To reach the learning outcome of building new areas of creativity like producing music that’s tailored to the action on screen I will utilize ideas and terminology from ‘Hearing Film’ by Anahid Kassabian into the Timeline X trailer.

In ‘Hearing Film’ by Anahid Kassabian she introduces notion of the ‘attention continuum’  by asking the question ‘How much attention do viewers/listeners give to the music, in comparison to the dialogue, visuals and other elements?(Kassabian, 2001, 52). Anahid continues to explain how ‘Attention to music depends on many factors, including the volume of the music, its style, and its “appropriateness” in the scene’ (Kassabian, 2001, 52).  Anahid summarises a range of examples along the attention continuum when she writes ‘In each specific case, the rest of the soundtrack and other aspects of the film define the limits of the music’s prominence’ (Kassabian, 2001, 55). In conclusion the ‘attention continuum’ focuses on the the level of attention the audience gives to music which is determined by other aspects of the film.

For the Timeline X trailer the music will be fairly prominent in the ‘attention continuum’ in response to the visual gameplay, text and transition shots. The aim is to create an equal amount of attention to the music and visual elements. For example the image below shows a transition shot from the storyboard where the music has an equal level of prominence than the visual element.

The music will be slightly more prominent at certain parts in trailer such as the Timeline X title shot below where the theme tune for Timeline X plays but in general the equal level of attention between music and visual elements remains the same throughout the continuum/trailer.

Kassabian later explains the term ‘Commentary music’ when she points out that ‘Commentary music, for example, might tell us that a seemingly romantic situation is actually humuorous, or that the daisy-filled meadow contains some unseen danger… ‘ (Kassabian, 2001, 59). Essentially ‘commentary music’ is music that comments on the action on screen.

For the Timeline X trailer the music will act as commentary music and be tailored to the action on screen as opposed to a standalone track.

The music will be tailored to the action on screen by having different musical components come in to match what the visual element is conveying. For example the image below shows a gameplay shot from the storyboard where the drum, lead synths and baroque musical components support the battlefield atmosphere.

The music will also be tailored to cuts between shots. To elaborate the music is synchronized to the cut that moves into the next shot. For example the image below shows a series of gameplay shots where the kick drum plays on the arrow between each shot.

I will utilize the ‘attention continuum’ and ‘commentary music’ into the Timeline X trailer to create more of a coherent trailer where the music and visual elements work together throughout the trailer as opposed to a gameplay trailer that cuts and edits standalone tracks into certain parts.

Sources

Kassabian, Anahid. Hearing Film. New York: Routledge, 2001. Print.