Behind thee scenes: Seven Samurai

All the sets in Seven Samurai were from previous villages, or were build from scratch. By using good camera angles, and transitions, the photographers were able to make the scenes look like they are connected together. An example of this, is when one of the samurai set off a false alarm. The other samurai run from left to right. How they shot it, it seemed like it was all done in one take. During the scenes that the samurai were helplessly outnumbered, it was night. Due to this dark lighting, it seemed alot more gloomy for the farmer's/the samurai. The photographers also showed the opposite of this. When the samurai actually had a chance, the lighting was alot brighter, and seemed more hopeful. The screenplay was made by Akira Kurosawa, and Shinobu Hashimoto. I think they did a great job with the screenplay. It had alot of theatrical elements to it. Even though it was a great screenplay, i think that the best job was done with music.

The music to Seven Samurai was all an origional soundtrack. The composer of the music is Fumio Hayasaka. When he wanted to make the music lighter, he used strings and a little brass. When Hayasaka wanted the music to seem alot more dark, he used brass. This made it seem more tense, and you get drawn into it more. The entire movie is basically around one theme. They just use different instruments during those scenes to create different affects. By using only one theme, the audience didnt focus on the music as much, but still used the music to get the feeling of the scene.