Month: October 2017

When Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner first released in 1982, it was unsuccessful in the box office. To put this into numbers, Blade Runner only made about $27M in the United States box office though the budget was $28M. Even for all of the innovative philosophy, music, and character design that the movie offered, the film wasn’t quite what audiences wanted at the time. It was too futuristic and too artistic for a decade when audiences wanted simpler comedies and dramas like The Breakfast Club (1985). Fortunately, Blade Runner has since received the recognition it deserves through its status as a popular cult classic.

The film centers around Rick Deckard, a retired blade runner in Los Angeles, 2019. The city has become a dark and dangerous place full of displays of poverty and threatening replicants, human-like robots used for various tasks including slavery in the Off World Colony. Notably, this version of Los Angeles was one of the first examples of cyber punk in American culture. This new, unique setting helped set the scene for the pessimistic and gloomy Blade Runner and define it as an innovative piece of cinema.

After four replicants commit a mutiny in the Off World Colony at the start of the film, Deckard comes out of retirement in order to put a stop to their rebellion. As a blade runner, it had been Deckard’s job to hunt down and to destroy rebelling replicants such as these. Along the journey, he meets Rachael, the assistant of Dr. Tyrell, the replicants’ creator (played by Joe Turkel). She shows strong emotional responses despite being a replicant. As the film progresses, Deckard struggles with this truth and with the way he feels about Rachael. The film asks us to ponder over what it really means to be human. Are these replicants like Rachael human because they feel emotions and have “memories”? Is it right for Deckard to be killing the rebelling replicants because they aren’t actually alive?

The setting, philosophical questions, and character of the film were all very innovative and interesting, but we will focus on the score’s innovative elements. The score of Blade Runner is one of the most impressive parts of this film. Composed by the Greek visionary Vangelis, this score has a futuristic, atmospheric, and otherworldly sound. Though the sounds, instruments, and atmospheric tone may sound easy to replicate today and possibly even common, at the time, they were truly revolutionary. It is crucial to remember landmark soundtracks such as Blade Runner‘s when considering those created today. This soundtrack notably popularized the use of an atmospheric sound, influencing many like Hans Zimmer’s Interstellar soundtrack, which we have discussed in an earlier post.

The first element to crafting Blade Runner’s unique sound was the use of electronic sounds. Arguably, the first use of electronic sounds in film came from Bernard Herrmann’s use of the theremin in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), but by the time Vangelis scored Blade Runner, he was able to incorporate it more heavily in the film with overlapping melodies and sound channels due to technological advances and his own innovations in music. He aimed to make the music more atmospheric as if it were connected to that cyber punk landscape. We can see this in songs like The Prodigal Song Brings Death (song link 1: The Prodigal Son Brings Death (1:24:04)) where the music comes from the same “notes” and sounds in the scene’s background, including the rain, the high heels, and even the harmony to the grunt. When layered with instruments such as the wind chimes and many faint sustained electronic notes, the score becomes just as much a part of the film as the dialogue.

 .                              The Greek composer Vangelis poses for the photo in his studio around the time that Blade Runner was scored. Figure 3

The second most important element of the score was its use of reverberation. The first reverberation machine, the EMT250, had only been invented 6 years before this film was released, but Vangelis discovered this new technique of reverberation and wanted to use it in Blade Runner to give the film a surreal dreamlike feel. In Blade Runner, Vangelis chose the more advanced Lexicon 224-X, which could extend sounds for 70 seconds. Vangelis then used reverberation in most sounds, dialogue, and songs to tie them into one massive atmosphere of immersive sound. This led to ethereal songs such as Deckard Meets Rachael (song link 2: Deckard Meets Rachael (0:20:05)) and Rachael’s Song (song link 3: Rachael’s Song (0:21:41)). Both of these songs excellently capture the dreamlike and otherworldly sound that Vangelis and Ridley Scott aimed to capture in Blade Runner.

