Film music: characters
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can develop a motif for a film score that represents a character and setting.
Key learning points
- An effective film score will help us understand and deepen connections with a character.
- Using a motif in a film score helps to strengthen the understanding of the narrative through the music.
- The motifs in film scores from the Planet Earth series help bring the characters in the documentaries to life.
- A motif can be developed and built on to create a bigger piece.
Keywords
Film score - on original piece of music composed to accompany a film or television programme that contributes to the narrative by adding emotion, tension or drama
Scoring - creating original music for film or television that enhances the narrative
Characterisation - using music to reveal a character’s personality, traits, emotions and motivations
Motif - a short recurring musical idea in a film score that represents a place, character, emotion or idea
Elements of music - the building blocks or key ingredients needed to create a piece of music e.g. pitch, rhythm or structure
Common misconception
Texture and structure are the same thing.
Texture and structure are easily confused. Think of texture as vertical and structure as horizontal. Texture is what is happening at the same time - the layers of sound. Structure is what happens in order - what happens first, then what happens next.
Teacher tip
The compositional element of this lesson and unit can be completed on classroom percussion instruments, keyboards or using a digital audio workspace such as Chrome Music Lab, Garageband or Bandlab. This is a great unit for exploring music technology in your classroom.
Equipment
If creating using a DAW (digital audio workstation), pupils will need access to tablets or laptops. Otherwise, a selection of pitched and unpitched classroom percussion.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
4 Questions
Q1.When we play instruments together in a group, or sing together, we are performing in an ...
Q2.Match the musical element to its definition.
the way the music is organised, ordering different sections of a piece
a description of the sound or tone of an instrument
the combination of different layers of sounds
the length of a sound or silence
Q3.A __________ is an original piece of music composed to accompany a film or television programme that contributes to the narrative by adding emotion, tension or drama.
Q4.Match the instrument to its family.
string
percussion
brass
woodwind
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.A __________ is a short recurring musical idea in a film score that represents a place, character, emotion or idea.
Q2.Which of these are not elements of music?
Q3.Texture is the layering of sounds. We can think of this vertically. is the ordering of music, thinking about the way to organise each section. We can think of this horizontally.
Q4.True or false? Programme music is used in films to build the narrative of a character.
To help you plan your 6 music lesson on: Film music: characters, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 6 music lesson on: Film music: characters, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 music lessons from the Compose and create: nature documentary inspired film scores unit, dive into the full primary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.