Source 5

Music is not only part of the narrative but also part of the space of the film, or its spacial reality. The journal article by James Batch, “The Sonic Lifeworld: A Phenomenological Exploration of the Imaginative Potential of Animation Sound” explores the role of music in films. Diegetic sound is physically present in the narrative, while non-diegetic is in the exterior, but we could think of it as specially present. The author says that music should not just legitimize the narrative, but also connect the character to the setting, thus connecting the audience to the character. This article, since it is talking about animated films, speaks mostly to sound effects of footsteps for example, but these ideas can also be used while talking about live action films. In my previous research the studies have said that music helps the audience connect to the character, meaning that the normal every day sounds like footsteps can legitimize the narrative but are just as important for making the story more relatable as non-diegetic music. 

This article has made me think more about the “space” of the film, the space it is in and the space different elements can create. Hopefully by exploring this idea more it will add another dimension to my paper and show that music can transcend all: the reality of the audience and the fiction of what is on screen, connecting them both. this article is credible because it is in a professional journal and sites and quotes other outside, credible sources.

Source #4

To continue with my research on sound I chose the article “The Non-Diegetic Fallacy: Film, Music, and Narrative Space” by Ben Winters in order to argue the true importance and great role music has in film. The article begins just like my research paper thus far, stating that certain movies like “Indiana Jones” would not exist without the music that accompanies it. The author, though, does not want to categorize the non-diegetic sound that is so characteristic of the movie to be seen as non-diegetic because it plays such a big role in the movie. By calling it non-diegetic, it “threatens to separate [the music] from the space of the narrative, denying it an active role in shaping the course of the onscreen events.” By categorizing music as non-diegetic is like categorizing it in the same way as a narrator, who is external. Music is every way part of the narrative as the mis-en-scene. The author also mentions that non-diegetic sound is a sort of indicator to the audience that was is going on on screen is part of its own universe, that it is fictional. This could also mean that diegetic sound is part of the movie’s universe, while non-diegetic sound is more so part of the audience’s universe. This makes me want to explore the interesting use of the same melody throughout the movie “The Great Lie” both as diegetic and non-diegetic sound.

This source is extremely credible because it sites many known film theorists, books, and articles on the subject, citing them accordingly. This source opens even further the door to discussing not only how different melodies but also different types of sound effect the movie and audience together and separately. This is a very strong source for my argument that the melodrama would not exist without music. 

Source #3

For my research I am now exploring different types of sound, mainly diegetic and non-diegetic and their effect on the film and audience. I found the article "Fundamental Aesthetics of Sound in Cinema" which Bordwell co-wrote with Kristin Thompson. This article summarizes all of the techniques used to improve a movie's sound and message through music, including loudness, timbre, pitch, rhythm, the actual selection and combination of sounds, fidelity, space, and time. Two of which interested me the most is diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Diegetic sound is sound that both the audience and people on screen hear, while non-diegetic sound is sound which only the audience hears. The article states that displaced diegetic sound recalls an earlier scene by repeating the same sounds in that scene but still staying in the present scene. This type of repetition is seen a couple times in the movie "The Great Lie" which I am analyzing in my essay. I have never thought of the repeating of music as a way to recall earlier scenes, but now because of this article I will explore that. Sound can also either clarify, contradict, or render scenes ambiguous, but it always has an active relationship with the images. This is interesting because in one scene the diegetic sound directly contradicts to a tense scene between two characters, and of course the director chose that music on purpose. 

This is a new type of article for me in my external research because it is not a scientific study, but it is very reliable because Bordwell co-wrote it, and he has written many articles and books on movies and the melodrama. This source is a helpful introduction to researching more about different types of sound and what that does for the film, not just the audience, and how it enhances it. 

Finding My Research Question

The newest study I have read is "Viewers' Interpretations of Film Characters' Emotions: Effects of Presenting Film Music Before or After a Character is Shown". This study adds another layer to how music affects us by seeing how we interpret an ambiguous scene if we hear music before or after it. When music was played before, the emotions were perceived as more intense and the mood of the music matched how the viewers interpreted the mood of the scene and character. This is because by priming the viewer with music, he or she would look for clues in an ambiguous facial expression that matched the mood of the music. When music was listened to after a neutral scene, the viewer can still continue to process the previous action using the new information provided by that music, and it provided the best emotional cue for interpreting emotions, since the scene's emotions were ambiguous. What was also found is that positive music led to a positive interpretation of the outcome or a character and negative music would create negative interpretations, like an outcome involving aggression or a character wanting to harm someone in the future.

This source is very reliable as it is a scientific study that also mentions many other studies that have been done on the same topic. This source adds more information to the other studies I have read thus far and is making me think on a deeper level about how much music really affects us as viewers.

This research made me start thinking about the idea that what really defines a movie's genre? The critics usually define it or tell us what the genre is, but the critics have to watch the movie in order to know, so it is the movie that is dictating the genre. But, what influences the viewer throughout the movie? Yes, the scenes played out on the screen and the plot line do influence how a movie is categorized, but if you think about it if a romantic movie or crime movie did not have any music in it, the categorization into a genre would be a little more ambiguous. It would take more time to categorize. Imagine the movie has a cut and dry plot of boy meets girl, they fall in love, a problem that breaks them apart follows the honeymoon phase of the relationship but then in the end they get back together. If that plot was accompanied by action music or dramatic music instead of the typical romantic music throughout, would it still be categorized as a romantic movie? There are many elements that go into categorizing a movie but I believe that music is the most important part. It determines a characters' likability, what we think will happen next, how well we remember the scene, and how we feel ourselves in congruence with the characters throughout.

