Dan Martin

'The Band Wagon' (1953) - Girl Hunt Ballet, Rescoring

For my module in the first term of third year, Film Music and Audio-visual Project, we were tasked with creating a portfolio of different pieces that should all encompass a common theme, which in this case, was the function of the big band jazz sound within the typical musical romantic melodrama. Where else would be better to start the project than in the Vincente Minnelli film, The Band Wagon (1953), starring leading actors Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, both being staples of this film format at the time? I had also involved rescored extracts from the films La La Land (2016) and West Side Story (1961), with all sequences being accompanied by a commentary exploring why the relationship between the big band jazz sound and the aforementioned filmstyle was so successful, in relation to its social and cultural contexts in America. This module has offered a lot of creative freedom, which allowed me to delve greatly into my interests in sound on the big screen!