Do it for the Music

Music is the simplest and subtlest way to set a mood for a scene. Music has a very strong ability to manipulate the emotion the audience feels. You could use either a soundtrack, music made for it's own sake. Or a score, music made specifically for your thing. It's more important to have tunes that fit the tone, than strictly related to period. In the movie "The Professional" the main baddie play Beethoven on a walkman while he slaughters a family, creating the mood of a madman indifferent to his actions. Another good example of music's power can be seen in Saints Row 3 during the final mission when given the choice of saving your friends or finishing your enemy, and then "I need a Hero" starts playing prompting most players to save their friends because of the soundtrack. There's also the powerful orchestral score of Die Hard that makes the action more powerful but less tense. The most recent Gatsby film opts to use modern music and jazz to convey the fantasy like descriptions of the 20s high life. Music can also hint at a situation. When you hear the Jaws theme you always know that someone will be eaten. It's also important to know when NOT to have music. This is best at creating tension. Silence is unnerving. If Die Hard had no soundtrack, it'd be a lot less fun.
It's also nice to have subtle ambient background music. Stuff you don't notice, but your brain does.


This is useful to the aspiring filmmaker. It is easy to recognize the importance of music when you look for it. I don't to sound like a jerk, but I already knew this stuff, so while this article is pretty useless for me, others could find it invaluable.