Musical Genre Research

WHAT IS THE MUSICAL GENRE?

Musicals are typically filled with feelings of happiness and joy; characters consistently are break into song and dance in order to tell a story. It is considered one of cinemas most unique genres of film. Musical movies typically include an opening number, a love ballad, a villain's song, dance numbers, and many more. Musicals have constant movement, one aspect being dance. Dance can be used to express emotion through movement. The singing aspect of musicals is similar, however, singing expresses emotion through words. Musicals provide a interesting and exciting twist to a movie, keeping their audience intrigued and curious about the story being told. Musicals provide a variety of sub-genres, the most popular, High school, adult, romance, etc. 

CONTENT

Musical films have the main elements of movement and sound to capture a story through a performance. Musicals are commonly described to be a upbeat and cheerful. However, this genre is extremely versatile. One example is melodramas, this is when characters experience much more intense emotions. Melodramas are mainly expressed within a stylistic side (mise-en-scène)

This image above is from the live action version of Beauty and The Beast (2017) Belle is frightened of the beast and also is despair as she will not be with her father because of her imprisoning. This film has a darker aspect of colors as most of the film takes place inside a dull castle. 

Musicals goal is to capture emotions through performance. Musicals have many sub-genres, the most familiar being romance. Many musicals capture two protagonists journey where they eventually fall in love. In The Little Mermaid (2022), we see Ariel saves Prince Eric's life during a storm where they instantly fall in love through this single interaction. As the film progresses, we see the build of their emotions toward one another. 

In this image, a two-shot is shown to establish their relation between the two characters. We can see a connection forming between the two because of the proximity made by the producers. During this scene, the song "Kiss the girl" plays to emphasize the feels that are sparking in the beginning of a beautiful and innocent romance. 

PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES

Musicals rely heavily on mise-en-scène in order for the set to be believable and aesthetically pleasing. The set in this genre is extremely important. When watching a musical film, the set is constantly changing as a there is a quantity of action and movement occurring. Even though musicals came become chaotic, as viewers, we must understand where the actors are performing. 

This image is from La La Land (2016). As we can see, this is a great reference of mise-en-scène. This also reveals a glimpse of their costume choices to reveal their personalities. Mia Dolan has a bubbly and ambitious personality revealed by her bright yellow dress. Sebastian's clothing choice represents his sophisticated and classy personality. 

MARKETING

Musicals have a wide audience range of an audience. Depending on the film, it can either be targeted toward young adults or even more mature viewers. One way musicals attempt to bring in an audience is by adapting a well-known musical into a film. Producers have been applying this idea for the past decade and it has become a wildly popular marketing tool for movie musicals. 

One example is Mean Girls, it is currently one of the most popular musicals on broadway. This musical is being made into a movie that will be released in 2024. The film is already receiving an enormous amount of attention from the media due to the praise Mean Girls has already received. 

Musicals are typically made for everybody, however, the largest audience that musicals receive is primarily driven by women. Producers making trailers and posters that will make women appealed. The attention is grabbed by the coloring consisting of typically pink, purple, or red. Musicals also fill their advertising with corny energy which gains a brighter feel for women who are looking to have a fun time while watching a musical film. 

Singin' in the Rain (1952), provides a look of 3 individuals with expressions of joy. This movie poster provides a fun and inviting feel for viewers.

SAMPLES

High School Musical (2006)

This film follows our two protagonists Troy Bolton (Zach Efron) and Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens). The two meet at a New Years Eve party where they sing karaoke. They realize that they both have are talented singers. They get each others phone numbers soon going their separate ways. Little do they both know that Gabriella was transferring to Troy's high school. They both get to know each other better and we learn that Gabriella is a talented science student and Troy is the star of the basketball team. They both want to audition for their schools musical which goes against their typical clique ideals. As Troy and Gabriella challenge stereotypes, it begins to cause a riff within the entire school. This film provides catchy sound track with numerous dance sequences while sparking a predictable romance between the protagonists. The film contains numerous tunes such as "Breaking Free", "We're all in the together", and "Stick to the Status Quo." This songs, as well as the rest of the film, have versatile choreography, bright setting, and colorful costumes to keep the film upbeat. The story recaps common high school issues yet still contains optimistic views upon acceptance and friendship. 