Music and Emotion in the Classic Hollywood Film

This academic article by Samuel L. Chell analyses the role of music in cinema while using the classic movie "The Best Years of Our Lives" as an example. The article explores the relationship between the viewer and what is happening on screen through the lens of music. Music represents the "character's internal being" and promotes the viewer's belief in the fiction happening on screen. While we watch movies we unconsciously see what is happening as if it were happening to us, and music helps to decrease the distance between us and the screen, making us be closer to the action. The different music throughout helps close the gap between seen and unseen, as we do not usually see inside the mind of someone, but because of music we may, for example, know how that character is feeling. The tonal properties of the music, major or minor, loud or soft, serve as audible images of the viewer's own reaction to what is unfolding on screen, and furthermore the music gives the two dimensional photographed images human depth. This depth is created through emotions, empathy, and the connection between the spectator and the action in the movie. Another interesting fact in this article is that most viewers do not remember if a film had any music at all, which shows the ability for a score to put itself in the subconscious.
This source is very useful because it backs up what is found in the movie "The Best Years of Our Lives" with scientific facts and studies. It proves, like my other source, the great influence music has on the viewer and the movie's reception. My other source said that depending on the music the viewer would interpret the scene differently, and this source proves that even more by saying that music can represent the viewer's reaction to what is on screen. So not only does different music cause a different interpretation, but also a different reaction. A lot of emotions the characters feel in the melodrama are hidden in order to have a plot twist later, but the viewer may know these emotions not because of words spoken but because of the emotional impact of the music, which closes the gap between what the viewer sees and does not see (or hear from the character).
I will use this source in order to have concrete evidence of my interpretations of how music affects the movie. I may begin to explore the unconscious effect that music has on the viewer that the viewer does not realize but which affects them and how they view the movie. This source has also intrigued me to learn more about how much we really connect with a movie and in what way and why, and how we close that gap and analyze and add together what we see and hear in order to create our own interpretation of the movie.

Resource #1

The first resource I have found that is useful is an academic journal article, "Film Music Influences How Viewers Relate to Movie Characters." The planned topic of my research is music's influence on the audience and how they see the movie. This article is about an experiment that wanted to find out if no music, thriller music, or melodramatic music would influence how the audience interpreted a character's ambiguous facial expression and how confident they were in knowing that character's state of mind. The results were not completely surprising. When the clip was accompanied by melodramatic music, the audience was more confident with knowing the character's state of mind, and described their facial expression with words like "love". Love was mentioned more often than fear when listening to melodramatic music, and in contrast "anger" was used more often than fear to describe the scene accompanied by thriller music. By being more confident in knowing the character, the audience more often than not empathizes and connects with the character, making the character more likeable. When the same clip was accompanied with thriller music, the audience was not confident with knowing the character's state of mind, causing them to not connect as often with the character and like them less. When comparing melodramatic and thriller music with no music, characters are more liked when listening to melodramatic music and least liked when listening to thriller music. Not only can music change the mood of the scene but also the mood of the audience and their feelings toward the character, and, as a whole, the movie.

This source is very reliable. Every step of the experiment is listed, along with citations of previous research that is pertinent to their study. The people who created the study made sure that there would be no bias or outliers, making each viewer view the same trigger clips and distracting clips in different order and asking the same questions in the same order. They also did a couple pre-tests to make sure that the music chosen was melodramatic and thriller, and that the scenes chosen to be "trigger" scenes had close ups on ambiguous facial expressions.

This research definitely gives my paper a scientific backbone to have proof that my topic of study is not only something based on my own and the opinions and findings of others, but that it was proven by facts. It helps me emphasize the fact that music can change an audience's feelings toward characters and change a scene completely. A scene can go from ominous to happy depending solely on the music. This source will be one which I will use as a basis for my further research into how music is used in melodrama and in turn how that is perceived by the audience.

Research Essay Topics

A key feature of the melodrama that has caught my attention is the music that accompanies the action. Music is a crucial component of the melodrama because as a result of it, the scene changes mood and makes the viewer feel the action on a different level. For example, if something bad is about to happen the music is eerie and scary, which makes the viewer feel scared as well. If the scene is a happy one or a resolution, the tone is major and the music is uplifting, making the viewer feel happy as well. Usually when we watch movies we don't pay attention to the music but if you do, you realize that the emotions you're feeling throughout the movie are influenced not only by the action on screen but also by the music. If you take out the musical accompaniment in a movie the emotions on screen and your own become bland and not as distinct. I would approach this topic by watching melodramas and analyzing what scenes and the emotions in those scenes are accompanied by. Then I would try to maybe see what the movie would be like without the music accompanying it. I could maybe accomplish this by watching a silent movie with and without music and see the difference. I would also maybe research the process in which movie directors work along side the composers who compose the movie's soundtrack or how in modern movies they choose pop songs to go along with screenplay.

Another topic that is of interest to me is how modern romantic comedies or teen movies incorporate key features that originate from the melodrama into the movie to enhance it. For example, I recently watched the movie "That Awkward Moment" where of course a guy and a girl get into a relationship. While they have their fling and before a relationship, they steal a key to Grammar C park in New York City. Then problems come up and the guy does not want to be in a relationship because he made a pact with his friends to stay single. He does not go to the girl's father's funeral as a result because that would mean they're in a relationship, and a few days later he goes to see her but she says he wasn't there for her when she needed him most, so their relationship is over, and she gives him back the key to the park. In the end he makes a big public speech where he reminds her of the first conversation they had, and tells her she knows where to find him. Of course they meet in Grammar C park. This movie utilized symbols that are typical of the melodrama, as well as coincidences and the audience knowing some information that the other characters do not. If I chose this route I would probably watch a couple movies and see how they used melodramatic techniques and how that enhanced the story line.