Score: A Film Music Documentary (2016)

Country: USA
Director: Matt Schrader
Production Co: Gravitas Ventures
Genre: Documentary, Music
Rating: 7.5/10
Length: 94 mins

Storyline

For a predominately visual medium like cinema, its musical component plays a vital role as well, especially its score. In that essential musical accompaniment, the soul of the film is expressed whether it be sweepingly majestic fanfares or delicate lyrical pieces. This documentary explores the artistic role of this special musical discipline that completes the cinematic artistic creation process and the artists who have devoted their careers to this contribution. We explore the form's history and examine the masters who defined it with their own distinctive artistic vision. In doing so, the various components of this delicate creative process are revealed as they create a musical compositional work that has inspired a popular appreciation of music in all its forms, which gave some old musical ways their own new lease on life.—Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)

Plot Keywords

film history, filmmaking, film clip, reference to alfred hitchcock, reference to facebook, reference to the beatles, archive footage, orchestra, reference to led zeppelin, reference to ludwig van beethoven, directorial debut, conductor, recording session, recording studio, jazz, leitmotif, scene during end credits

Short Review

Documentary maker Matt Schrader bills this as "the definitive look at the craft of film composing," though he takes a narrow route through the subject, focusing on the symphonic composers who hammer out music cues for big-studio projects.