I watched a corporate video production recently and as I listened to the interview cuts that together told the story, I found myself wondering: “Why is that music always there?” No matter who was talking or what was being said, the music was always there. If one piece ran out, another immediately started.

I love music in media for what it can do to set and create mood. Done right, the musical score can make an otherwise mediocre video quite watchable. But if the music is always there, it becomes little more than elevator music that gets tuned out. Sometimes I get the feel that the constant music bed is there to hide any imperfections in the voice track.

If you watch a movie, or TV drama, you will note that the music comes in and goes out, all depending on what happens on screen. That is the music working with the story telling. Sometimes to emphasize the story, silence is needed or we need to just hear words spoken with no distraction. At other times, we need music there to bring out the full effect of the words.

The above all refers to interview segments, with someone on screen talking. Sometimes a video uses a narrator and the music is left going under the narration as well, even though we see people and events on the screen that in real life have audio associated with them. There may be good reasons for using music, as the music will better capture the story and mood than natural sound would. Or it may be a montage that is done to the beat of the music. But all too often, it seems that music is used to hide the fact that no audio was recorded when the video was shot, or that audio was of poor quality.

Music is a tremendous asset and I have great respect for composers who can sit down with a video (or sometimes even just a script) and create music that captures the story. That’s why the music in a video deserves better than to just be a sonic wall-to-wall carpet.

The video, and your story, deserve better too. As a client, you should receive a rich audio track with your video, one that uses a skillful blend of interview voices, narration, music, natural sound and audio effects — all to tell the story effectively.

Claes

posted in audio, music, video

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