Music research for opening

 Initial ideas

Me and Olivia both agreed that the music in our film should be reasonably light hearted to reflect the cheeriness of the cooking and picnic scenes. We each looked at different songs individually to get an idea of what we were both feeling for it and what kind of mood we each wanted to set for the scenes.

'It's All Forgotten Now' - Al Bowlly

This song made me think of our opening because I felt like it had a very old and romantic but slightly horrifying vibe. Of course this song wasn't created with this intention exactly, but it does feature in the film 'The Shining', which is a famous horror film. 

Lyrics analysis

The song's lyrics also reflect our story and film pretty well, with the singer talking about some form of conflict being forgotten, and saying that "we're still in love". This works with our characters as the forgotten conflict could represent the body in the back of the car that they killed, which is revealed halfway through the film. There's also a large emphasis on love and relationships, which is a large theme in our film with the two main characters being a couple who are shown to be in love. Finally, the song has a long instrumental opening that finishes around the 1:30 minute mark when the singing starts. This would mean that the lyrics wouldn't overshadow the sound effects and the song could be easier to use without copyright.

In the end, me and Olivia decided to choose different songs for our edits, with her going with 'Brown Eyed Girl' by Van Morrison, and me going for this one. Since the song was from the 1930s, copyright was not a problem and it could be used. 

Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison

What was good about this song was the loving lyrics that reflected the closeness of the couple in our film. It was also very cheery and we experimented with editing it in so that it came on when the characters turned up the volume in the car. This use of a soundtrack would be good because it drives the audience away from the actual plot of the film and what is going on with the murderous actions of the couple, and instead focuses on a simple, nice picnic between two people in love. 

We tried to use the song, but unfortunately it was still under copyright, so Olivia sent an email to the agency, but she didn't get a reply. Therefore, we had to consider other options.

What Does It Matter How My Heart Breaks - The Caretaker

The reason why I didn't decide on this song is because it sounds sadder, rather than romantic but creepy, it almost feels like the music is in pain with the use of the strings and horns dragging. However, this song did inspire me for the kind of mood I wanted in the film, and I looked at it when I was editing to see how it would match up with the shots. 

The song itself is a more depressing edit of the song 'Heartaches' also by Al Bowlly, when I tried editing it with the shots, it turned out that it didn't really fit the aesthetic of the scenes, especially the sunny day outside and sunset with the characters having the picnic. Therefore, I chose not to use this song in the final edit.

Overall, we looked at a number of different film soundtracks, such as The Shining (1980) and its use of brass instruments to convey an unsettling atmosphere in its scenes, and The Silence of The Lambs (1991) which uses low pitched horns that make it very disturbing and dark. Instead, we went for a different approach with music that wasn't intended to be scary, hence the lyrics in these songs, but still sounds terrifying when used in a context like this one. 

The final edit

In my final edit, I decided to go with 'It's All Forgotten Now', because I felt that it fit the film's aesthetic and story best, with the lyrics being interpreted as the aftermath of an event. I edited it into the footage and it fit with the timing and length of the opening as well, with the singing coming in right at the end, leaving most of the film with some nice instrumental music to go with the cooking scenes.