On an unrelated note, I have a new piece called “Rift” being premiered by the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra this coming Friday.
It’s a brutal short piece (ca. 5’00”) for chamber orchestra. Very intense and, well, brutal. To give you a sense of it, it starts with the timpani playing solo with the indication “Like war drums. Fill the hall.” Should be fun!!!
Here’s information about the concert.
One of the many role a film score plays is to help the structure of the film.
This is done in a general way through the use of melody. I find that for the most part using traditional formal structures and tunes that play over scenes (as opposed to shifting along with cuts and actions) tends to be perfectly suited for creating a sense of introduction or conclusion.
Tone is also very important. This is hard to explain and will vary for every film, but an example would be to get a storytelling feel or tone to the music. You know what I mean.
A great example of music being integral to the feeling of conclusion is the ending of Raiders 3.
I started the clip a little bit early to lead to the start of the conclusion. The obvious start of the ending is when the Raider’s theme begins. It starts once Sean Connery has said his last, insightful line and gives that little look. The music comes in with the B section of the theme which is great as it saves the primary theme when Indy takes off after Marcus and the dialogue is done. Awesome.
All through this scene the melody plays right through the dialogue. This is not underscore that hits important words and pauses, it’s a melodic conclusion to the film.
But what about the music for when they come out Petra, where the Grail was kept? The melody there is the family theme for Indy and his father. Is that giving us a feeling of conclusion to the film? It is also very melodic and plays right through.
And what about earlier as they run through falling rocks to make their way out to safety. The music plays the Grail theme. Is that part of the ending since it is melodic and not actually following the action?
I originally thought that it was when they exited Petra and Indy and Henry had a little talk about illumination that the conclusion music began. But now, I think perhaps it actually starts as they look at the knight and Indy says “come on dad”.
Two fancy words you may or may not know.
Diegetic: source music and sound that is being generated by actions on screen, like actors singing or a band playing in the background.
Non-diegetic: underscore.
http://filmsound.org/terminology/diegetic.htm
To write good film scores means to be integral to the story telling. So in order to be a great film composer it’s a good idea to study what you can about story, specifically screen writing. Because a novel and a screenplay are two different beasts.
Here are some tips from master storyteller Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, Some Like it Hot, The Seven Year Itch) has this to say about screen writing.
What does this mean to us in film score terms?
I have my own ideas but I would be curious to see what others think first. Leave a comment.
(List from this website: http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/270)
The video below is an oldie but a goodie. But first…
Writing music is not just about money, we all know this. If it is your motivation, then you are in the wrong business. We first work on low budget productions to build our reel, hone our chops and build relationships, and in those circumstances our fee will match the production’s budget. It is part of paying your dues.
But obviously at some point we must decide what we are worth, how low we can go and still have a roof over our heads.
Because there are essentially two reasons to work on a film:
Ideally both can happen at once, and that’s the best situation of course. The question is though, by accepting a very low fee, or giving away some of your services for free, are you devaluing yourself, your music and film music in general?
It is a thorny question and the subject of much debate. I think it’s important to give a high value to what we do, but watching the video, something came to my mind…
We should be the full price CD, the highlights and the filet, NOT the discount bin, the simple trim or taco stand and expect a high fee.
Some more great orchestral pieces worth our attention
I put Stravinsky’s famous pieces because they may be famous for composers but perhaps not so much for film makers.
Recently I introduced a director friend of mine to Howard Hanson and he loved it! He is a true film music lover and he immediately saw how much Hanson influenced certain composers.
Film music these days has a very different sound than in the past. That’s a good thing of course, and I am certainly not judging. Music must progress evolve and change. (I think it is perhaps a bit too homogenized at the moment…)
I am still very much drawn to the musicianship and craftsmanship of the golden age composers like Korngold, Salter, Frankel, Herrmann, Bernstein, Goldsmith and of course Williams.
