Transcript Music in Film: Fundamentals of Theory and Technical Process

Music in Film:
Fundamentals of Theory and
Technical Process
N519
Traditional Post production music tasks
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Locked picture to composer
Spotting session
Timing notes created
Music composition
Orchestration
Copying Parts
Song clearances
Recording of music
Mixing of Music
Spotting session
 First Step of scoring process
 With director and/or producer, deciding on placement of cues
Cue = section of music
 Where is music needed?
 What does the music do?
 Communication is key
Music Editor’s role
 Notes from spotting session
 Create temp track
 Generate cue list
 Placement, duration, description, etc. of each cue
 Aid in recording/syncing process
 Aid in dubbing process
 Combining the music, dialog, and sound effects
Orchestrator’s role
 Composer often generates a reduced sketch
 Like a ‘map’ of the cue
 May or may not specify instrumentation/doublings
 Sketch could be a MIDI sequence
May or may not be transcribed to paper; could be handled entirely in MIDI format
 Orchestrator fleshes out the sketch
 Expert knowledge of instrumentation and capabilities, idiomatic devices
 Work largely depends on the state of the delivered sketch
 May work in notation/sequencer/both
Modern Technology Changes the Process
 Advent of MIDI sequencing and non-linear computer editing have made the
process more fluid, flexible.
 Visual editing can be done until very late in the process, so sound and music
must be more flexible.
 May not work with timing notes, but rather with actual edits of scenes in
production.
 Music is sequenced along with picture, often using high quality samples of acoustic
instruments (orchestral, ethnic, jazz, etc.).
 Director hears what the score will sound like, rather than a piano reduction of a few
themes.
 MIDI score may or may not be replaced by live players, or some percentages of key
instruments may be replaced.
Composition
 Traditional Functions:
 Emotional Signifier: Draws us into the world of the film; taps
into the invisible, inaudible, emotional content of the story.
 Continuity: smooth over gaps in editing
 Narrative cueing: Helps audience orient to the scene; for
example, a low tremolo in the strings signals danger on the
other side of the door…
 Narrative unity: Employ repetition, variation, and
counterpoint to support the narrative; Leitmotif
Composition
 Descriptive
 “Mickey Mouse-ing”
 Music follows the on screen action closely.
 Older, more traditional approach
 Evocative
 Music draws on the emotional subtext of the scene.
 More subtle; allows the director/composer to underline
more complex emotional content.
Composition
 Melodic Motifs
 Harmonic/Melodic tonality
Tonality/Scale type Description
Major
Joyous, triumphant, heroic, romantic, etc.
Minor
Darkness, danger, sorrow, etc.
Whole tone
Dreamy, ethereal
Chromatic
Tension, suspense, fear, action
Pentatonic
Americana, Asia, blues
Octatonic
Action, suspense, unusual
Modal
Wide variety; Lydian (#4) popular in film scoring
Composition
 More harmonic variety
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Diatonic and Chromatic
Modal harmony
Pandiatonicism
Ethnic Scales
Polytonality
Quartal Harmony
Twelve Tone
Harmonic pedal point and ostinato
Tension and release
Composition
 Rhythm
 Using change in tempo, meter, and rhythmic pattern to accentuate tension, drama, or
suspense:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: fight sequences
LOTR: Isengard theme has more ‘mechanical’ rhythm
 Polyrhythms
 Aleatoric passages
Syncing Music to Picture
 Watch cue several times
 Get sense of tempo
 Sync points
 Decide on sync method
 Click Track
 Clock
 Punches and Streamers
 Wild
Syncing Music to Picture
 Punches and Streamers
 At a sync point, music editor would literally punch a hole in
the frame where the sync occurs.
 To anticipate, a line would be scraped on the film for 3, 4, or
5 feet (2, 2 2/3, or 3 1/3 seconds)
 Conductor would see vertical line move from left to right of
the screen, culminating in the flash of light from the punch
 Useful with a skilled conductor; allows for more flexible and
expressive tempos.
 Not practical if there are a lot of sync points, or if the music
is fast, or rhythmically difficult.
Syncing Music to Picture
 Click track
 Measured in frames per beat (FPB)
 FPB indicated in pairs of numbers:
24-0, 12-7, 18-3
 Second number is 1/8th of a frame
 With a little math, you can convert BPM to FPB:
Figure number of frames in a minute:
24fps x 60 seconds = 1440 frames/minute
Divide by BPM to get number of frames per beat:
1440fpm/120bpm = 12 FPB
 With computers and sequencers, tempos can be expressed in either
format.
Syncing Music to Picture
 Click track (cont)
 Best used when
Tempo is fairly constant
Tempo is fast
Rhythm is complex
Many sync points to hit
 Can be variable, to allow for changes in tempo
 Auricle Tempo Processor: http://www.auricle.com/
(btw, one of the WORST websites I’ve ever seen)
Syncing Music to Picture
 Clock
 Conductor simply watches a large clock, or the SMPTE time code
 Only needs to know duration of the cue
 Best when music is relatively flexible, not many sync points
 Wild
 No sync reference
 Best for short, non-synced cues
Syncing Music to Picture
 Sequencing
 Can play along with visual cue, with or without click
 Music can be altered to fit:
Tempo/meter changes to hit sync points
 High quality instrument sample libraries allow director to hear realistic mock-up in real-time.
 Notation can be generated from MIDI mockup for live performace and recording.
Songs and Source Music
 When score is comprised entirely of repurposed (or commissioned) songs or
pieces, it is called a compilation score, or song score
 Pulp Fiction, Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick
More than Movies…
 Music for Media
 Television
 Video games
 Multimedia
 Web
 MORE…