Exploring the Art of Film Scoring with Mr. Toto's General Music 9 Class

 

Throughout March, Sacred Heart’s General Music 9 students studied the art of Film Scoring, or composing music for movies. Although film scores are oftentimes viewed as secondary to the visual action, we learned that they are essential to a film’s emotional impact. 
Our students were tasked with creating their own original music for a scene from Toy Story 4 entitled, “Fixing Woody”.

To begin, students watched the Toy Story scene, minus its original music, and read a synopsis of the movie. They analyzed the plot and identified different emotions that could be portrayed throughout the film. Afterwards, they brainstormed how different musical elements could assist in delivering these emotions to the audience.

Building on their prior experience with Soundtrap (a digital audio workstation), students composed original music to support their desired emotional outcomes. They incorporated various instruments, dynamics (changes in volume), tempos (speed), and sound fx to support particular emotions.

To conclude the project, we watched our creations and evaluated which emotions we felt as the scene progressed. Then we compared our feelings with the student composers' intended emotional outcomes. It was illuminating to see how the manipulation of musical elements could make a scene feel so different. I was impressed with the high level feedback and constructive criticism our students gave their peers. For example, some students commented on how the tempo of the music affected how they perceived the passage of time. Another student shared how music can put you in the perspective of a different character.

I’m very proud of our students and their work. Although creating can be a vulnerable endeavor, it’s also considered the highest level of cognition according to Bloom's Taxonomy. Our class threw themselves into their work wholeheartedly and embraced all the challenges they encountered. I hope you enjoy their work as much as I did!

 

Music