Background Score - The intensity in Cinema.

                                                        The entire process of filmmaking is an astounding path to understand and interpret our ideas on a larger scale. The making of the entire film is on one hand and choosing the appropriate score for your film for the appropriate scene at the exact second is on the other hand. Such is the power of the background score in a film.

                                                       For example, in ‘The Social Network’, the intensity of the job that the score did to the film is what makes the film what it is now, Fincher’s finest! From the very opening scene where we see the logo of ‘Columbia Pictures’, we hear an interesting score followed by an amazing conversation between Mark and his girlfriend. Let’s break down this scene – suppose, if there was no background score and the movie starts directly, the thoughts in the minds of the audiences would go like this – ‘a regular talk’, ‘boring stuff’ etc., before they even concentrate on what the dialogue is going to be. But when we have the score, the audiences are pulled towards the visuals and the audio that very second making them alert and attentive on what is about to follow.

                                                       Through this simple interpretation, we can understand what score can add to a film. When we look at the montage sequences in this film, the impact and the importance to those sequences is added because of the score in the background. For example, the scenes where students of the Harvard are shown visiting the website ‘Facemash’ and the scene where Mark and Eduardo meet Sean Parker at the restaurant – the importance of those scenes in the film is huge, and the same impact is built making use of the background score.

                                                        Let’s look at Coppola’s greatest contribution to cinema ‘The Godfather’. The movie starts with a background score which’ll make you want to watch it twice. The interesting theme in this film is that the background score is used to merge the scenes – to exemplify, to merge the scenes between the wedding of Connie in the first half an hour of the film’s runtime and the scene where Tom Hagen meets Woltz, an entertaining score is played while a little amount of montage of the aeroplane forms the visual. Another example would be – the scene where Michael kills Sollozzo and McClusky. In this scene, right after Michael kills them, he flees, moments later, a score is heard which’ll make us think how horrible the consequences are going to be. The audiences imagine the power of that scene and the intensity of the scenes that follow based on the score played. Yet another example would be – the scene where Vito Corleone returns home from the hospital. In this scene, Fredo enters Vito’s room where he is resting, moments later, a dissolve is seen and at the same time we hear the score which takes us to Michael who is taking refuge in Sicily. The dissolve wouldn’t have been convincing without the score as it would be with the score.

                                                      Another great job that the background score can do is letting know the audiences the power of a person or a job conducted by him. Sometimes, the silence between the scenes is considered as background score where it conveys the meaning more convincingly than with the score. Example would be – The horrific scene where the horse’s head is found in Woltz’s bed and the scene that follows is the close up of Vito Corleone sitting in a chair with no background score. This scene is more convincing this way than with the score, ‘cause the power of silence should never be underestimated and it establishes the meaning in a simple yet astounding manner and Coppola knows the fact well and hence we see what we see. Another simple example is – when Vito Corleone lies dead in the garden, the scene dissolves to the cemetery and during the merging of these two scenes, the church bells heard acts as the score which conveys more meaning in a simple way. Thus, background score did a great job in making the film a perfect one.

                                                 Let’s look at Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. The amount of pity that we feel towards the Jews being massacred has something to do with the background score. To exemplify, the scene where Amon Goeth and his team incinerate the bodies of Jews killed at the massacre, Schindler sees all the people reduced to ashes. The score that plays during this scene melts the hearts of the audiences especially when Schindler sees the girl in the red coat dead. The amount of pain that Schindler and we feel towards that girl is enormous. One other interesting observation in this film is the liquidation of the ghetto. During this sequence, when the Germans massacre the Jews, we see a German soldier playing piano passionately which becomes the score. The contrast between the audio and the visuals is huge – Jews are being ruthlessly and the score is entertaining. Perhaps, this can explained this way – the massacre of the Jews is shown in Germans’ perspective, meaning, that Germans feel no pity towards Jews or humans for that matter. Hence, the score is entertaining giving us a clue that Germans enjoy it.

                                                   Let’s have a look at Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya, a film is about a person who enters Bombay in search of a job and gets stuck in the mire of the Bombay mafia. In this film, the intense background score all over the movie plays a huge role in deciding the fate of the characters and the film. The major scene to discuss in the film would be the interval scene where after killing Guru Narayan, Mule visits Bhikhu and Satya asking them the reason for the murder – later, when Mule says ‘ Ek gaya apun ke dhande mei, toh sab jayega!’  which is followed by a score that takes the movie to peaks of excitement and the anticipation of the consequences that Bhikhu and Satya are going to face. All ‘cause of the score, the depth in the score.  Similarly, in ‘Sarkar’, during the interval scene, when Sarkar gets to know that he is going to be arrested, a strong score is played creating a sense of fear of what’s going to happen further.

                                                  The meaning the score gives to the scene and the entire film makes Filmmakers choose scores wisely and use them accordingly at the exact moment!