Soundtrack letting down filmmakers

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No wonder it continues being part of the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) 20 years after it was founded.

Zanzibar. Music forms an integral part of film making as sound tracks which help to convey the intended message that the story intends to convey.

No wonder it continues being part of the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) 20 years after it was founded.

This week at one of the workshops that are taking place at the Zanzibar international Film Festival this came out as a major discussion as it seems to be a neglected element in film making in Africa.

Speaking at the workshop South Africa composer and musician Rashid Lanie said most film makers think of the soundtrack as one of the last things that they do after they have shot the film

“Music serves several purposes that are either important on the emotional side of the movie or help enhance the storytelling element which is so special,” said Lanie who is also a film maker.

According to him it is not only helpful but essential for any director or producer to keep the music in mind when planning to shoot the movie.

“For example collages that practically don’t work at all without film music can have a fantastic effect later with the appropriate music,” he says.

“Human beings are very good at interpreting sound. Right back to when our prehistoric selves will have heard a twig snap in a forest and thought ‘that’s it, I’m dead. We have a very deep understanding of what music is doing, and it’s very physical,” he says.

The sound that the viewers feel can produce all sorts of physical responses, including in the right circumstances.

Lanie believes that because of improper planning most filmmakers find themselves in an improvising mode which sometimes forces them to use works that are not even related to the plot.

When well planned it helps set the tone of the movie. Just by the way the score comes in for the first time in the movie makes it possible to know the genre and the “level of drama” of the movie. Of course exactly this really strong function can be used to create plot twists,” adds Lanie.

The veteran composer who featured strongly in “Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Mahlangu” says that on the very day that the plot of a film is conceived the film maker should set off with plans to what he thinks the Soundtrack should be.

His argument to most of those at the workshop that was well received with one participant suggesting that before movies had voices, they had music.

“From silent films to today’s computer-generated extravaganzas, film composers use the score to help tell the story, fulfilling the vision of the movie’s director. A movie’s score engages the senses of the moviegoer, instilling emotions, establishing a mood, creating plot relationships and communicating time and place,” says one woman who only identified herself as Amina.

She adds: Film composers carefully choose instrumentation and sound to set a mood or tone for each scene in a film. The music telegraphs whether something is serious, suspenseful, joyful or amusing.

Lanie says it is high time that this gets addressed by filmmakers on the continent if at all they are to compete with the rest of the world.

Over the years the importance of music in film for the average film goer who are the primary target of the films has slowly and steadily dwindled.

“While the Golden Age of Hollywood brought fantastic scores from such films as “Gone With The Wind”, T”he Adventures of Robin Hood”, “Captain from Castil”e and others, the 1970’s gave us such brilliant scores as Jerry Goldsmith’s Patton and Chinatown, John Williams’ Star Wars,” he says.

And there seems to be consensus as most agree that the problem isn’t with the quality of output today but with the perception of importance that the score provides to the film.

He reckons that filmmaking as a trade is tedious but directors can get this out of their cards by hiring the services of music suoervisor.

“Most music supervisors service directors by helping them match a post-production budget with the appropriate music to parallel the directors’ sensibility and the scene’s required mood.

Documentarians often get stuck with a scene where the music is built-in, and they then have to clear the particular song heard in the scene. Yet in reality music is expensive, and because it is copyrighted, permissions must be granted, making the process long and arduous.”