Film music: drama
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can create drama in my film score, considering effective ways to build on my motif to create a sense of danger and disaster.
Key learning points
- A film score is an effective tool for adding emotion, tension and drama to a visual story.
- A motif can be used to represent an idea or emotion and can be developed and built on to create a bigger piece.
- We need to think about the structure when scoring so that the film score clearly enhances the visual narrative.
- Making changes to the elements of music, for example changing tempo, can help to add drama and tension to a film score.
Keywords
Film score - an original piece of music composed to accompany a film or television programme that contributes to the narrative by adding emotion, tension or drama
Natural disaster - a sudden event, caused by natural and not human activity, for example an earthquake or flood
Scoring - creating original music for film or television that enhances the narrative
Dramatising - using music to amplify the impact of a narrative beyond the visual on screen
Motif - a short recurring musical idea in a film score that represents a place, character, emotion or idea
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. is one of the musical elements. It means how fast or slow the music is played.
Q2.What is the name for a musical part that supports the main melody?
Q3.Spot which of these musical terms are not one of the elements of music
Q4.People who watch and listen to a musical performance are called the ...
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.The music from the Planet Earth series is an excellent example of ...
Q2.In film music, when we are composing, we call this ...
Q3.How might a motif be used in a film score?
Q4.Structure is the way the music is organised. __________ is the combination of different layers of sound.
To help you plan your 6 music lesson on: Film music: drama, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 6 music lesson on: Film music: drama, 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.