Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 00:49 - Leitmotif Definition and History 01:56 - Technique 1: Character 03:32 - Technique 2: Setting 05:15 - Technique 3: Emotion 09:32 - Technique 4: Evolution 07:12 - Wrap Up

This dude's voice is butter. The writing is airtight. The editing is clean. Literally the whole package right here.

I just love this. When you finish a movie and the song is still playing in your head, you know you've watched a damn good movie.

John Williams has earned all the praise he's ever gotten. The music in the SW prequels is absolutely amazing

The second that I saw the video name I knew I was gonna cry. The use of Up is astounding and heartbreaking

My favourite leitmotifs are when characters are represented by instruments, with melodies playing out ideas and emotions. Two characters fighting would have their sets of instruments playing the 'conflict' theme etc.

Lord of the Rings will always be the best one to have ever done it in my opinion. Nothing beats that amazing score.

The Lord of the Rings soundtrack is amazing. Another thing, could you talk about the opening scene of the "Intouchables" (2011), the soundtrack from (Ludovico Einaudi), the cinematography or the screenplay

As a German I love how passionately this guy tries to pronounce the German names right :))

In Blue Sky Studio's "Horton Hears a Who", composer John Powell introduces a lietmotif in the opening scene. Throughout the film, it conveys Whoville's safety and Horton's belief: "A person is a person, no matter how small."

Kylo Ren and his theme is the perfect example of a masterpiece of a leitmotif. Such a flexible theme that can be played in many different ways to not only convey Kylo’s presence but also his rage, anger, threat. Not only this but his leitmotif can be played to convey Kylo’s conflict, sadness and insecurities. Even when Kylo returns to the light, the leitmotif is still played but in a higher key, conveying his turn.

Studio Binder Appreciation comment: They knew they'll get copyright claims on this video and still made and put the efforts in knowing full welll they won't earn a single dollar in ad revenue. Love you people!!! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

I always liked that super subtle empirial march melody in Anakin's theme. Also, I can't handle that montage from Up. Just watching this short excerpt from it made me cry.

Music defines some of my earliest memories of pop culture. Sight has more detail, but hearing is somehow more engaging sometimes.

The power of a leitmotif is that I’m crying right now from just hearing the snippets of the music in this video.

I just watch Lotr (all three) when I saw this video. You can tell how important leitmotif is in the scene where they light the beacons. Without the music the audience is just watching these tiny little dots on mountaintops appear slowly, but with the leitmotif you feel the uniting of Rohan and Gondor and its so triumphant I'm sure many people have cried at it. I just think that scene is an incredibly feat of storytelling because if I showed that to someone who has never seen Lotr and told them its one of the best scenes they'd think I'm crazy. But the set up for lighting the beacons was from the first movie, too. Leitmotif plus set up from several hours (years) and movies before and its a tearjerker.

Getting me to watch the sad part of UP again- ON A MONDAY MORNING... thinking about sending you an invoice for the loss of working hours...

Harry potter has great music that evolves over time. First time I saw the opening with breaking of the bridge and swoops across london with that suspenseful strings I really got goosebumps!

Dwarrowdelf from lord of the rings is perhaps greatest music ever put into film , it convey perfectly the weight of thousands of years, glory of past , sadness of present and awe of beauty..its just can't be described in words , only can be felt. That scene creates an emotion of awe that my childhood version will feel in a magastic dream...

The Lord of the Rings has for me easily the best soundtrack of all time. Aside of that John Williams is the master himself. It's true that his most recent works in this last five years (the last two movies of Star Wars mainly) don't have particularly great soundtracks, he has consistently masterful in all his works. My favorite ones are Star Wars from I to IV. It's funny that he has been nominated for the Oscar for the new trilogy when the soundtracks haven't been as outstanding but not for episodes I, II and III, which soundtracks are even better than the ones in the original three for me. It's clear that the hate of the time caused this. But still, it surprises me when they are such masterpieces.

Studio Binder: *Starts talking about Up* Me: So you about to get me crying during a movie analysis video? Is that what we're doing today?