Vangelis’s approach to scoring represents the final important element. Vangelis simply sat down at his Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer and watched the newly edited scenes, composing songs that represented his feelings in each particular scene. He didn’t compose to dialogue like in Grand Budapest Hotel or to action like in Baby Driver, he composed to emotion. Vangelis then used these spontaneous, unrefined compositions in the score to create a score of raw emotion. This was the key to Blade Runner‘s sound and it can be experienced in any of the score’s songs. Personally, I like the bluesy, moody, and mixed emotions from Blade Runner Blues (song link 4: Blade Runner Blues (0:39:54)). I believe it captures the muddled city and Deckard’s changing thoughts and feelings about his role as a blade runner.

Before I sign off, I must mention that I had never seen Blade Runner until this week while researching for this post. I almost feel ashamed to mention this since it was an amazing movie! I highly encourage any of you who have not seen it to watch it sometime soon, maybe even this weekend! I haven’t watched such a thought-provoking or artistically beautiful film for a while.

Thanks for reading this post! I really appreciate your support. Let me know what you think in the comments. See you next time on Scoring the Score!

Image Credits:

Figure 1: Image 1

Figure 2: Image 2

Figure 3: Image 3

Welcome back to Scoring the Score! This week we will focus on music as a plot device through Director Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash (2014). An excellent film, Whiplash follows the story of Andrew Neiman, a young Jazz drummer, as he tries to make it to the top at his competitive music school. Unfortunately, when he finally places into the competitive upper Jazz class, he must face the demands for absolute perfection coming from his music instructor, Fletcher. The audience feels Andrew’s fear and stress as he desperately becomes focused solely on gaining Fletcher’s approval. This becomes unhealthy and life-threatening for Andrew as he goes down a path of self-destruction seeking perfection.

Being a film about the struggles of a Jazz musician, the music of the film is featured prominently and drives the film forward. Entire scenes are dedicated to filming music and the film’s sound mixing and editing captures the life of several classic Jazz tunes. When Andrew first enters studio band, we are introduced through the song Whiplash (Song link 1: Whiplash). When Chazelle films music scenes, he moves the camera around constantly to focus on the prominent instruments and rotates it around the band to give the music the liveliness that it would lose from not being live. This song specifically shows how competitive and serious this band is through the ensemble’s outstanding performance of a difficult song. The song Whiplash has a kind of urgency to it that captures the film perfectly.

As the film moves along, the audience endures a number of scenes where Fletcher physically and psychologically tortures his drummers and other players in order to achieve the level of absolute perfection that he desires. For minutes of screentime on end, we watch Fletcher torture his drummers and yell slurs and insults their way. At one point in the film, Fletcher actually throws a chair at Andrew while he is playing. This paired with the frantic and failing drumming exemplifies how desperate and almost defeated the players feel when in Fletcher’s way. Another scene features Fletcher testing Andrew and the two drum alternates on a new drum part until they reach their breaking points (Video link 1: “You earned the part”). Fletcher’s words and the flailing drummers pull at our fear. We want Andrew to succeed so badly that the way he is playing affects our emotions. When his drumming is off-tempo in this scene and others, we stress and worry, and when his drumming is perfect we feel accomplished and proud of him. We then become connected to his success and constantly route him on throughout his journey. Music that creates emotions but uses them to effectively engage the audience in the plot, that’s how to do a movie soundtrack.

One last scene I would like to mention is the movie’s final scene. After turmoil between Fletcher and Andrew has reached a peak and many shocking events have taken place (don’t worry I won’t spoil them), Fletcher invites Andrew to play with one of his concert bands in Carnegie Hall. Andrew happily accepts, but little does he know that Fletcher gave him the wrong song. Andrew, unlike the rest of the band, has the part for Duke Ellington and Juan Tizol’s Caravan. After Andrew catches on to Fletcher’s rouse to humiliate him at Carnegie Hall, Andrew starts playing before Fletcher has finished making his introduction and cues in the rest of the band (Video link 2: Caravan). This song, especially the progressing piano part and fast tempo, create the feel of a final showdown between Fletcher and Andrew. To the audience, this is the final scene, the final destination, and the music fits this idea very well. Andrew achieves his greatness and takes control of himself and the band away from the psychotic Fletcher once and for all, winning that final showdown. After this song ends, Andrew goes into an impressive and perfect drum solo that forever cements him as a famous drummer. He has finally overcome Fletcher’s manipulation and become his goal.

