This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
The module introduces students to the field of music for media in both theory and practice. The focus will be on music used in moving image media, including an introduction to musical languages and compositional techniques commonly deployed in relation to moving images. Students also study film music history, gaining insight into critical approaches that have informed the practice.
Total Contact Hours: 20
Independent Study Hours: 130
Total Study Hours: 150
Delivery of this module is by a one hour lecture and a one hour practical workshop over ten weeks. The total workload is 150 hours. Workshop classes provide students with examples and practical exercises that students are expected to attempt.
Limited to 40 places
Film Composition Project 100%
Students will compose c. 5 minutes of music for a moving image sequence.
Altman, R. (2000). 'Inventing the Cinema Soundtrack: Hollywood Multiplane Sound System'. In: Buhler, J & Flinn, C. eds. Music and Cinema. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Cook, N. (1998). Analysing Musical Multimedia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cooke, M. (2008). A History of Film Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Davis, R. (1999). Complete Guide to Film Scoring. London: Routledge.
Davison, A. (2003). Hollywood Theory, Non-Hollywood Practice: Cinema Soundtracks in the 1980s and 1990s. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Donnelly, K. ed. (2001). Film Music: Critical Approaches. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Gorbman, C. (1987). Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
Kalinak, K. (2000). Film Music: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kalinak, K. (2000). Settling the Score : Music and the Classical Hollywood Film. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Karlin, F. (2004). On the Track: A Guide to Contemporary Film Scoring. London: Routledge.
Kassabian, A. (2001). Hearing Film: Tracking Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music. New York: Routledge.
See the library reading list for this module (Medway)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Describe and analyse the differing formal conventions surrounding the use of music in film and television.
2. Combine music and moving image to produce a finished audio/visual product.
3. Record, manipulate and balance music in relation to video/film and diegetic sound using current industry software.
4. Compose music for image that demonstrates a critical awareness of genre, mood, repetition and contrast.
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate IT skills including word processing and the use of complex applications.
2. Demonstrate ability and confidence in carrying a project through to delivery with demonstration of flexibility of thought.
3. Deliver work to a given length, format, brief and deadline.
University of Kent makes every effort to ensure that module information is accurate for the relevant academic session and to provide educational services as described. However, courses, services and other matters may be subject to change. Please read our full disclaimer.