Twilight

After watching the film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's book Twilight, I feel compelled to discuss the music choices in the film. The music was extremely distracting and, at times, completely unnecessary. There were scenes that were supposed to have emotional impact and because the music was so blatant in communicating emotion, I was taken out of the story.

I would use this film as an example of music and the poor effect it had on the film as a whole. I would discuss music and talk about its strengths and weaknesses; times when it is helpful and times when it is hurtful. I would show an example from Twilight and describe why the music choices perhaps weren't the best.

I Am Legend

I Am Legend. I recently watched I Am Legend and was struck with the sound design. It was amazing. Every sound was perfectly calculated to help the audience understand the meaning/message. During moments of amplified tension, instead of having scary music, the ambient sounds grew in volume and it made me feel like the Will Smith character was trying to be aware of everything around him.
I would use this in a teaching setting by playing the video without the audio and analyzing it. Then I would play the audio without the video and analyze it. Then, in playing them together the students would come to a greater understanding of sound design.