Annie (2014)

This film is centered around a foster child, Annie, who is living in an orphanage. She lives with numerous other girls around her age and a ruthless foster mom. She remains with hope as she believes her birth parents promise that they will one day return to her. Annie is naturally a bright and optimistic young girl. We find her throughout the course of the film performing a multitude of numbers on how she is reacting to the world around her and the change that is occurring. As Annie is one day scrambling through the streets, she almost gets hit by a taxi. She is then saved by The New York City mayoral candidate, Will Stacks. This life threatening incident is a light of hope for Will Stacks as he believes this praise from the media will boost his poll numbers in the upcoming election. Therefore, Will Stacks then takes Annie in as his own and slowly but surely begins to consider her family. Annie is not an original story as there was a previous version created produced in 1982. Some of the present-day Annie songs are "The City's Yours" and "Opportunity". The film has bright setting with a wide range of clothing choices and colors to follow the emotions of this story. The film tends to feel more vibrant when Annie is positive and we see more dark colors when her mood seems to damper.

EXAMPLES TO REFERENCE

                                                          Dear Evan Hansen (2021)

                                                             In The Heights (2021)

                                                                 Hairspray (2007)

                                                                    Grease (1978)

                                                                  West Side Story (2021)

SOURCES

https://nofilmschool.com/musical-genre

https://raisingchildren.net.au/guides/movie-reviews/high-school-musical

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1823664/plotsummary/

http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Musicals.html

https://visual.ly/community/Infographics/entertainment/complete-list-film-sub-genres

https://dailybruin.com/2015/01/06/growth-in-film-adaptations-of-musicals-brings-hollywood-broadway-together

Sound Blog Post

 Hi Blog, the assignment my partner and I were given is titled "Sound Project". The intent of this project is to be able to learn how to tell a story through sound effects and other auditory techniques. In order to do this, the soundscape must be realistic and have a multitude of layering sounds for it to be believable. 

When thinking of what to create the soundscape about, we knew it must have a story where there is a clear beginning and ending. Brainstorming for this project was a difficult thought process as you must create a story that can only be told through the use of sound. Ultimately, we had come up with our established idea. The story would be somebody leaving there house to walk there dog. Eventually the dog breaks loose of the leash and runs away from there owner. The dog is sprinting away from its owner until it reaches another dog where they begin to bark back and forth at each other. Soon, the dog becomes frightened and runs back to the owner licking since the dog missed its owner. When generating this project, each movement had to be made precise and clean. For example, when the owner looses control of the leash, the dog runs across the street. This is implied by the sounds of running transitioning from the dog stepping on leafs to then a street. Another way to convey this idea was by a car passing to it then honking to acknowledge the dog. By doing small details such as these, I believe it made our soundscape more enhanced.

To make the soundscape believable, a variety of layering sounds must be included. To make the audience believe the setting is outside at night, we added multiple background noises to imply this idea. We added crickets chirping, cars honking, footsteps outdoors, leafs crunching, etc. I believe this stepped up the quality of this project to the next level. We took into account how each sound effect would be used if the audience was actually taking there dog for a walk. An extended period of time was taken to figure out what foley sounds we would choose, how would we create them, and how they would enhance our story. The main focus surrounding the foley would be the dogs leash. We made the dog leash chankling and the dogs leash being dropped using my own dogs leash. The chankling sound was made by the metal part of the leash being clasped against hardwood floor. I believe the usage of the leash sound effect helped create a more developed plot. Below you will see the clips we created. 

The images posted here are the foley we created. (I wanted to insert the whole video but blogger blocked access) These images capture two different moments of the leash chankling. I provided these images to demonstrate the surface we used and how the product of our foley was established simply by shaking the metal part of the leash back and forth.

I would say the most difficult part of the soundscape process was coming up with an idea for the ending and how the audience would be able to understand what was occurring. We had at first came up with the idea that the dog would jump into the owners arms out of fear due to the dog scaring him away. However, we struggled to find an idea of sounds that would make our audience understand what was taking place. In the end result, the dog ends up running away from the dog barking at it. Which is implied by the fast pacing and panting. The dog reaches the owner and begins to lick of joy to imply that the dog is reunited with its owner. I think we could have came up with a more creative ending, however, I still believe this established that this was the end goal of the story. Overall, I thought this project took our sound lesson to the next level. The lesson taught me that us as viewers take sound for granted in any type of media we consume. Sound typically goes unnoticed but now, I am knowledgable about the importance that sound contributes.

                                                             EDITING OUTLINE

Here is the link to our soundscape, enjoy! :)

1697596458.500808.MOV