Music Research; Existing British Dramas

We decided to do further research in order to decide what music to use in our coursework. As part of this research we looked at existing teaser trailer for British drama films and analyse what music was used.

London to Brighton

The trailer for London to Brighton starts with a somber sounding piano piece playing alongside an underlying continuous deep string sound. With these two sounds playing at the same time, it creates a serious sounding piece of music which is parallel to narrative the being portrayed on screen. Also the use of this continuous drone is slowly building tension for the audience. Then half way through the trailer the music suddenly changes to a faster paced track which greatly uses drum beats. This is used to represent the suddenly change of pace within the trailer. The use of a repetitive drum beat also makes the film seem modern because drum music has connotations of club music and youth.

This is England

The trailer is split up into sections because of the 3 music tracks used. The first is a song from the reggae genre. This type of music has connotations of a happy and relaxed nature. This suggests that the characters being portrayed on screen are a close happy friendship group who like to hang about together. The track is also relevant as it is of the time period in which the film is set (1980s). Then the music switches to more serious sounding track when the "villain" is introduced on screen. The indicates to the audience that the characters feeling towards this new character on screen is different to those in the friendship group. The use of a heavy repetitive guitar riff also indicates the change in narrative as the music is in complete contrast to the previous track. The final piece off music used it more calming, acoustic guitar piece. This juxtaposes the actions on screen as they are more violent and chaotic in comparison the overlay ed non diegetic music. this represents to the audience that although a lot is happening in the film there is also a serious side to the narrative and the characters lives.

The Football Factory

The Football Factory's featured music is the same non diegetic track throughout the trailer. By having the same piece of music that doesn't change volume or tempo, it makes the trailer feel longer and hints that there is something always happening in the film. The music is fast paced and quite electronic sounding. The pace of the track indicates that the narrative is also past paced. It also has a high pitched string sound and seems to get faster throughout the trailer which builds up tension for the audience.

Happy Go Lucky

Happy Go Lucky's sound track is similar to London to Brighton as it also uses two different songs during the trailer. The first is an upbeat sounding classical song which gives the impression that the film is generally happy bubbly film. Also the track includes the sound of a trombone which hints to the comedy element of the film as this instrument is usually associated with classic British comedy sketches. This emphasised by the humorous events and the diegetic, jokey dialogue. The second piece of music is a modern piece of chart music to represent the modern narrative of the film. The trumpets used in the track sound energetic and celebratory supporting the idea that the film is joyous and happy. Also thelyrics of song "the sun is in the sky ..." are also optimistic sounding lyrics to suggest the nature of the film and the personality of the protagonist.

After conducting this piece of research i have a better understanding of music used in British dramas. I have discovered that usually they use more than one piece of music to symbolise the change in pace or narrative in the film. The music also usually represents what is happening on screen. However another aspect I notice is that British drama teaser trailers also heavily rely on a voiceover or dialogue to compliment the music. For our next piece of research we will look further into voiceovers and what impact they have on the teaser trailer.