#5 Personal Sound Motifs in Film! (and how I will utilize them)

 So…What exactly are sound motifs?

Sound motifs are a repetition of a sound that corresponds to a certain character, or part in a story. Every single time Superman comes on screen, you will know it's him just from the da daNa dananana (terrible rendition but you get my point). 

Why are they important? Like...what can they do?

Sound motifs remind the audience of a character, and what they bring to the story, that can reciprocate a good feeling or a bad feeling. These can impact greatly because when the audience hears a certain something, they will anticipate a particular action on screen. A prominent example will be Jaws. Every moment in which that sound appears, the audience will anticipate the shark or Jaws to appear on screen and some danger occurs. 

This continuous engagement from the audience is important, as they will understand the story more and be more immersed in the film’s plot. Like for example in Jaws, every time the shark theme is heard, the audience anticipates the great white to come along, and for someone else to be the next victim...

What does this have to do with me? 

For my 2-minute film opening component, the idea of a rom-com surrounding a long-distance relationship keeps on stirring my mind. For a sound motif idea, I thought that a certain song would be played every time they think about each other. 

Now, the sound can be diegetic or non-diegetic, or even trans-diegetic. Examples can be, one of the persons puts their headphones on and plays that certain song, or the song is played in the background when the thought of the other occurs, or the song is played in the background and switches to be heard from one of the person’s cell phones. 

Which sound would I use?

Various song/sounds have been roaming my mind, yet a few such as Pink + White [Frank Ocean], Return to Me [Dean Martin], (I Know) I’m Losing You [The Temptations], You Send Me [Sam Cooke] & Kiss and Say Good-bye [The Manhattans] have struck out. Of course, due to copyright restrictions there will be a small chance I will be able to use them, but the themes and instrumentation of these songs reflect what I want to portray on screen. 

What does it mean? 

For every time the sound/song is heard, the audience should be able to feel the longing love the two people have for each other, and for each time there is a mix of heartbreak and hope. The sound/song will be a sad reminder yet give each of the two an ounce of joy/hope that they need in the time they are apart from one another. (aww so cheesy…so sad)