A great and recurring example of that is the use of the song “Someone To Watch Over Me” in the Bond films. This can be easily shown in the patterns of the Bond films with repetitive uses of two things:
1. A key involving a woman
2. Bond using his watch for something.
The key business started in the very first Bond film, Dr. No with Bond getting a key from a rental car from an admiring hotel lobby clerk.
This same idea is also used in Thunderball.
This thematic element is used right up to present day as Bond presents a room key to a hotel clerk in Quantum Of Solace. And yes, the QOS segment involves the song “Someone To Watch Over Me” producer Michael Wilson gets into the act as he observes Bond from the hotel lobby.
Variations on this is used in other Bond films such as Bond grabbing the master key from a passing maid in Goldfinger.
This moves to a shot of Jill Masterson "watching" over Goldfinger's card game opponent through high powered binoculars.
The Spy Who Love Me with Bond handing the keys to a van over to the Barbara Bach character. The watch as a prop device to “Someone To Watch Over Me” used in the pre-credit scene in From Russia With Love with Red Grant using his tricked-out choking wire coming out of his wristwatch. This is also used in Live and Let Die with Bond using his super-magnetic watch to pull down the zipper on the Italian Babe’s dress.
In Quantum Of Solace, scenes in the film sync to the album “A Night At The Opera” by the British rock band Queen. A great clue to this is provided by the filmmakers by naming the music track to the Opera scene “Night At The Opera.”
Some of the placement of the music is easy to figure out such as the car chase opening to the song “I’m In Love With My Car.” Naturally, the opera scene to Bohemian Rhapsody is another given. I did a complete and seamless sync of the music from the opening of the film to Bond’s bedding of Strawberry Fields. Just because I’ve sequence things together doesn’t make it correct. Deleted scenes or cuts can mean I’m after something that no longer exists or my ideas of what the filmmaker was after doesn’t match their ideas. Sometimes it’s pretty easy to match things up with a certain level of confidence. On music that is a bit complicated or abstract (such as Queen’s music) it becomes harder.
A couple notes:
Some “syncers” make the rather poor assumption that a filmmaker will just use an album from beginning to end. First and foremost, they are making a film. The music needs to work for the scene not the other way around. Also, there are repeated themes that require a revisit of the same music (just like the film composer does for the official score). Need for use of repetitive syncs particularly the short songs. An example of that is the repeated use of “God Save The Queen for appearances of the terse authoritative M. Btw, Dame Judi Dench has played both Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria in film roles.
Additionally, shorter songs often get more use as the filmmaker can use them for transitions scenes or segments where the music is not the foremost element. So, while filmmakers do like to use all the music in an album some songs need to wait until there is an appropriate element of inspiration.
I have created a “highlights” video of the music syncs to the album. Sorry if some of the transitions are abrupt but I wanted to include as much as possible while still staying under YouTube’s 10 minute limit. As all songs are listed and shown in the order used, anyone could recreate the full sync for himself or herself.
Link to YouTube Video (including higher def image):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLB47EANB1w