Thanks for reading this post! I encourage you to watch Whiplash especially if you are a musician because it can be very relatable. I personally loved this movie and believe it deserves a lot of credit. I hope to see you next time on Scoring the Score!

Media Credits:
Figure 1: Image 1

Figure 2: Image 2

Figure 3: Image 3

Welcome back! Are you excited for Baby Driver Part Two because I sure am! In the first post, we focused on the soundtrack’s background as well as a general overview of the soundtrack. Today, we will talk more in-depth about how the movie’s soundtrack builds Baby’s relationship with his love Debora, who we hardly mentioned in the first post, and with his teammate Buddy (played by Jon Hamm). So, if you haven’t read the first post yet, then I recommend doing so, but remember to come back here afterwards if you want to hear even more!

Let’s begin with the scene where Baby and Debora first meet. Baby goes to a simple diner, an additional 60s element in the movie. We overhear a waitress saying that his mother used to waitress here and that he has still frequented the diner long after she died. This extra detail further develops that Baby has been scarred from his childhood car accident and that he still clings to the memory of his mother. After this, we see Debora enter the diner for her first day of work. She sings B-A-B-Y by Carla Thomas (Song Link: B-A-B-Y) as she enters. This is fitting since it sounds like Debora is singing to Baby when she addresses the intended listener as “Baby”. The song also has a romantic and somewhat sexual tone and message which tells the viewer that Debora will be a major character and love interest before she has even talked to Baby. Baby then takes out his tape recorder and records her singing for his mixtape collection as she walks around the diner. This shows his initial interest in and obsession over her and her singing.

Debora and Baby (played by Ansel Elgort) talk together in the diner as Debora takes Baby’s order. Figure 2

If we look closely at the beginnings of Baby and Debora’s relationship though, we find something awfully Freudian. Debora sings and waitresses at the same diner that Baby’s mother sang and waitressed at soon before her death. You could interpret this as Baby using Debora as a way to replace his mother and to give him the love and care he lost because of his mother’s death. This is about as far as Wright develops this aspect of their relationship, but the connection between Debora and Baby’s mother is still worth mentioning.

As Debora takes Baby’s order, he tries ordering from the kid’s menu, showing his immaturity and inability to overcome his childhood trauma. Debora then asks for his name, and upon hearing that his name is Baby, Debora explains that Baby is the best name because so many songs talk to him. She says that she doesn’t like her name since there are no songs about Debora. Debora mentions that there is one song with her name in it, but she reveals that it is actually about the singer getting with a girl whose sister is named Debra. The song, Debra by Midnite Vultures (Song Link 2: Debra), fits in the groovy funk rock genre. It plays later in the movie when Baby dances around his room thinking about Debora. Baby reassures Debora by bringing up one song about a Debora, Deborah by T. Rex (Song Link 3: Deborah). This song fits in the psychedelic folk rock genre, comparing a Deborah to a Zebra. Baby and Debora then go to the laundromat to talk more after her shift and they end up listening to Deborah and planning a date. Both of these songs fit the movie’s atmosphere of funk, soul, and Motown songs even though Debra was written in the late 1990s. They play during subsequent scenes to show the reader that Baby is thinking about Debora again, achieved without any dialogue or exposition. The music tells the story and shows his growing feelings for Debora.

As the movie progresses, Debora and Baby go on dates and they dream of running away together. Baby wants to escape his life of crime and Debora just wants to break free from her waitressing job and see what’s outside of Atlanta. However, on their first dinner date, Baby sees his boss at the restaurant, his boss pulls him aside, and his boss tells him that he can’t leave the business if he wants Debora to live. This begins the transition in their relationship from simply romantic to star-crossed lovers. They both want to be together but Baby’s job keeps getting in the way.

