Score: A Film Music Documentary

When I heard about this documentary, I was very interested in seeing it because I love the special features of DVD's and Blu-ray disks. Also, much of my music collection is movie soundtracks. The film was shown at the Calgary International Film Festival and this gave me the opportunity to not only see "Score: A Film Music Documentary" but also to meet director Matt Schrader and composer Christophe Beck. The film was very thorough on the subject. It presents the history and creation of film music in such a captivating way. I also loved how the film highlighted some of today's great film composers.

Out of all the great music that has been produced by Hollywood, Schrader decided to begin with "Gonna Fly Now" from "Rocky". As a fan of that franchise, to have the film start off in this way made me feel quite joyful. I asked Schrader about this choice and he reminded me that "Gonna Fly Now" is actually a song (it was nominated as such at the Oscars). As a song, it exemplifies how songwriters today are finding themselves working as film composers. The Oscar-winning composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are another demonstration of this fact and they are featured later in the documentary. I remember watching the special features of "The Social Network" where they mentioned how the main theme was subtly changed for various scenes of the movie. It is behind-the-scenes stories like that which fascinate me and would probably have the same effect on others. Not every film fan unfortunately watches the special featurettes of movies but "Score" allows the public to see the value of knowing how a movie is made. In the case of this documentary, the focus is on the music. The audience is taught not only the history of film scores but nearly every aspect of how a score goes from the mind of a composer to being played out of the speakers at your local cinema. Having taken a film theory class in university, I was grateful for the section of the documentary that explains how an audience processes music subconsciously as well as its effect on people. The movie does explore the history of film music chronologically but it is intercut with how a score is produced from the spotting session to the cinema. There were some classic film scores that I didn't know were so important until this movie. I knew the selection of a venue to record the music was important but what "Score" also taught me was that the city and country also needs to be taken into account. The culture of a place can have an effect on its orchestra. I also loved how some composers got their own sections in the documentary. John Williams' was obviously my favourite. During the showcase of his work, I was reminded just how different "Star Wars" is on the big screen compared to the TV screen. I wish however that the filmmakers could have also interviewed or highlighted composer Alan Silvestri. On the other hand, including film historian Leonard Maltin was very important.

The documentary was edited in a nice way as it maintained my interest throughout. The film also effectively used the subject matter to make itself better. As someone who already knew the value of a film score however, I wonder about the impact this movie would have on someone who took the musical score of a movie for granted. If it alters their perception, then as many people as possible should see “Score”.

4 Stars out of 5