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Film & Television vocabulary · Sound and Music

Score

Meaning in film & television, with examples

/skɔː/nounCore term

In film & television, score means: The original music composed specially for a film or series to support its emotions, rhythm and story.

In Turkish: film müziği, özgün müzik, beste

How it is used

A composer writes or composes the score, and an orchestra or musicians record it. The verb score means to write music for a film: she scored three films last year. Awards use Best Original Score.

Example sentences

  1. The score is mostly piano and strings, which keeps the drama quiet and personal.

  2. We're temping the cut with music until the composer delivers the score.

Common collocations

  • original score
  • film score
  • compose the score
  • orchestral score
  • temp score
  • soundtrackThe music used in a film or series, often released as an album. Technically it also means the whole recorded audio of a film: dialogue, effects and music.
  • sound designThe creative work of creating, choosing and shaping all the sounds of a film so that they support the story and the atmosphere.
  • editingThe work of choosing, ordering and joining shots so that they tell the story with the right rhythm, emotion and meaning.
  • nominationBeing officially chosen as one of the candidates for an award, such as an Oscar, a BAFTA or an Emmy.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Sound and Music

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