While working one day, Baby also begins developing a relationship with Buddy, one of his teammates. Buddy always defended Baby and treated him nicely, but one day, he even asked Baby about his music. Baby replied that he was listening to Brighton Rock by Queen (Song Link 4: Brighton Rock). The song is a rock song about a girl and boy meeting and wanting to be together though the girl’s mother and the boy’s committed lover keep them apart. Baby listening to this shows that even on the job, he still thinks of being with Debora. This could also be part of the Freudian undertones as the thought and image of Baby’s mother, represented by the girl’s mother, is keeping Baby from loving Debora solely for who she is, not for her resemblance to Baby’s mother. Along with this, the job Baby is committed to, represented by the boy’s committed lover, is keeping him from being with his new girl. Buddy listens with him and replies that his brother used to listen to this song all the time. They bond over the music together.

Now, I don’t want to summarize the movie too much here, but the context in the third act really matters. Baby and Debora plan to escape together one night but Baby must complete one last big job. During the job, he deliberately sabotages everything. Darling (played by Eiza Gonzalez), Buddy’s lover, is killed by policemen as they all escape. Buddy is left distraught.

Baby then escapes the scene and drives to the diner to pick up Debora. When he gets there, he starts playing Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up by Barry White (Scene Link 1: Final Diner Scene) to fit the mood and walks into the diner. Unfortunately, Debora isn’t alone. Buddy is sitting at the diner counter, sipping his coffee and threatening to kill Debora since Baby killed Darling by sabotaging the job. With this sexual and groovy song playing in the background, the scene becomes eerie. This wasn’t what Baby was expecting to happen when he picked the song. Then, Buddy takes Baby’s headphones and listens to the romantic song. Realizing that Baby thought he could get away with Debora, Buddy keeps them and tells Baby that it’s all over. This represents Buddy shattering Baby’s expectations and taking his dream of being with Debora away. In a turn of events that plays out in the scene linked to above, Baby and Debora escape until Buddy finds them again in the gang’s parking garage.

In this shocking scene, Buddy chases Baby and Debora around in a car while blaring Brighton Rock out of the speakers. He claims that they are like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and they will never be together. I will link a video to this final face-off between Buddy and Baby, but please be aware that there is violence and strong language in this scene as it is a R-Rated Movie (Scene Link 2: Final Face-Off Scene). This literary allusion to Romeo and Juliet and the song about a boy and a girl being kept apart tie in strongly to Baby and Debora’s relationship. In addition, not necessarily a note about the music specifically but the use of blue light on Debora and Baby’s faces and the red light on Buddy’s face shows the good and evil in the scene. They represent the innocent star-crossed lovers and the deranged evil job and life from which Baby is trying to escape.

Thank you for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed revisiting Baby Driver! There is so much more to the soundtrack and the movie itself if you dive deeper, but today I just wanted to focus on Baby’s relationships with Debora and Buddy and how music played a role in this development.

See you next time on Scoring the Score!

 

Image Credits:

Figure 1: Screenshot from this video

Figure 2: Image 2

Figure 3: Image 3

Figure 4: Image 4

Figure 5: Image 5

Get your popcorn and 3D glasses ready this week because we— wait where’s the movie?!

This week we are switching from the theater to the silver screen with the Netflix Original Stranger Things (2016) created by Matt and Ross Duffer! The show is an American science fiction show with supernatural and suspenseful elements. With the second season soon to arrive on October 27, 2017, I thought I would discuss the show’s outstanding soundtrack now to give you a few weeks to binge the show in preparation for the next season.

Released on July 15, 2016, Stranger Things quickly became the show of the summer. Though released exclusively for Netflix, the show gained massive popularity and a huge fanbase. Stranger Things features 12-year olds Mike (played by Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (played by Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (played by Caleb McLaughlin), and Will (played by Noah Schnapp) as they grow up in a small town in Indiana, 1983. The show starts with the four boys playing Dungeons and Dragons at night in Mike’s basement. When Will loses the game, he sets off on his bike to head home, but on the way back he begins to feel as if he is being followed. After being chased to his empty house, Will is caught by the unknown creature that was pursuing him and Will disappears without leaving a trace. After his other three friends hear of his disappearance, they team up with a mysterious girl they find named Eleven (played by Millie Bobby Brown) in order to find their missing friend.

