The first thing I noticed about the music in Big Fish was its fantasy-like quality. The use of strings and gentle woodwinds created a romantic, hopeful, and almost childlike tone. If a fairy tale could be told through music, this score was that music. I also immediately noticed that the music was only present when a story was being told. When real life was being shown there was no music until a story started, or an aspect of a story was shown. An example of this is when the son was skimming the pool. While he was skimming the music started and all of a sudden he saw a huge catfish in the pool.
The music was also very fitting for each story. The fish story had a flowing smooth melody, while the story about the witch with the glass eye had a more haunting suspenseful melody. Also the use of popular songs helped to show time and place as time progressed in the stories. An example of this was when the song "All Shook Up" was played during the war scene in Japan. Also the music in Spectre the first time was very country and folksy which gave the setting a homier feel and it helped the audience to know that it truly was a nice happy town.
Overall, the music was very well done, and the use of a full orchestra contributed to the fantasy motif. The use of the music to separate the stories from real life also helped the audience to understand what was happening in the movie.
4 comments:
I agree that the score was fantasy-like. It felt like you were watching fairy tale. I didn't notice the point about the music only being played during stories....that's really interesting.
I agree...the music really did fit the scenes well. It did seem that each story has its own feel and own type of movie. Like you said the "witch" story definitely had music is a scarier, more suspenseful feel. Another prominent story that had its own feel was Edward's "love" stories about his future wife. The music was either romantically or happy and exciting when it came to her. The music really helped set up their "love" and happiness together.
I also noticed how there was no music featured in the present day scenes of the movie, but in contrast, every flashback or story being told featured extensive underscoring. This underscoring in the flashbacks helped to establish the time and place of the setting of the story as well as the emotions of Edward and the other characters he was interacting with.
The music definitely helped the viewers to understand the concept of the film. Without the music, the difference between fantasy and reality scenes could be hard for the viewers to follow. The music connected the two halves of the film in a way that viewers had no difficulty following the transitions.
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