This documentary showing the important of sound in The Last Jedi is pretty cool. You might not think about it all that often but sound is how we as humans tend to perceive the essence and important of a story. If the music that accompanies a film is great, epic, and charged with emotion then you tend to allow yourself to slip into it just a bit more, whereas if the sound isn’t there and you’re forced to listen to the ambient sounds that surround the characters you might not find a lot of connection with the movie. It might be that the lack of sound makes a person believe that it’s just another scene and not truly worth every last bit of their attention.
Sound does tell a story. Whether it be the background theme or the sounds of those onscreen making their way through a scene, sound is a very vital portion of the movie that can’t be left out. This is especially true for movies in which people are already expecting to hear certain sounds that are synonymous with the story. For instance, in any Star Wars movie you tend to expect to hear the snap, hiss, and hum of a lightsaber as it ignites, or the pinging concussion of a blaster, or even the sound of a hyperdrive kicking in only moments before it rockets a ship into hyperspace. These sounds have come define the franchise in many ways and continue to do so as people sit in their seats and begin to passively listen for those telltale sounds.
The music as well is expected. In each movie it might change a little, but the familiar themes are almost always there. The scrolling story line is a must for any Star Wars movie, and is expected to be accompanied by the corresponding music we’ve come to expect. From that point the music becomes a situational thing as anything involving the Empire or the First Order is going to have a very crisp, no-nonsense sound that informs the listener that the moment is serious, without humor, and is expected to be taken as such. During the moments of intensity and battles that carry a great consequence to one party or another the music tends to ramp up and become epic as the struggle continues to escalate, until finally one side overcomes the other and the climax is reached. From that point it becomes a slow decline into the darkness or a thin but triumphant beginning to the finish, where the expected music is set to instill hope in the viewer that while things might seem at their worst, there is still a glimmer of light from which the heroes can build.
The music of Star Wars does tell a story, but one has to be in the mood to listen and be able to decipher just what’s going on in order to really get the gist of it. Without the sound the movie wouldn’t be the same.
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