Since the show takes place in the 1980s, it is heavily influenced by the decade. The show constantly references and pays homage to famous 1980s movies, and everything from the games the boys play to the clothes they wear to the themes of the show all capture the essence of the 1980s. Notably, the soundtrack excellently pays homage to the 1980s through its use of 1980s songs as well as through a score composed with analog synths to recreate that iconic 80s synth sound. When combined, these two elements of the soundtrack create an eerie and suspenseful atmosphere.

The first element of the soundtrack is the selection of 1980s songs with a few exceptions. The center figure behind the soundtrack is Jonathan, the older brother of the missing Will. A bit of a shy outcast, Jonathan likes photography and listening primarily to the punk and post-punk genre of the time. This led to the inclusion of many mostly experimental, eerie, and rebellious songs. One of the more powerful moments of the show is the reoccurring use of the song “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” By The Clash. We first hear it in a flashback when Jonathan plays it for Will (Scene Link 1: Brothers, Together). Will uses it to remember Jonathan and to try to reconnect with him through it from the alternate dimension in which Will has become trapped, the Upside Down. Hearing this song suddenly blast out of a radio, breaking the silence, gives the song a much more menacing and creepy tone.

Another impactful song that plays in the series is “Elegia” by New Order. This song was named after the Greek word for elegy and was composed by the band for Ian Curtis, the lead singer of their former band Joy Division. Fittingly, this song plays during Will’s funeral after his disappearance. The town has given up hope of finding him as this solemn and otherworldly instrumental from the dark wave music subgenre plays (Scene Link 2: Funeral for Will). The characters, including Will’s mother Joyce (played by Winona Ryder), are grief-struck and distraught. This song captures their disconnect from the world and the hole that Will has left in them.

Aside from “Should I Stay or Should I Go” and “Elegia”, many of the other songs appear in the credits immediately after the show. These songs feature bands and singers such as Echo & the Bunnymen, The Bangles, Corey Hart, Foreigner, and Jefferson Airplane. “Nocturnal Me” by Echo & the Bunnymen is an especially good representation of the show through its dark and experimental rock sounds (Song Link 3: Episode 5 Credits Song).

The second element of the soundtrack is the amazing synth score by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein of the experimental band S U R V I V E. The 36 songs all have unique electronic sounds that create moods of tranquility, fear, sadness, and more. The show’s opening credits best exemplify the genius behind Stranger Things‘s synth score. The inclusion and overlap of so many otherworldly electronic sounds, the glowing red letters of the logo, and the ethereal but eerie arpeggios all combine for one striking sequence (Scene Link 4: Opening Credits).

When listening to the soundtrack on Wednesday night by myself in the dark in preparation for this, a few songs especially stuck out of the 1:09:04 of music. The first one was “One Blink For Yes”, which was very calming (Song Link 5: One Blink For Yes). The song plays when Will’s mother Joyce begins receiving flashing Christmas light responses when she talks to them. She believes she is going crazy but she thinks that Will is behind it and tells him to answer with one blink for yes.

The second one I will mention is “Hallucinations”, which legitimately scares me now (Song Link 6: Hallucinations). After sitting alone in the dark and hearing this, it made me feel like I had been transported to the Upside Down, which is the name for the decaying dimension of the Demogorgon, the creature that took Will. I actually had to go turn on the lights because the sounds were so demented and scary!

If you couldn’t tell, I really like the Stranger Things soundtrack. Not only does it bring in emotional synth pieces, it also pulls songs from many of my favorite bands. I was very appreciative of the Duffer Brothers paying homage to some of the bands and genres of music I listen to, and I hope you can be too! Furthermore, I hope that I have convinced you to watch the show if you haven’t already. You still have a few weeks before season 2 comes out just in time for Halloween.

Thank you for reading this post! I know it wasn’t about movies this week, but be prepared for Baby Driver Part 2 next week. I hope to see you then on Scoring the Score!

Photo Credits:

Image 1: Figure 1

Image 2: Figure 2

Image 3: Figure 3

Image 4: Figure 4

Image 5: Figure 5