SOUNTRACK GENRE: Romance

This blog post is all about exploring the soundtracks of the film genre Romance. My chosen example of this is The Vow trailer. The Vow is a 2012 American romance/drama  directed by Michael Sucsy. The plot line is that the main protagonist Paige and her husband Leo come out of the cinema while on their way home, at a stop sign, Paige takes of her seat belt to lean over and kiss Leo. At the same time, a truck rams their car from behind and Paige crashes through the windshield. Both of them are rushed to the emergency room. However, when Paige regains consciousness, she thinks Leo is her doctor and has lost all memories of the past few years, including all of the time her and Leo have been together.

Soundtrack Analysis:

0.9 - We are introduced to the trailer with the title used through dialogue with no backing music. This is effective as it straight away shows the importance and relevance of the title.

0.20 - When the production company logo's appear a repetitive piano melody begins to play which then has a voice over continued over the top from the main male character from 0.23

0.27 - When the voiceover stops and the dialogue from the movie is added in, there is a rhythmic drum added to the simplistic piano melody.

0.40 - There is then diegetic sound of the horn and lorry hitting the horn which completely contrasts the upbeat and warm tempo of the piano and drums.

0.45 - Behind the dialogue in the clip of the main female, Page, waking up in the hospital there is a lot of non-diegetic sound which would be typical of a hospital setting; the heart monitor beeping by her bed. There is also the diegetic sound of a faint high-pitched sound that slowly gets louder until it fades out again just before the characters realize Page has lost her memory.

1.04 - Once it becomes clear that Page has lost her memory to both the audience and the characters there is a very small silence before the drumming begins again, this time more fast paced, which is quickly joined by a symbol sound and singing. This happens the same time 'This Valentines Day' appears. Once the sinning begins, the sound of the piano melody from earlier in the trailer comes back. The singing continues throughout the trailer but quiet enough for dialogue to continue over the top.

1.22 - When the dialogue clips from the film stops, the characters are introduced and the music gets louder. This seems to add more emotion to the trailer and also makes us connect to the characters/actors more and especially make you feel empathy towards them.

1.25 - Throughout the rest of the clip it alternates between the music being loud and there being no dialogue to there being dialogue and the music fades, yet you can still faintly hear it in the background.

1.49 - In the final seconds of the trailer the dialogue again stops and this time while the music is loud it fades, indicating that its the end of the song. This all happens while the final captions appear, again showing the title of the film and also the release date.