Potential Documentary Opening Songs

Today I'm going to be looking at different music in which I could use potentially use in my documentary production. I'm looking for a song to open my documentary (although this is not certain yet as I may use a non-diegetic voice over to open my production), I'm looking for a song to play during the middle part of my documentary, either to link clips together or to play quietly in background whilst I interview and focus on someone else (this song may be the same as the opening song or it may be different, I'm not too sure yet) and last but not least I want a song to end my documentary, giving my audience time to reflect and consume the information they've just received. In the blog post I will researching song in which I can specifically use for to open my documentary.

Opening Song Ideas:

Hey, Soul Sister-
(click here to listen)
I think this song would be a nice opening piece to my documentary. It's happy and uplifting but at the same time quite peaceful and soothing. As my documentary focuses on a liver condition I don't want the music to be too intense as illnesses can be a sensitive topic. I like the fact that the song has a positive, happy vibe to it as it doesn't treat my documentary topic as sad and emotion, educating the audience that's illness can be resolved and treated.

Skinny Love-
(click here to listen)
This song is different to the previous song in which I looked at, as this is more emotional and in someways depressing. Like I said earlier my documentary idea can be seen as quite a sensitive topic and therefore maybe this song would fit nicely, however it depends how I want to present my documentary to my audience- do I want to present it as positive, focusing on how incredible the staff at Birmingham Children's Hospital are or do I want to present it as sad and emotional, focusing more on the illness itself? I like how this song has a slight instrumental at the start as it gives the audience time to think and take in the images and footage they are seeing.

A Drop in the Ocean-
(click here to listen)
Again this song is more emotional, giving the audience a chance to reflect on what they are seeing. Unlike 'Skinny Love' this song immediately opens with lyrics, which can be a good thing as it gets the audiences attention straight away. I personally think that this song has too may lyrics at the start and therefore I may not use it for opening song choice.

Hall of Fame-
(click here to listen)
This song shocked me as I didn't think it would be a good choice to open my documentary with, however after listening to it several times I came to the realisation that the opening instrumental part of the song would work quite well as it's uplifting but at the same time reflective. The lyrics that later follow, in my opinion are too intense and harsh for the topic I'm dealing with and therefore if I did decide to use this song I would probably cut it once the instrumental part has finished.

Silence-
(click here to listen)
I believe that the lyrics in this song link nicely to the documentary topic. The tone of the song is quite powerful but at the same time emotional, combining the powerful, positive messages from the consultants at the hospital, with the emotional, heartbreaking stories of the patients in the hospital and therefore this song may work quite well, however I think there are other songs that may work better.

Sad Song-
(click here to listen)
This is a delicate song, and therefore may work well, however like I previously said it depends on how I want to present my documentary- positively or emotionally (or both). To me the opening of this song has some sort of magical aspect to it, which may work nicely as it may represent the unbelievable work the doctors, consultants, nurses etc. put in to the hospital and patients which they look after.

Keep Your Head Up-
(click here to listen)
This is very happy, energetic song which will be good to create a positive opening vibe. The lyrics also link to positivity and pride, however the opening lyrics not so much. I was thinking that I could cut out the opening and go straight into the chorus, however this might create an abrupt sound, making my documentary look a bit rushed and messy. This song may work better during the middle part of my documentary however I'm still not too sure.

Greatest Day-
(click here to listen)
I like this song a lot as it's delicate and simple with a calm opening. Initially it opens with an instrumental which like I've mentioned before allows the audience to reflect and think, giving them time to get fully involved and engaged with the documentary itself. The lyrics that follow the instrumental are positive but still remain calm and soothing giving a mixture of vibes- uplifting yet emotional.

Something I Need-
(click here to listen)
Like the previous song, this is another one which I really like. It's slow to start with, which is good to get the audience into the documentary, and then it picks up later on. The problem with this is that when the chorus picks up and the music becomes more upbeat, it's about 1 minute into the song, which is too long for my opening piece, however a solution to this could be using this song again later on during the middle part of my documentary, but this is something I would need to trial and test. I also think that the some of the lyrics in this song link nicely to my overall topic.

Beautiful Soul-
(click here to listen)
This song is slightly more uplifting than some of the others, and I like the overall beat and I think it would work well within my documentary, however I'm not too sure about the lyrics and I don't know if the overall tune is a bit 'boy band-ish'