Words to Describe Film Scenes and Get the Right Musical Mood
When working with a film composer, it’s important to accurately convey your artistic vision and the moods of your film.This keeps everyone on your team on the same page because moods translate through different art forms and have the important role of summarizing what the characters are feeling and what the audience is experiencing, too.
How do your characters feel in the scene? What do you want your audience to feel? Having clear answers and a vision will help you describe the moods to others. Is the scene haunting or heart-warming? Foreboding or inspiring? Below is a list of common adjectives to help describe your scenes in your project. They’re categorized by traditional genre. Use this list to keep your creative team on target so that everyone knows what you are intentionally (or unintentionally) going for. Here is a sample of the first two categories. For the full list download the PDF here.
Happy / Comedic Moods
Beautiful
Bouncy
Bright
Buoyant
Calm
Campy
Carefree
Caring
Celebratory
Cheeky
Cheerful
Comforting
Confident
Cool
Curious
Delicate
Delighted
Dreamy
Elated
Elegant
Enchanted
Excited
Festive
Flowing
Fresh
Friendly
Fun
Funny
Glorious
Graceful
Grand
Groovy
Happy
Heartwarming
Heavenly
Hopeful
Inspiring
Jolly
Joyful
Kind
Light
Lively
Motivational
Peaceful
Playful
Pleased
Positive
Relaxing
Serene
Silly
Simple
Sincere
Soft
Soothing
Spirited
Sprightly
Sublime
Subtle
Sweet
Thoughtful
Triumphant
Uplifting
Warm
Action Moods
Aggressive
Angry
Anguished
Animated
Anticipating
Anxious
Apprehensive
Bold
Booming
Brave
Bright
Building
Busy
Cautious
Celebratory
Chaotic
Climactic
Confident
Confrontational
Confused
Contemplative
Cool
Crazy
Curious
Dangerous
Dark
Deep
Determined
Disenchanted
Disillusioned
Dissonant
Doubtful
Dramatic
Driving
Dynamic
Ecstatic
Edgy
Energetic
Epic
Escalating
Excited
Explosive
Fast
Fiery
Flowing
Forceful
Foreboding
Frantic
Glorious
Graceful
Grand
Gritty
Gutsy
Hard
Heavy
Hectic
Helpless
Heroic
Hopeful
Hopeless
Inspiring
Intense
Intricate
Lively
Lost
Loud
Moving
Mysterious
Mystical
Noble
Painful
Pompous
Powerful
Primitive
Proud
Pulsating
Purposeful
Pushy
Raw
Rebellious
Regal
Reverent
Rhythmic
Rough
Serious
Soaring
Striking
Strong
Surprising
Suspenseful
Suspicious
Swaggering
Sweeping
Tension
Thrilling
Tough
Tragic
Triumphant
Uplifting
Vengeful
Vibrant
Warm
Whimsical
Wild
Wondrous
Worried
