Everybody talks about tone when it comes to filmmaking because it's one of the most important aspects of storytelling and music is one of the biggest modulators of tone.

Hey there, I'm Thomas Torrey, filmmaker in Fort Mill and I'm here to help NextLens filmmakers.

When we talk about music in film, we're either talking about the original score or songs that we might feature in the film.

And when you marry that with an image, you instantly change the shape of your story.

You make associations, you control emotional responses, you establish pace and setting, all with your musical choices.

No music is often an appropriate creative choice, or minimal music, or sometimes an upbeat percussive sound, or a happy guitar, or sad piano.

All of these things communicate tone that your story might need.

Collaborate with composers and music supervisors and be open to musical ideas that may be different than what you first imagined.

You never know how a piece of music may shape the tone of your scene until you try it out in the edit.

For more production resources and information about short film submissions, check out scetv.org/nextlens.