One of the downsides to being a thespian is that you may begin to see movies with a different view.
You just want to see how good the acting will turn out, or how well the costumes are able to augment the characters. You want to check out the directing to see how effectively the director was able to bring out the characters from the actors and if the set design was realistic or not.
It is very easy to be disappointed.
I saw a movie once which had an amazing storyline. Apart from the fact that the plot was quite predictable, it was a good movie by my standards, not until some scenes began to look like that of a music video.
I couldn't help but wonder what was going on, and that wasn't the only good movie that was ruined by the use of too much music in its scenes.
I began to wonder if it was necessary for all the movies to have songs in them. Some movies could employ the use of only soundtracks and the messages would still be well passed, why did all producers think they needed to include music, especially different music in almost every scene?
I don't think the use of music is bad, no, I only want it to be used appropriately in movies. Why for instance, should a scene be left without action or dialogue because the producer or director wants a particular music to be played at that particular point? In cases like this, the face of the actor or actors are zoomed in for an extended period of time causing the movie to be unnecessarily long and boring.
For me, music was primarily to set the tone and atmosphere of a movie. The kind of music or soundtrack at the beginning of a movie could tell me to a great extent, if it was going to have a happy or sad follow-up of events.
After setting the atmosphere, it could be used as an interlude, and from my little experience, interludes are meant to be brief.
For some movies, or cartoons, the songs could become associated with that movie, causing people to love the movie because of the songs and vice versa, but this only happens when music is formulated, selected, and used appropriately.
There are so many movies and cartoons that people cannot get off their minds because of the music; frozen, Pitch Perfect, Moana and so much more.
The viewers might not be able to give their personal opinion on how they feel about the almost perfect movie that had been ruined by the over-reliance on music, or excessive use of it, which is why whoever is in charge; the sound manager, director, producer, and every other person involved with sound should be able to sit back and ensure they have done a good work with the music before releasing their movies to the public.
In one movie that ranked as one of the best movies of 2024, a particular word kept being unnecessarily repeated during one of the scenes. I understand that the whole idea of the scene and the movie was being emphasized then but the repetition became too much, distracting the viewers from what was going on.
I saw that movie with my roommate and my best girl and at some point, my best girl asked why that particular word was being repeated in that manner.
“It's okay o, you people are overdoing it” she voiced out after some time again. It was obvious that she was already getting irritated. Some viewers wouldn't notice, it may even make the movie more interesting for them, but for the rest of us who had unintentionally become movie critics, certain of those creative inventions were almost a nuisance.
I don't want to become a movie director but if I do, I would take the use of music into consideration, keeping both the ones who would love music and those who would prefer to focus on the action in mind.
Sometimes, the music even downplays the emotions that should be felt from the action. At a particular point where the emotions should be felt directly from the actor, music is introduced causing the viewer to lose sight of the action which is most important, and focus on the music.
I think we should keep in mind that music in scenes is meant for emphasis and anything more than that is just a distraction.
There are even some movies that shouldn't have theme songs. Theme songs also contribute to making some movies boring, especially when there is only one singer and this is common in our Nigerian movies.
I believe Nigerians can look into this music in movies issue and produce better movies in the future.
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