Music in film can have many purposes. It can change the mood of the audience, alert them to danger, or even be used to give exposition of the story to the audience. The latter, along with its variation, such as a monologue delivered in song, are used to create musicals--a genre used by Disney since its very beginning. For this journal I watched Disney’s Moana to see how it used music to move the plot, and influence its audience.
The song “Where You Are” is used in Moana to tell exposition and to forward through time. The song is expositional because it sets up who Moana is, her family and their respective roles on the island, how the island functions, and some of the most important aspects of society on the island. Ignoring the visual storytelling, …show more content…
This fits well with what is going on in the plot. Moana is in about to have a flashback of her ancestors, and so the ghostly, ominous tone does a good job at ensuring into her vision of people long dead doing a task long forgotten. Once the drums come in and the first tenor soloist comes in, the tone changes drastically, lining up with how things change visually. The notes are also conjunctive with a rolling, or wave like motion--building to the top, holding for a moment as if at the top of the wave before falling more quickly down the other side. There is also a cool visual moment when the second tenor soloist is holding the word star with a slight crescendo as a shooting star glide across the sky. The strong beats also show the power and strength of those singing.
This song is not given to teach the audience how to sail, it is to teach the audience about those who sailed. The rolling conjunctive notes put the audience out on the boats with them. The other language that begins and ends the song makes it feel more authentic and real, but the english is their so the audience can learn the motives of the sailors we are learning about.
Music in film can have many purposes. It can change the mood of the audience, alert them to danger, or even be used to give exposition of the story to the audience. The latter, along with its variation, such as a monologue delivered in song, are
The song “Where You Are” is used in Moana to tell exposition and to forward through time. The song is expositional because it sets up who Moana is, her family and their respective roles on the island, how the island functions, and some of the most important aspects of society on the island. Ignoring the visual storytelling, …show more content…
This fits well with what is going on in the plot. Moana is in about to have a flashback of her ancestors, and so the ghostly, ominous tone does a good job at ensuring into her vision of people long dead doing a task long forgotten. Once the drums come in and the first tenor soloist comes in, the tone changes drastically, lining up with how things change visually. The notes are also conjunctive with a rolling, or wave like motion--building to the top, holding for a moment as if at the top of the wave before falling more quickly down the other side. There is also a cool visual moment when the second tenor soloist is holding the word star with a slight crescendo as a shooting star glide across the sky. The strong beats also show the power and strength of those singing.
This song is not given to teach the audience how to sail, it is to teach the audience about those who sailed. The rolling conjunctive notes put the audience out on the boats with them. The other language that begins and ends the song makes it feel more authentic and real, but the english is their so the audience can learn the motives of the sailors we are learning about.
Music in film can have many purposes. It can change the mood of the audience, alert them to danger, or even be used to give exposition of the story to the audience. The latter, along with its variation, such as a monologue delivered in song, are