Story Told in Music – Raiders of the Lost Ark

Sometimes it's a bit tough to remember when something iconic was new. This really hit home when I recently watched "Raiders of the Lost Ark". I was just a kid when this movie came out in 1981, and the viewing of the movie is fairly vivid in my mind. But branded even deeper than images of Indy outrunning a bolder, crawling beneath a moving truck and surviving the biggest face melt in movie history was the music. The "Raiders Theme" also known as the "Indiana Jones Theme" is one that nearly everyone on the planet knows. Just hearing the first few bars and most people are immediately reminded of Harrison Ford in a fedora.

Of course this memorable piece of music was written by John Williams. Williams was at the peak of his creative skills back in the late 70's and early 80's. He came up with iconic themes for "Star Wars", "Superman", "Jaws", "Close Encounters of a Third Kind" and of course "Indiana Jones". I bet as you read that list you could at least hum one tune from each of those movies. Williams style was so potent that it influenced nearly all movie scoring for the rest of the 80's and early 90's (things would shift around once Hans Zimmer showed up). What is amazing about these early scores by Williams, is that they are all so memorable and that they immediately transport the listener to the scene in the movie that they occur.

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" is a great example of this. If you were to listen to the score you would be able to figure out exactly what is going on in each sequence. Part of the reason is Williams created themes for Indiana Jones, Marion Ravenwood, The Ark of the Covenant and the Nazis. He even went so far as to create mini-themes for key sequences in the film. The most obvious is titled "The Basket Game" in which Indy runs around Cairo searching for Marion as she abducted in a wicker basket. The whole scene uses it's own little jaunty theme, that rises and falls, speeds up and slows down to create tension and paint the action on the screen. When the chase scene ends in an explosion (and the "death" of Marion) Marion's theme swells to tragic proportions.

What struck me as I watched "Raiders" again was how much of the film relied on music and visuals. The entire opening of the film is all music, camera movement, sound effects and lighting. It all builds to a mini-climax when Indy uses his whip to snap the gun from the man's hand. In that moment we know all about Indy and his bad ass skills (and we didn't even hear the theme yet!). Plenty of other moments rely solely on music, including the map room scene, the truck chase and even the opening of the ark (once that puppy is open there is very little talking and a whole lot of epic choral scoring).

In a sense Williams composed a mini-opera. The story is told in a large part with music and visuals (almost working like a silent film) and if the music isn't going to have it's own power the movie isn't as effective. In a sense, as good at Ford's performances is, as good as Kasdan's script, is and as good as Spielberg's direction is - the music is a vital part of "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

Do you have a favorite film score or film composer? What do you think of the score to "Raiders"? Do you think John Williams is over-rated?

The Music of the Plot - ESCM

One of the most interesting things I've run into is the way music inspires my work. This goes back to some of my earliest story ideas. I have a clear memory of writing the end of my "Godfather" inspired story to the same music that Coppolla used for his finale in "The Godfather Part III". This piece has a sadness to it, something so deep within the music itself that is triggered a set of images. Granted these images weren't really more than a rip off of stuff from the Godfather, but it worked.

A key scene in my first completed screenplay was inspired by a dream I had in which a concerto by Mozart was playing. This music still sends chills down my spine, as it recalls my dream and the scene I ended up capturing because of it (still need to figure out how to use that scene in a future work).

I find music very inspiring, usually stuff without words. Some of my most interesting story ideas or scenes have come out of the trance style music of BT. His album ESCM still gets regular play on my ipod. What's funny about his music is that it seems to want to tell a story already. It feels like it falls on me to bring that story out in words. I still listen to the final track on that album, "Content" and can see these wonderful images that I'm dying to use in a book.

Beyond basic inspiration for story ideas or scenes, music also inspires me to modify existing ideas and refine them in a way that seems to match the music. It's like writing to an existing soundtrack you didn't know you had. Music with a particular rhythm will often help me with action scenes or scenes of tension. I end up visualizing stories as movies anyway, so this feeds right into that.

What type of music do you find works best with your writing? Do you use it to inspire story ideas? If not, what other techniques do you use? Or does music distract you too much while you are writing?