Am I correct in saying that we should aim to make music evolve and grow without going backwards or dumbing it down? It seems like film music should be great music as well as great film music.
The great pedagogue Shinishi Suzuki once said (and I paraphrase from memory here) “We are not born knowing quality, we must be in the presence of it regularly to recognize it.” So here I start my listening list for film directors with just a few scores off the top of my head, avoiding the most obvious ones like “The Planets” – although it still rocks!
In a film there are cues that are meant to carry more of the scene and others which are truly background cues, transitional in nature and potentially less interesting musically. This is something we all know, but recently I found another reason to be aware of this I had not previously considered. But first, let’s discuss a few obvious reasons this affects your process of composition.
Knowing which cues are prominent and which ones aren’t is important for understanding the musical (and dramatic) pacing of the film. The first rule of Art is Contrast after all, and you can’t go full throttle all the time either. For proper storytelling with music you need to build to the pay-off, you need the calm before he storm etc… I expect this is all pretty straight forward right?
This is useful to keep in mind when composing for a few reasons. First the most obvious ones:
This is all good, but on a recent project I realized something else about this whole thing…
Directors can’t see into the future.
Directors can’t read minds.
So I might be writing some cue with the goal in mind of creating the calm ‘before the storm”, slowing building, pacing myself before the pay-off in the next cue or the cue after that.
And then I present this transitional cue to the director and for them it’s just boring. I explain that there will be a big moment and they say.
“Right. Well, I don’t really know where it’s going yet so let’s wait until you send that over then we’ll see.”
And this makes total sense because they can’t predict what you are going to write by seeing into the future or reading your mind.
Furthermore, first impressions being what they are, the director’s impression is that this music is boring. With some directors this is not a problem, they might be able to take that leap of imagination with you. But for the other 50% off directors (the more technically minded ones) you are better off not relying on their imagination.
The solution it seems to me is to wait a bit longer before you send off any music and combine multiple cues if needed in order present the whole sequence including the big moment / pay-off. This will allow the director to get a sense of the whole, including pacing and all that, and make a much stronger first impression for the music.
Or write the pay-off first and present that first, then work backwards to build to it. This will depend on the music and your work process for these cues though, but it has a lot of impact when you present your ideas. This has the benefit of being a less time-consuming approach that allows to quickly see how the director reacts to the important musical moment. Then you can work back from it with more confidence.
And now everyone wins.
-Alain
I had great intentions to keep this site more up to date with analysis of music and film scenes, but things got a bit busy. And in the meantime this site has gotten more and more visited and popular.
So I have been thinking to provide small thoughts on film scoring in a more manageable format requiring less time and preparation, but still providing valuable insights.
I will start that asap, but in the meantime, here’s a look at what kept me busy for a bit: I was orchestrator and conductor on the big budget film “Elysium” by director Neill Bloomkamp (“District 9″.) The film stars Matt Damon and Jodie Foster and is coming out in August.
I was in London at the famous Abbey Road in London conducting the orchestra there for three days. It was my first time there and as you can expect, it was a wonderful experience. Here are some pictures. 
This is my workspace.
Although I use plenty of music technology, my writing room is set-up to have lots of space for good old-fashioned paper.
It is as rich, bright and energetic as possible with my one small window. I used to like it darker but tastes change. I am no longer a fan of dark, gloomy studios for writing music.
Now I think the next iteration of my writing space will have lots of windows if possible, as long as there is nothing outside to take my mind away from my writing. Trees, I’d like if it was only trees on the other side of my windows…
I usually sketch on the big board in the back to various degrees of completion then bring it over to the smaller board where I do mockups and fix-ups and whatnots.
What I’d like to add next is a writing board on the desk that I can write more easily on. That would make writing the inevitable changes as I do my mockups more convenient. Right now I use the side of the desk. That works fine, but not as elegant.
This is not as barebones as John Williams’ workspace but certainly less techno-heavy than Hans Zimmer’s studio.
