One film, three scores
Watch the same film with three different scores. For each one, say what story you see.
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Try the experiment: your result will appear here, next to what most people do.
What just happened (read it after the experiment)
What most people do: Most viewers see three different stories.
The images didn’t change: the boat, the rowers, the swell. Yet the music made you see an outing, a drama or a farce.
Researchers have measured this for a long time: music steers how we interpret the characters and their intentions, and even what we remember of the film.
In film, music doesn’t decorate: it tells you what to feel.
More experiments
Sources
- Marilyn Boltz, “Musical soundtracks as a schematic influence on the cognitive processing of filmed events,” Music Perception, 2001.