If we think back on some classic film moments, like the Psycho shower scene or the shark appearing in Jaws, we notice our reactions are directly tied to the music. ​​We all realize early on, either as a filmmaker or audience member, how crucial a good score is to a movie. On the flip side, it seems like a lot of filmmakers are scared of silence due to their exposure to films with a soundtrack and thus, lean too much on music to lift their scenes. Here are my two cents into this issue:
 
Do not use generic music just to fill the silence.
I was watching a film this year and it hit me that I had heard the song before. It was the same one I had used earlier in the week to edit a real estate video. It was free for commercial use and very generic; perfect for real estate, but not so good for a documentary. It was so plain that it kept distracting me from what the film wanted to say. I get it -- it is really hard to make independent films. The budget is minuscule, and you cannot always find talent that is willing to help out for so little. But if you cannot afford good music, don’t just use any song you find for free.

Do not force an emotion through music that you cannot match with the script and the visuals.
If your music is grand and swells up like the ending of a Hollywood movie, make sure your story follows the stakes. Do not put an action-oriented track or melodramatic violins in a scene if your character is alone and plainly framed in front of a computer. You might be able to pull it off, but it requires greater care. Music is supposed to aid the visuals, not engulf them (unless that’s the goal).
 
Ask yourself if having music is necessary in the first place.
Filmmakers are hammered with the importance of music in a movie - because it is important. However, it is crucial to remember that silence is part of the score too. It has incredible potency. For more on this, I'd recommend you watch Tony Zhou's video essay on this topic. While Zhou talks about fictional movies, my experience with the overbearing soundtrack, especially in reviewing work from this year, has been with documentaries. A few of them didn't have a single moment without background music. It was very distracting and it didn’t add anything to the story. I believe that, through editing, you can always find better ways to express a certain emotion and find a rhythm.
 
- Fernanda

After another spring of university and college screenings, I’d like to report the obvious: student filmmakers love fake blood. And it’s easy to see why. From Psycho (in which chocolate syrup was used – since it popped better on black and white film stock) to Carrie, fake blood has been ingrained in the visual grammar of film since the end of the Hays Code era. But is it always worth the mess?

One of the questions that comes up again and again among the TYS programming staff is, “Was it necessary?” The “it” in this case isn’t always the blood itself, but rather the on-screen violence.

As a rule, we don’t shy away from including graphic imagery in the TYS programmes, but we do consider depictions of strong violence through the lens of whether or not they serve their films in an artistic way. Admittedly, as with the rest of film criticism, that’s a vague criterion, but we apply it with the best of intentions. Some of the questions we ask are:

• Does it make narrative sense? Is it a logical development to the story, or is it merely an easy (though messy) way to wrap things up?
• Does it have an emotional purpose beyond shock value?
• Does it fetishize a particular type of violence? Who is on the receiving end, and how does the film ask us to feel about that?

These are all difficult questions for us as programmers to address, so we nearly always err on the side of giving filmmakers the benefit of the doubt.

But, before your next climactic scene turns into a bloodbath, ask yourself whether all the corn syrup is necessary. Your actors will thank you.  
 
-Paul