Abstract
Abstract Chapter 10 investigates the functions that music can have in a documentary and explains how its use depends on a variety of factors, including the type of footage it supports. Music has long been distrusted within the documentary community; it has been seen as “manipulative” and inauthentic because it tells the audience how to feel about the actions depicted onscreen. This may be a naive conception of music’s role in film, however; music can also bring out complex layers of emotional information that might otherwise go unnoticed, and may help reveal the “ecstatic truth” of a documentary moment, according to filmmaker Werner Herzog. There are many differences in how music is used in fiction films and in documentary, and most stem from documentary’s perceived relationship with the “real world”; fiction films take place in a make-believe world, whereas documentaries reference “real life” and thus don’t seem to support the emotional embellishment of a music track. Despite this, music is ubiquitous in many documentaries these days. Music is used more often in television documentaries than in those headed for theatrical distribution and is also used more often on scenes that are not in the “cinema verité” style, which are coded as closer to real-time experience. Music can also be a crucial part of defining a documentary’s overall tone.
Published Version
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