Music and ecstatic truth alternate approaches to scoring a documentary film

Abstract

Music has the capacity to quickly and effectively communicate abstract emotional states. In documentary film, music has a powerful impact on how audiences' perceive and empathize with its characters. Despite this, its role can be diminished in comparison to its creative significance. This is often due to the timing of its creation during the production process. In this paper I will discuss two alternate methods of film scoring and how they can yield more authentic musical interpretations of real events. Through the works of various filmmakers and my own experience scoring the short film, 'The Traverse', this paper will discuss how scoring a film early in the production phase, or self-scoring can yield a more authentic display of 'ecstatic truth' in documentary.