Filmmaking / Directing : How much of a film’s emotion is really carried by the soundtrack? by Val Chiper

I completely agree that the soundtrack plays a very important role. For me, film is only half about what we see—the other half is what we hear. Without the right sound, even a powerful visual can sometimes feel like a random video recorded on a phone. Sound gives the images atmosphere, emotion, tension, and meaning.

Since I’m also interested in making deeply emotional films, I feel the soundtrack is especially important. The right music can make a scene stay with the audience long after it ends.

Really appreciate the way you’re approaching sound in BROKEN MEN DON’T KNOCK. Treating the soundtrack almost like another character is a powerful idea, and it sounds like you’re putting a lot of thought into making the emotion work from both the visual and the audio side. Great work!

Thank you, I really appreciate that.

I agree completely, without the right sound, even a strong visual can lose its weight. The image shows the audience what is happening, but sound can make them feel what is hiding underneath.

That is exactly what I’m trying to build with BROKEN MEN DON’T KNOCK. Veyrlock is not just a place visually, it has to have pressure, rhythm, silence, noise, and emotional weight. Sometimes the soundtrack is not there to decorate the scene, but to reveal what the characters will never say out loud.

I also think emotional films need that balance. Too much music can manipulate the audience, but the right music can stay in their memory after the scene is gone.

Really appreciate your words.

I really liked the music in Snatch (2000) which is an ensemble and each major character has a musical motif. I think this most noticeable with Boris the Blade who has a version of the folk song "Korobeiniki."

I really like your idea of the soundtrack acting like another character. For me, the best music deepens what is already happening without telling the audience exactly what to feel. How are you approaching the sound and music for BROKEN MEN DON’T KNOCK?

Thanks, Alfred. I completely agree. That balance is something I’m still learning.

For BROKEN MEN DON’T KNOCK, I tried to approach the soundtrack almost like another character. I worked scene by scene, thinking about when the music should support the emotion, when it should create tension underneath it, and when silence would actually be more powerful.

But I definitely don’t think I succeeded every time. There are moments in the film where, looking back, I feel I could have used the music or sound design more subtly, or trusted the scene itself a little more instead of pushing the emotion.

That’s actually one of the lessons I’m taking from this film into the next ones. I want to get better at knowing when the music needs to speak and when it needs to stay quiet.

BROKEN MEN DON’T KNOCK was a big learning process for me, and sound is definitely one of the areas I want to keep developing with every film I make.

I agree that music can almost become another character in a film. A strong soundtrack can communicate what a character is feeling without needing dialogue, especially in moments of silence or uncertainty.

For me, the best music supports the emotion that is already present rather than telling the audience exactly what to feel. When the visuals, performances, and story are strong enough, the soundtrack should enhance that emotion without overpowering it.

I think the most effective moments are often when the music knows when to step forward—and when to stay silent.

That’s a great approach, Val Chiper . Sound can completely change how a scene lands, especially when silence is used intentionally..

I’m curious, are you already working on your next film?

It's an interesting question with one that I wrestled with a couple of weeks ago when finishing my feature Pure Vortex.

To be honest I didn't think much about the music when I was writing or even during production. But I knew I wanted it to have a late 80s to early 90s vibe.

So the band that we featured in one of the scenes was selected based on the music that I liked as the director.

Then when we came to post-production we used temp tracks of well known songs that I liked, since the composer who would make the score said to do that and he'd take care of the music later.

Well it was funny because I got really used to the temp music, but then we were in a rush to finish the film and the composer suggested looking at some music from his own band from about 30 years ago. So we did that and it's interesting that from my inicial doubt that the music might not work, to the actual implementation where I think the exact music we used has such a huge impact on the film and really elevates it.

The music actually sounds like it was made for the film even though it was recorded 30 years ago.

The lesion that I try to take away from this is that in the future I'll try to think about the music earlier if possible.

I completely agree, Karolina. I think knowing when not to use music is just as important as knowing what music to use.

Silence can sometimes create more tension, vulnerability, or emotional weight than any score could. That’s something I’m still learning to control better, letting the scene breathe instead of feeling that every emotional moment needs musical support.

For me, that balance between image, performance, sound design, music, and silence is one of the most fascinating parts of filmmaking.

Thanks, Alfred! Yes, I’m already working on the next one.

It’s called SPEAK FOR ME. It’s a psychological short film built around an airport interview involving a young girl, an interviewer, and an interpreter. What starts as a fairly ordinary situation gradually becomes a mind game about language, trust, and who gets to control someone else’s story.

