final product. I believe these musical tracks beautifully accompany Julie’s spritely but also fragile character, the music pieces bring to the surface her emotions and I hope the emotion are conveyed to the audience.

Michael Serpell