Not a film, but the Undertale OST by Toby Fox is probably one of the best examples of leitmotifs I know of His use of leitmotifs is so well done that people who haven’t even played the games can form connections between different characters and locations

Every Studio Binder I watch makes me think "this is the best one" and I immediately want to share and enjoy with loved ones, turning them on to the brilliant layering of cinema, from light to sound to story. Thank you. You may be the best thing on the internet.

love how you can break down these things into short and concise videos

What Spielberg is talking about at 2:55 is that sometimes the shark shows up without the leitmotif, but the leitmotif does not once show up without the shark

Currently learning music theory, and I’m loving seeing the sheet music on screen!

I watched the composer of the Craig James Bond talk about using the leitmotif to introduce him in Casino Royal. Nothing regarding the John Barry theme turns up until he's at the casino and says his name, then a short phrase in input. Throughout the film, you never get the whole leitmotif, he just adds another phrase to what has come before with each archetypical "Bond moment", right up until the last moment of the film, when the brass virtually yells the first notes of it as the screen goes to black, and then it's there in all its glory, ready for the next film. It's a very clever way to reboot the character yet still have a solid foot in the better bits of the past.

Now if this isn't the best KZfaq channel about filmmaking, I don't know which one is. Thanks a lot guys! I've been learning from you for the past 2 years ;)

Up's Leitmotif was sooo good that a short recollection of it actually makes me tear up.

The UP motif brings me to tears!

Bond films are unique in that each one has its own original song for the intro, and then the composer has to build in those melodic recalls throughout the picture to varying levels. Each film's exclusive song basically becomes its own macro Leitmotif score. Not sure I can think of another example of that!

Another amazing lesson!. Would love to see a behind the scenes on how you put these all together . Love them

Thanks for this Inspiring presentation about the Leitmotif. I understand more his Signification. I understand that the Theme Score is the Soul of the Movie. The Leitmotif is the Soul of the Character, the Identity of the Movie. Brilliant!

I've heard the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words", and now you've turned it into "a good melody is worth a thousand words". Point taken, but I think such phrases underestimate the power of words. From a simple quote such as "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way" to Quint's USS Indianapolis speech, the right combination of words can also convey more than either pictures or melodies.

Beethoven was very good with Leitmotif. A famous one is the first four notes of his 5th Symphony, first movement. His 3rd, 4th, 6th and 9th Symphonies use well known themes. Bruchner's 5th is the basis for the Seven Nation Army theme.

Hunchback of notre dame is my favorite example of a leitmotif

We spent a couple of lessons learning about leitmotif in our music class, I still had no clue what it was about. I watch one Studiobinder video about the same thing, I understand it completely

This is a really helpful video to hear the sense of music. Not only leitmotif to tell stories, but every medium that has different sense or feel to capture time.

You are really amazing! Words fail me to describe how many times you have saved me and brought me hope and knowledge. Your work saves and will save many movie lovers like me. Tks again.

That scene where Ellie passes her Adventure book to Carl. Instant tears again.

What this video does not show is how the vast majority of films do *not* do this anymore, at least in the past 20 years, and I think that is a real loss to movie music. Hopefully it will return properly some day.

Another brilliant guide from you, guys. I'm really happy that I once subscribed to your channel!

The Shining opening scene has a wonderful example of Setting leitmotif.

Thank you for opening my eyes for those details. I am a junior game developer and have still so much to learn and I learn so much from your videos too about how to entertain people ♥

The scene from tenet trucks in place,chef kiss

Let's just all go ahead and agree: When you want to demonstrate exceptional compositional technique in music, you just can't go wrong with John Williams.

My favorite leitmotif is definitely the responsibility theme from the original spiderman movies. Great video

brilliantly explained! cineastes like me have known about leitmotif in movies we watched, but I certainly could not fully describe it. thank you.

The last darth vader theme, in his death and redemption, is in a major key, while till that point had been always in a minor key.

You didn't mention Once Upon A Time In The West. It doesn't get any better than that. ❤️

As an concept- and game-artist, i really must say, it depends on the theme. Well, it's kind of an mix actually, imagery and sound. On my projects (speciall during my studytime) i've allways sayed, the impact of my visuals depends on the sound that i'm useing. Sound/music for it self is emotional, but the image get's mor strength by sound/music. Whenever i designing something, i've got some matching sound in the background, to the image/theme i'm working on. By this way, i can say "yeah, yes, this image works, this is gonna going pretty cool".

Wow, I learn about leitmotif long time ago but this is the most detail and simplest way to explain. Thank you for the video

I am so grateful to Studiobinder for so many reasons, for these great videos and for proving me with a template to write my screenplay. Such wonderful, professional people.

