Getting the Score

One thing that became clear while working on Silkboy was that melody and the function of a scene are intertwined.
Some scenes are more important than others in a movie: some scenes are big, important, flashy scenes, while others are transitory, functional scenes that take you from point A to point B so [...]

Hey there, I got offered to write a guest post at the popular film composer website Score Cast.
I wrote a post about finding form during spotting.
So check it out here!
Alain

Hello All,
This is what I wrote today on my Composition Journal, where I am writing about my work scoring a feature animated film.
I am currently working on the musical themes for the film, looking for inspiration everywhere and jotting down a ton of ideas.
As I do this work I always refer to a concept for [...]

Structure is a crucial element of beauty, and film is no different. As I wrote in the previous post, a music cue can do more than just highlight action or represent the subtext; it can also play a large role in clarifying or even creating structure.
To that end, here are some questions to ask during [...]

During the spotting session it is time to decide where music cues start and end. There are many reasons to bring in music, many points of entry.
From on “The Track: a guide to contemporary film scoring.” by Fred Karlin and Rayburn Wright.
In general, music starts most effectively at a moment of shifting emphasis. This might [...]

One of the important uses of music in film is to provide tension and momentum.  This is especially useful when the tension is in the subtext and not in the visuals or dialogue.
Jurrasic Park are a great example of this.
At 55:27 the character of Dennis Nedry begins the shutting down of the computer systems to [...]

What is the relationship between music and all other sounds on a film’s soundtrack? Should the composer and director consider one when working on the other?
It seems that the answer should be an obvious “yes”, but I was watching one of last summer’s blockbusters and at one point there was a foot chase accompanied by [...]

“Cast Away” starring Tom Hanks is an interesting and unusual example of spotting.
The film has no underscore until the final act. None!
If you remember the film starts in the holiday season and there is source music there. You know, holiday music.
Then there is that amazingly well done plane crash which brings Tom Hanks to his [...]

How much melody can there be under dialogue?
It is common for directors to fear that melody will get in the way of the dialogue. This is an understandable concern, of course, since the coherence of the story relies in large part on the dialogue being assimilated by the audience.
Anything that gets in the way of [...]