Josh's Soundtrack Music Research

As we are creating a teaser trailer, genre thriller, I have been looking at past thriller films and the soundtrack music that goes with the film and the teaser.

The first film that I looked at was ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008), a film directed by Christopher Nolan and music by Hans Zimmer; German born composer whom has been involved in the music creation in many films including: Rain Man (1988), Gladiator (2000), Pearl Harbour (2001), Sherlock Holmes (2009) and many more. He has also written the music for other forms of media including the multi billion selling video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009).

In ‘The Dark Knight’ Hans Zimmer has created some very intense music that builds up to its climaxes using elements of both brass and string instruments as it is a thriller film. In particular the track titled ‘I’m Not A Hero’. This works really well accompanying the video on screen adding meaning and also giving a very fast pace to the film at that point.

The second film that I looked at was another thriller film, ‘Inception’ (2010) also directed by Christopher Nolan and with music by Hans Zimmer.

Zimmer has again built tension, but this time he does in two different ways in two pieces of music. The first piece used at the beginning of the film, titled ‘Mombasa’ uses drums of different pitches as well as string instruments to give it the feel of being where the scene is set as well as creating tension, but this time right from the start. In another track titled ‘Dream Is Collapsing’, Zimmer has used a lot more brass and string instruments alongside electronically made tones to create a great build up of tension to an intense climax with a repeated loud noise to give the effect of being lost and having no way of getting out of this dream world.

The third and final film that I looked at was ‘I Am Legend’ (2007). A film directed by Francis Lawrence and music by James Newton Howard. Howard, an American born composer has worked on many films including: Dante’s Peak (1997), The Postman (1997), The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000) and collaborated with Hans Zimmer on Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008). In the particular piece of music I looked at titled ‘Darkseeker Dogs’, Howard has used many low pitch drums and string instruments alongside brass instruments to build tension very rapidly and effectively.

From my research I have discovered that to build the tension to climaxes and to create fast paced music in a thriller production I need to collaborate low pitched drums with a variety of low pitched and high pitched brass instruments, string instruments such as violins and cellos and perhaps some piano elements.