Pick a scene in a fiction film or episode of a television show that contains music. Choose an example that you
can rewatch as you write this reflection. Discuss the function of the music in the scene. Your post should
answer these questions:
Is the music newly composed or pre-existing?
If it is newly composed, who composed it?
If it is pre-existing, where is it from?
If you don’t know, search the film on IMBD. Scroll to the section titled “Soundtracks†and click “See more.†Most
(but not all) films will have a listing of the main pieces of music featured in the film.
Is the music diegetic or nondiegetic?
If it’s ambiguous, explain why.
Note: Nondiegetic examples are often more interesting from the perspective of the following question.
What function does the music serve in this scene? Here are some possibilities (it’s likely that the music serves
several different functions simultaneously):
setting the mood for the scene
expressing a character’s thoughts, emotions, or psychological states
suggesting how the viewer ought to regard characters or events in this scene
inducing emotional states in the viewer (e.g., tension, fear, relaxation, cheerfulness)
foreshadowing future events in the narrative
expressing the filmmakers’ attitudes towards the characters or events of the scene
imparting formal properties such as coherence, continuity, or closure
Do not look up published discussions of the film. This reflection should be based on your own thoughts and
observations.
Please clearly indicate the title of the film or TV show, the year it was released (in brackets), as well as a very
brief description of the scene. Confine plot summary to the bare minimum required to answer the above
questions. If possible, include a URL to this scene on YouTube or other website.
Reading your proposals, I noticed a lot of formatting errors with titles. Here are the conventions you should
follow in all your written work for this course:
titles of large-scale works like films, TV shows, and books should be in italics
Kurosawa’s Ran
titles of songs and journal articles should be in quotation marks
Garland’s performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow†inThe Wizard of Oz
symphonies and piano sonatas should be capitalized but not in italics or quotation marks
Mahler’s First Symphony
Piano Sonata in A Major by Mozart
Sample Solution