How Intention Shapes Sound – in Film, Games & Advertising
When I compose music for a scene, everything starts with a single question:
What does this scene truly need?
Do I want my music to tell something the visuals don’t yet express? Or should it uplift what’s already there emotionally?
That decision lies at the creative core. It shapes everything: the harmony, the tempo, the instrumentation. Then I lean into feeling. I improvise.
We repeat this until music and image don’t just stand beside each other — they breathe together.
Why We Compose What We Compose
How consciously do we choose key, time signature, tonal color, even leitmotifs? How much narrative intention truly lies behind a chord change, a texture, a silence?
The short answer: A lot.
Music Is Never Neutral
Film music is often thought of as serving the picture. But it is never invisible.
Choosing minor instead of major, adagio instead of allegro, radically changes how a scene is perceived (Boltz, 2001).
Research shows music can shape—or redirect—emotional perception in characters:
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Thriller music induces fear.
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Melodramatic scoring deepens empathy.
A conclusive ending chord can even instill a sense of narrative closure—even if the image remains open (Thompson et al., 1994; Juslin & Sloboda, 2009).
Music shapes memory.
It defines what lingers—and what moves us.
When Contrast Speaks Louder Than Matching
A slow, melancholic melody under a frenetic battle scene?
Some of cinema’s most impactful moments arise from this kind of contrast:
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Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings over the war montage in Platoon
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Gustavo Santaolalla’s sparse, intimate score in The Last of Us—delicate tones meeting brutal post-apocalypse
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Max Richter—music that elevates pain into beauty, often used documentarily to evoke empathy, not melodrama
When what you hear counters what you see, space opens for emotional interpretation. That is the magic of contrast.
Games: When Music Reacts
In video games, music arises in the moment. It shifts with the player, with decisions, with timing.
That means composers must hold two frames at once:
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Musical intention: What feeling should be conveyed?
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Technical design: How will music respond adaptively?
Tools like FMOD or Wwise enable this adaptivity. Research shows adaptive music significantly boosts immersion and emotional engagement (Hutchings & McCormack, 2019).
Ludomusicology—scholars like Collins (2008) and van Elferen (2016)—study how music and gameplay converge into a unified emotional narrative.
Intention as Signature: Two Examples
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Howard Shore – The Lord of the Rings
Each realm and character has a leitmotif. Themes are varied, subtly interwoven, rhythmically echoed. Shore composes world-building through music.
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Patrick Doyle – Sense and Sensibility
Reserved strings, elegant melodic gestures, restrained outbursts. The score mirrors societal repression and withheld emotion—even when never explicitly stated.
Advertising: Intention Reimagined
In film and games, music speaks within the story—sometimes contradicting, sometimes complementing the visuals. In advertising, the goal shifts: it’s about emotional branding.
Music must be recognizable, evoke associations, convey a feeling—not advance a narrative.
Yet, intention is still there:
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Irony: upbeat sounds beneath serious scenes
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Nostalgia through chord progressions
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Minimalist emotion—á la Apple ads with Max Richter–esque cues
Different purpose—but musical choice remains deliberate.
How I Decide What to Compose
When I’m working, everything blends:
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Intuition: sensing what the scene needs
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Knowledge: applying harmony, tempo, color with intention
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Experience: understanding what emotional tools work—and why
My guiding question:
Do I want the music to tell a story—or to amplify one?
I ask that in every new scene.
The answer doesn’t always come from logic—it comes from the heart.
Closing Thought & Invitation
Music is never mere background. It is the invisible that makes everything felt.
A comic can exist without sound.
But a well-placed score can turn a glance into a memory—and silence into reverberation.
“Music is not what is written. It is what is meant.”
– Gustav Mahler
Which scene has stayed with you because of its music?
Which of your own projects was shaped by deliberate intention?
References
Boltz, M. (2001). Musical soundtracks as a schematic influence on the cognitive processing of filmed events. Music Perception, 18(4), 427–454.
➡️ Study
Wei, C., Kronland-Martinet, T., & Barthet, M. (2022). Influence of Music on Perceived Emotions in Film. Audio Engineering Society Convention 153.
➡️ PDF
Hutchings, P., & McCormack, J. (2019). Adaptive Music composition in video games. In Music and Game.
Collins, K. (2008). Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design.
