The Advantages of Using Bird Chatter Instead of Musical Soundtracks in Movies

Hollywood producers are always looking to find new, innovative ways to create a hit movie. Some movie producers have gone as far as putting talking dogs into their films to try to make them successful, but many overlook the power of music.

One technique that a lot of Hollywood producers haven't tried yet is to use bird calls as the soundtrack of their movie.

There are many advantages to replacing the soundtrack of your movie with bird calls, but this short essay will detail a few of the most obvious ones:

Financial

According to David Bell, author of "Getting The Best Score For Your Film," a high budget feature film can cost up to $400,000 plus a $200,000 to $400,000 composer fee. That is an awful lot of money to spend on music.

When your movie is about a haunted house for example, it would make a lot of sense to invest money into bone-chilling and spooky music because that can play a big role in giving the audience they haunt they paid for, but for movies where music is less important, it might be smart to consider using bird calls to fill the dead air.

When dealing with a medium-budget film, you could decide to use bird calls instead of music and re-allocate your funds to another part of the production because you don't need to pay a bird for the music they produce.

Legal

Under U.S. law, in order to use a song in a movie you must acquire a Synchronization License from the publisher to use the song in synchronization with the video and a Master Use License from the record label to reproduce the song in your film.

The advantage of using bird chatter in your film instead of music is that you can circumvent the acquisition of these music licenses because birds won't sue you unless a human lawyer is representing them.

The chances of a human lawyer representing a bird in court are extremely low and there have been no known cases in the history of film of somebody being sued for using bird calls instead of music.

Nostalgia

Other than scent, which is known to be the human sense most strongly linked with nostalgia, hearing might be the next. In terms of hearing, here is nothing more nostalgic than hearing a bird you remember from your childhood. That memory can be very therapeutic for people and very enjoyable for others. These emotions can add to the overall enjoyment of a film.


All in all, replacing your soundtrack with bird chatter should not be overlooked by mainstream Hollywood.

Movies Viewed Through the Nostalgia Goggles and Younger Siblings That Make You Watch Them

For the most part the Disney Company has the childhoods of those who grew up anywhere between the 1940's through the early 2000's by the short hairs. Hand drawn animation was big back then, and Disney presented some of it's best movies (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast ) to the world. These movies combined songs reminiscent of Broadway song and dance numbers, with remixed fairy tales (Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid),  stories from The Arabian Nights (Aladdin), and works of The Bard (The Lion King (a loose, remixed rendition of Hamlet)). However by 2002 what became known as the Disney Rennisance had long since ended, but the company was still pushing out animated movies at a rate of at least one a year. One of these later Disney movies is Treasure Planet.

Produced by Disney, Ron Clements and John Musker (both of whom directed the film), Treasure Planet was released into theaters Nov, 27th, 2002. The story is pretty much Treasure Island meets science fiction, with ships that literally sail the skies (e.g. outer space), aliens, futuristic weapons, the whole nine yards. The animation of the movie is a mix of mostly traditionally drawn sets and characters and computer animation (done with a animating program known as Deep Canvas).

I saw this movie with my Dad when it first came out in 2002, and we both loved it. As far as I was concerned, the critics who did bad reviews of this movie, had no clue what they were talking about. The story is a classic (one of which I've read), and the adaptions they made to it were wonderful in my eyes. The character design was interesting, and certain scenes were utterly beautiful (when the R.L.S. Legacy launches, the comet scene, the shots of space, ect), not to mention the music (which continues to pop into my head whenever I'm on a boat). This is essentially what I thought of the flick when I first saw it when I was eleven.

Currently I'm 21, with two little brothers who have inherited my VHS copy of the movie. Recently on one of my trips home, they asked me and my dad to watch it with them. Looking back at this piece of my childhood, through the eyes of my little brothers, I still don't find fault with it. The only complaint that I can think of, is that the song "I'm Still Here" (written and preformed by The Goo Goo Dolls lead singer, John Rzeznik), would probably have been a better fit in the movie's credits instead of in the middle of it. Aside from the song in the ending credits, this is the only lyrical song in the whole feature, the rest of the music consists of musical scores. To me this is a slight continuity issue, in what is otherwise one of the great Disney flicks.

The Adventure of Pete and Pete

People my age or slightly older often reminisce about nostalgic TV shows that are no where to be found on the tube today. Early 90s Nickelodeon shows are usually the topic of discussion. Late at night on TeenNick, old Nickelodeon shows such as Doug, Keenan & Kel, All That, and Rugrats air. I feel like a little kid as I watch the shows but I tend not to often due to their simple story lines and mediocre jokes. I think people watch old TV shows to experience that nostalgic feeling and travel back in time in a way. Although I stay up late once a week and watch the old shows, I miss watching The Adventure of Pete and Pete; a Nickelodeon show that aired from 1993-1996 and starred Danny Tamberelli and Mike Maronna. The story was about two red-haired brothers, both named Pete, that have a dad obsessed with bowling and a mom that has a plate in her head. Other characters include disgusting lunch ladies, scary teachers, and a local superhero named Artie. The show is narrated by the Older Pete, Danny Tamberelli, and their coming of age stories and hijinks are highlighted. What happened to fell good family shows with quality writing and dynamic characters? The shows that I watched as a boy shaped who I am today and nowadays, those shows are no where to be found. The shows featured more mature themes back then and today, it seems as if TV shows aren't exposing kids to real situations and instill a false sense of reality among the youth. I recommend you watch the feel good Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete and Pete. After watching the show, think about how it compares with shows on Nickelodeon today.