Music used in crime-thrillersJACK CAMPBELL

What is a crime thriller?

The description Wikipedia gives for a crime thriller is :

A crime- thriller provides the sudden rush of excitement, and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace. It keeps the audience on the "edge of their seats", akin to a sensation of hanging from a cliff, as the plot builds towards a climax. Literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists, and cliffhangers are used extensively. A thriller is usually a villain-driven plot, whereby he or she presents obstacles that the protagonist must overcome.

Soundtrack

Soundtrack and music is a common convention of all short films for the simple reason that there is only a small amount of time to convey a story and the use of music greatly aids this and allows the producer to create a mood and feel that might not be possible by using the conventions of feature films, which have a much longer run time of up to 1 hour and considerably more.

Short films which have a soundtrack

This short film uses a very slow, moving violin piece as well as a melancholic, moody piano piece to convey the

sad emotions of a couple who have broken up. The music is accompoined by a spoken dialogue, which needs the music to add more emotion and sensualtiy to the scene. The titles are accompanied by an accoustic guitar song which has lyrics that relate to the sadness of break up.

More examples

This futuristic and high budget short film features lots of diagetic robot

sounds and spaceship whooshes as well as a futuristic and robotic soundtrack that fits in with the conventions of the

short film. This short film has no dialogue.

This short love film uses a mixture of sad strings and happy acoustic guitar

music to match the narrative on screen, This film does feature some

dialogue which works well in conjunction with the narrative on

screen.

Conventions

The short films that I analysed: All contained soundtracks that matched the

narrative on screen. Used a variety of diagetic and non diagetic

sounds Used a comination of background 'mood' music

and recorded music

A look at the soundtracks of some famous crime/ thriller films

Although I am creating a short film, I thought it would be useful to analyse the music used in several famous crime and thriller films as this would give me an inclination as to what type of music I should use in my short film.

The score to Stephen King's filmMisery is made up of a typicalthriller piece- klanky keyboardplaying and strings to show

suspense as well as sharp, slow piano playing after the 'climax'.

I could use a piece similar to this, however I would prefer a moreindustrial and 'criminal' sound.

Further examples

The 2015 film 'Furious 7' uses a custom made score of heavy syntheiser beats, drum loops, strings, bass and keyboards to create a soundtrack that ranges from tense to sad

to exciting depending on the on screen action

Films often use custom made scores

however as I am creating a short film

with a small budget I will not be able to

do this. Instead, I will do some research on

YouTube to find songs that fit into the crime

thriller genre, such as the songs I have

described on this presentation.