Next you’re going to tell me how the actors faces look is supposed to tell me how to feel.
this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2025
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted, clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
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But that's the difference, the actor's face is meant to tell you how their character feels. You're free to be amused, inspired or upset by the fact they're crying because they taken a banana cream pie to face. The laugh track or music (generally) is jot diagetic, it's specifically there to colour your interpretation of actors and images.
You just don't get it do you??? The ONLY thing that can carry the movie is the script and exposition through dialogue!!! Everything else is a sin against the purity of the cinematic art form!!! /s
100% agree. That makes movies like No Country For Old Men with little or no music even more impressive.
I agree and think this a good shower thought, and also don't see it as a bad thing in general.
I've always thought that conceptually, background music is really strange - because of course it's Not part of the universe being shown to us (with partial exceptions like Guardians of the Galaxy) but is an added layer that only the audience experiences, and doesn't have a real-life counterpart.
Technically I suppose the same is true for something like subtitles, but those are more directly meta (they are clearly part of the mechanism of presentation rather than being presented as part of the show like music kind of is)
But that doesn't mean I think it shouldn't be there (Nor do I think OP said so) - it's just a weird thing we all accept as normal because it Does enhance the experience (usually)
Maybe, but at least the movie's action doesn't come to a complete halt for just the Score to play.
Unless it's a musical... and this is why I hate musicals...
But... The music IS the action in Musicals, that's why they're called Musicals...
(Let's ignore the Disney Musicals, those are bad Musicals in form)
By that logic, characters' clothing or shot background are ways to tell you how you should feel. Good soundtrack is a part of the media, not a forced reaction.
I do not agree. If you film something to imitate life, you need to show the character's clothing, facial expressions, backgrounds, etc. Yes, you can strategically choose what to show and how to show it to help influence the audience, but at the end of the day, something has to be there.
On the other hand, in real life, there isn't mood music following you around. Sure, if you film a character driving a car or even just walking around a grocery store, it makes perfect sense to have a bit of background music, because that is how those environments are in reality. But having intense music playing from nowhere during a chase scene or whimsical music behind a happy character skipping through an empty meadow is just as realistic as a bunch of disembodied laughs in the background every time a character makes a joke.
But not all shows or movies are 100% realistic. That's not how art works. It's supposed to evoke certain emotions, by design. Not everything you watch is intended to be a documentary.
The examples you've described are sound design done poorly, which is the opposite of what I referred to.
Do you have an example of a film score used to do more than just provide the mood?
No, what about in horror films when the tension rises, the soundtrack and effects sometimes give the 'surprise' away in suspenseful screens. Less about how it feels and more about predictability. The best ones have very little backing and only subtle sound effects until something is actually happening.
Which is why I specified good soundtrack, not the concept of it in general. Visuals can also give away plot twists, when done wrong.
Yeah, you are right. But OP saying that it incites a forced reaction is inaccurate. I've never been pressured to laugh from a laugh track just like I've never been pressured by a horror movie 'telling' me to be scared by the rising music/sounds. Just that sometimes they give away the time of surprise. When horror movies have no bg noise for a bit, that's when it is hard to know exactly when something is gonna happen, that's more effective than a long inflecting violin note for example or something like the classic Michael Myers theme that tells you some action is happening/going to happen. But I would never call it a forced reaction. I like soundtracks, I see all movies as works of art rather than 'make me think this is real' lol. Many people these days have no suspension of disbelief.
I disagree. Music has the potential to express an artistic idea that goes beyond what a fake laugh can do. This can contribute to the scenes mood or contradict it to create a more complex emotion than what the images would do by themselves.
The only time I remember seeing fake laughs being used in a contradictory manner is when used in the sitcom scene in Natural Born Killers.
Furthermore, music scores can be enjoyed by itself. Interstellar was for me a subpar movie, but the score was great and works for me as a standalone piece of art. A fake laugh doesn’t (for me at least)
But I agree that they are mostly both used to inform the viewer of what to feel. But one has only one note, where the other has complexity and variety on par with what visual media can express. Therefore not comparable IMO
Sometimes. There are shows where the music is leaned on way too heavily to convey the story instead of letting the actors just act. It’s super annoying. Especially when there isn’t a moment without music throughout the entire thing.
john williams anger intensifies
I can’t watch original series Star Trek because of the screeching sounds that happen whenever we are supposed to feel dramatic surprise and/or suspense. It’s like nails on a chalkboard.
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