John Williams is the real master of this technique...

Brilliant video! A script is the body of a movie, editing its clothes and make up, characters are movie's blood vessels, a story is its heart and the music is the soul of every movie! Thx! Subscribed definitely!

I know this isn't a film, but Genshin Impact has some of the best examples of this, there's subtle leitmotifs in every region's soundtrack that ties back to the main theme. Yu Peng Chen is such a master at his craft. Please check out Genshin's music even if you're not interested in the game, it's some life changing stuff.

Leitmotifs is a short recurring musical phrase. They are crucial in cinema. They are used in Characters - highlight characters and their traits. What kind of character they are, what side they are on. Settings - highlight settings and their moods. Emotions - highlight/elevate emotions and their meanings. What the character or characters are feeling in that scene/moment. Leitmotifs are guides to feelings, musical tunes are that repeated severally. Idea. It can be Evolutionised as well. A tune that will foreshadow the character's turn in rhe future. A call back but for music.

Thanks for the research, the quality and for explaining so clearly this topic. I learned a lot! ❤

You guys are explain things very effectively and short. Those subjects would be explained in hours buy you guys can make it in 10 minutes. Also with good telling and examples.

Another home run hit right out of the park.

You included some excellent selections in this overview.

We talked about this in my sound design class today and because of this video I was prepared 💪🏾. Thank you Studio Binder

I am studying Masters of Semiotics, and this explanation is amazingly helpful, simple and comprehensive, thanks for the great work.

just cryed in this video in the Up part 😭

Also should be there leitmotif of Joker in The Dark knight ! totally love it ❤ unforgettable

I love your videos! Your channel makes me appreciate and love film even more! I discovered the channel while I had Covid and was addicted ever since! so thank you so much for helping me get thru quarantine.. can’t wait to see what videos will come next :)) 💗

TLOTR and HP nailed it perfectly! Period.

Always a pleasure

How about Sam Raini's Spiderman... like we feel Spiderman's feelings through the music. We can tell either he is dancing through the air or the man is depressed.

I’m proud of myself for instantly recognizing the Grand Budapest Hotel theme when he was explaining what a Leitmotif was

what i have learnt am going to be a great film maker because i have a good teacher, you are really a good teacher

Up music gets me every time! 🥺

Yelena Belova’s theme is the latest great character leitmotif I’ve heard, I screamed hearing it in Hawkeye’s series when she appeared

Whenever I say this word, I feel very fancy.

why am i crying at studiobinder video

Erratum at 9:35. Rogue Nation is from 2015

i love your channel so much its helping me to write my script

That's what I was searching for

Dear studiobinder Thanks for teaching me film technics and film making. Thank you for guideing me and other aspirents Loads of love from India, Unnikrishnan

nice final quote

Leitmotif in a nutshell: Extremely emotional part of a song that has like 90% of the community Hooked. Examples: Bury the light, Devil may cry 5 or Requiem Leitmotif - Ultrakill

I learnt something today...even though I knew about this ..I didn't know why I was not using it...

Wow never thought that it was such a fundamental concept for movie too. In a game the equivalent to 1&2 would be a Character BGM and Area BGM the 3 not so sure, maybe a theme song? since it's like the most critical piece in soundtrack. 4 is like a fundamental of reusing track.

This vid is very entertaining and insightful. Salute.

You guys should start including animation techniques and stuff! The same rules probably apply though.

5:32 magical moment

I love that in the Book of Boba Fett when Fett is talking about needing some muscle you can hear the opening bass recorder and immediately know The Mandalorian is coming

Trying to figure out the score of my horror short I’ll be filming in a few months. Y’all posted this right on time!

It's really helpful, thanks for the information.

Love you Studiobiner ❤️

John Williams is the king of leitmotifs. No argument.

Who are you people and why do you keep teaching us all this great stuff???

Thanks for teaching us

These videos are so damn good! Love how you teach. Very informative and visual.

great explanation

As always, perfection

My favorite leitmotif is in the sitcom Friday Night Dinner, they play Fot I Hose by Casiokids whenever there is a problem lol

It would be fun to change the motifs and watch the scenes with them switched. IE: the Hobbiton theme over Mordor, Elven themes over Hobbits, Mordor over Rohan etc etc

Absolutely wonderful!!

Let's not forget about the leitmotif in Close Encounter of the 3rd Kind.