I don’t want to reveal too much yet, but it’s much more intimate and dialogue-driven than BROKEN MEN DON’T KNOCK. I’m also using what I learned from BMDK to be much more deliberate with pacing, silence, sound, and character performance this time.

That’s a really interesting experience, Vital. Especially the part about getting attached to the temp tracks. I think that can easily happen because after hearing the same piece against a scene enough times, it starts to feel like it belongs there.

What I really like in your story is that the final music wasn’t written specifically for Pure Vortex, yet it still ended up feeling as if it had been. Sometimes the right emotional language matters more than when or why the music was originally created.

And I completely agree with your takeaway. BROKEN MEN DON’T KNOCK also taught me that I want to think about sound and music much earlier in future projects, not just as something that comes at the end of post-production.

I’m still learning that process myself, but I’m starting to see music less as decoration added to a finished scene and more as part of the storytelling from the beginning.

SPEAK FOR ME sounds fascinating Val Chiper , especially the idea of language, trust, and control shaping the story.

What inspired the concept, and where are you currently with the script’s development?

Val Chiper Really like the framing of music as "pressure" rather than accompaniment that's a sharper way to think about it than most conversations about score.

As a writer I think about this a lot even before a composer's involved, because the page has to leave room for that pressure to exist. If every beat is already spelled out in dialogue or action, there's nothing left for the music to mean it just becomes decoration. The moments where score hits hardest are usually the ones the script deliberately left quiet or ambiguous.

On your question, I lean toward music should guide emotionally, but only when the image or performance hasn't already told you what to feel. The manipulation line gets crossed when the score is compensating for something the scene itself hasn't earned. If a moment works in silence and the music is just adding volume to an emotion that's already landing, that's when it starts to feel pushed instead of felt.

BROKEN MEN DON'T KNOCK sounds like a project where that tension between silence and pressure could be really powerful, especially in something as visually stark as crime animation. Curious how you're approaching the silences themselves are they written into the script, or discovered more in the edit?

I see a really good movie as a perfectly assembled and played "orchestra": the music offers the cues and mood, but if everything else isn't in place, what would otherwise be good music would pull me out of the story because it sticks out. I notice this in more indie movies; they will rely more heavily on the music, but without a tight story and amazing acting and directing, it can feel like a fish out of water. However, when they choose the right music to complement a wonderful story and performance, it can be transcendent. It's basically an additional character.

Oh, this is my favorite topic.

Take Apex — remember the scene where Taron Egerton's character gives Charlize Theron's character a head start timed to a single song, before the hunt begins? That track blew up right after, and the clip's still everywhere on TikTok. That's what the right piece of music can do — it becomes the thing people remember the film by.

Music, in my opinion, carries a huge part of the impact — I'd say close to 40%. And it's not just accompaniment. It amplifies what's being said, and it gives the viewer that emotional push — the exact one the scene needs at that exact moment. Where to place it, when to hold back, what tone it should carry — that's incredibly fine-tuned work.

While writing my own intimate sci-fi project Synergy, this became almost a strange side-hobby. I'd be listening to something completely unrelated and suddenly think, "oh, that's the final scene." Or, "that belongs in episode five." I even found a piece that I instantly knew had to play over the end credits. And then there are spots where I know music needs to live — I just haven't found the right one yet.

The biggest surprise for me, though, was realizing music doesn't belong everywhere I assumed it would. I originally imagined it running under the dialogue scenes too. But once I actually started writing them, I understood — no. There are moments where silence has to win. Where the quiet between two IS the scene, and any music underneath it would only get in the way.

Val Chiper - What you're describing — using music almost as a second character in BROKEN MEN DON'T KNOCK — is genuinely intriguing, and it makes me want to see how you pull it off. And I have to say, your title alone already works like a hook. It creates curiosity before a single frame plays.

Val Chiper yeah, I got attached and my partner who did most of the editing got attached too. But because I had learned before that his happens I forced myself to become used to the new music and it was much better than the temp track. Honestly only because my partner and I took the time to put the right tracks on the right places and it worked out really great. It made the cut of the film so much better.

And yeah, having to think about the music before post is something I'll have to get used to thinking about it before.

Without a soundtrack, a scene can lose a huge part of its impact. Take almost any film and replace its soundtrack with the wrong music — the same images will feel completely different.

For me, the soundtrack is 50% of a film. It creates emotion, tension, atmosphere and gives the scene its soul.