How to add sound to amateur films (1954)

or Cesar Franck's D Minor are too appealing to be generally satisfactory. The audience may try to show its approval of these more tuneful works by beating time or whistling snatches. When this happens, the music is drawing attention to itself and away from the picture. Seek out lesser known works — Sibelius' 4th and 6th Symphonies and even more modern works. Provided they are not so strident as to command excessive attention, pieces with a less obvious tune usually blend well with the picture. So get records of these pieces. The less they appeal at first hearing, the more useful they may prove later. And incidentally, they often become firm favourites after several hearings. Works of this type generally have the merit of being usefully ambiguous. One piece can paint several moods — eeriness or calm, serenity or foreboding. This means that the music often matches the picture better than a piece in a more clearly defined mood. Consequently you need change the music less often and so there are fewer breaks to distract your audience. Also, because the key and tempo of such a work are usually less sharply defined, a fade from one piece to another is less disturbing. Silence Very occasionally, silence can be more effective than any music. When you have carefully prepared the audience for a tense situation, turn off the sound. Provided their eyes are watching the fraying rope, the helplessly swinging mountaineer, the ears of the audience will subconsciously strain for the impending snap and scream. The effect is similar to the substitution of drum roll for music when an acrobat comes to his piece de resistance. Here, however, the projector noise plays the part of the drum roll. See that it is not so loud as to spoil the effect. In many cases, the effectiveness of silence in a sequence of this kind is heightened if it is explained. If you are planning 114