The Purpose of the Soundtrack

The Purpose of the Soundtrack LOTR - (Lord of the Rings)

The Soundtrack Purpose

• Establish an atmosphere 
• Tells the audience how to feel
• Sets a pace for a scene. think action movie sequence
• Entice the imagination
• Subliminal storytelling mode
• Define or give information about a character (often through a developing leitmotif)
• Stimulates/ enhances visual imaging
• Establish a time or a place ie oriental music
• Ad dramatic effect sooth or startle
• Indicates a geographic location
• Define a change of scene

The film clip starts off quiet so you aren't really feeling a mood however it does add to the tension because you are then waiting for something bad to happen. When the dragon lifts off, all sound is blown straight through you giving you an immediate reaction of fear. The immediate fear is a result of the increases loudness, the deep tone and the ambiance. As the soldiers are lining up waiting to battle, you are forced to feel on the edge because the sound slowly builds up so you expect the battle to begin but the silence give you the feeling that you, like the characters, have been waiting to go to battle but are nervous and scared. You really connect with the film and feel like you are with the soldiers lining up ready to battle. As the film goes on you feel more excited but scared as you run towards the enemy. You get caught up in the film and you feel the rush the characters feel, it makes you feel like you are the character running into battle.

The instruments are normally drums when building up then stings to increase the tension or to introduce 'The King'. The pace of music changes a loot throughout the clip. The pace is slow and has a deep tone to begin as this gives the clip tension and keeps the audience on edge. The pace speeds up when the king is introduced and when the battle begins as this is the release o all the build up tension and is now showing the audience the feat of the characters going into battle but also the adrenalin rush they are having. At the end when the two groups go into battle, you hear a squishing
/ squirting noise as the swords kill the opposite team, this isn't a realistic noise however it allows the audience to imagine whats happening in as much detail as possible.

Music is generally associated with characters so when you look at a character you automatically know by the music if that character is to be trusted or not. We know the Orcs (the enemy) are the characters we don't trust because we hear negative music associated with their entrance on screen. We know the Orcs are bad not only because of the music associated with them but also their deep tone that they have when they grunt/ growl. Another example is when Darth Vader from Star Wars enters, you automatically know he is the villain simply by his entrance music. (See clip below)