Emotional Connection with your Audience.

AFX Industrial (film scores)

It's the only thing I can do.

Hello everybody and Happy Halloween 2015! As you can see from the nominee laurel above, my recent score was nominated in the 'Best Original Film Score' category for a forty minute film called 'Bar Study'! This humbling recognition indicates that my scoring company are (hopefully) doing what they set out to do, and that is to move people.

It also indicates that my own focus in this particular discipline is coming across in the scores I write, helping people to connect emotionally with those scores. 

Without these accolades it's very hard to judge whether or not you're hitting the mark. Thank you Los Angeles Independent Film Festival.

The mechanics of scoring.

I often get asked 'how did you come up with these ideas?' or 'what inspires you?' I break it down into a few simple stages, but the first and most important thing is to have a good level of communication with the director. Communication is great although I don't necessarily need musical direction here, too much direction (as to what the minutia of the score should be) can easily stifle creativity, resulting in a self conscious score.

The much underrated and overlooked 'spotting session' is my favourite tool for getting a handle on what the director wants to hear. But the spotting session is little more than a decision on which frame the music cue should enter and which frame it should leave. Of course the director and I will decide if the score needs to be happy, sad or ominous etc. But the musical subtleties that straddle the line between emotions are always best left up to me to decide. 

It's also very hard to put certain emotions into words (which is really why we use music in films). Trying to quantify it all verbally would leave us with useless terminology such as 'half happy' or possibly 'half happy a quarter sad an eighth scary and an eighth happy'!

You should really leave ALL of the musical decisions up to the composer. If you don't feel you can trust the composer you have chosen with musical decisions, then don't put your film at RISK, fire them and move on. 

Amateur music is VERY easy to spot and very damaging to your film, especially if you want to be taken seriously as a film maker.

10 tell tale signs of a badly scored film:

1. No discernible thematic material.

2. No leitmotif/s.

3. Instruments used out of their range.

4. Failure to use irregular time signs.

5. No harmony.

6. Bad, even ugly part writing.

7. No modulating sequences.

8. No understanding of chord relations.

9. No modulation at all.

10. Terrible recording / mix.

A little bit about AFX Industrial (film scores)

My Company AFX Industrial (film scores) may not be the cheapest solution to getting your film scored, but you do get access to our cutting edge studio equipment - and all of our deep industry knowledge and experience. (Please check the credit list: http://www.dchewitt.com/credits.html). 

From TV spots for 'Chappie' (Neil Blomkamp's recent movie) to the MTV music awards to Premiers of major movies (The Dark Knight Rises). And most recently 'The Driving Dead' starring Michael Rooker from the hit TV show 'The Walking Dead' (directed by Gale Anne Hurd, Terminator/ Aliens). AFX's scores are everywhere.

Increasingly we are being contacted by serious film makers like you who have gone down the amateur composer route way too many times - did you know, festivals and broadcasters often reject a film based on the soundtrack alone? AFX were recently approached by a Hollywood publisher to help dig them out of a legal hole because their composer had lied about his ownership of the music he'd supplied for an entire (already broadcast) TV series! Ouch! 

Our reputation for being above board and understanding complicated, copyright and public domain issues precedes us! Of course, we take care of all of those legal loopholes for you too! 

If you have any doubts or questions about your score (legal or musical) then don't hesitate to contact AFX Industrial (film scores) mail@dchewitt.com and we'll see how we can help you!

Best wishes,

David.

AFX Industrial (film scores) 

http://dchewitt.com

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Cue Sheets ... What Are They?

AFX Industrial (film scores)

In this blog I'd like to get you up to speed with what cue sheets are, how they work and how they relate to you.

 

If you are a professional film maker then you will have licensed music for your productions on a number of occasions.  If you are new to licensing then please see my blog: 'Mozart is very, very dead'.

What exactly are cue sheets? 

I do like sharing my knowledge with you and again this is a grey area but one that needs to be discussed.  I hope you are up to speed with licensing music for your film or TV show, but after you have paid the composer then what do you do?  First I will explain what cue sheets are then I will go on to explain how the 'royalty free' model works and also how the term 'royalty free' is a misleading term.

So your film has just been broadcast on TNT or CBS or Channel 4 but did you fill in a cue sheet?  If the answer is no then you are about to make another faceless corporation like Sony even richer at the expense of your composer/s and you wouldn't want that ... would you?

Under the law, before they can broadcast your film or documentary, TV channels must purchase an obligatory music license from royalty collection agencies such as the PRS and ASCAP .  You fill in something called a cue sheet with all the details of the music cues in your film, and send it off to either one of these bodies depending on which country you are in.  Each country has its own body.

'By filling in a cue sheet you are supporting the people who supplied the music for your film'.

Royalty free?

Once you have filled in a cue sheet then a portion of the license fee that the TV channel pay to the royalty collection agency will be paid to the artists who own the music that appears in your film.

This is known as a 'Performance Royalty' and it can be pennies or it can be a larger sum depending on which channel and what time of day your film or documentary is broadcast.

The downside is, that if you don't fill in the cue sheet then eventually the performance royalty that should have been allocated to the artist will be divided up among the major record labels like Sony, EMI & Warner Brothers.  Surprising eh?  Surprising and grossly unfair.  Filling in a cue sheet correctly ensures the composers and musical artists get to keep this performance royalty, as they should.

But what is 'royalty free'?  Well if you see the words royalty free this simply means that you as the purchaser of the license to use a particular piece of music will pay no further royalties.  Don't worry, unless otherwise stated most pieces of music fall into this category.  However, the term 'royalty free' is a little misleading because as I mentioned earlier each time the program is shown the composers should get a royalty, it just wont be coming from your pocket.

It's estimated that between 70 - 90% of performance royalties never reach the composers or artists whose music drives TV and Radio ... This is usually due to cue sheet errors.  However, there is a solution called digital audio fingerprinting go here for more info, but it has yet to be adopted by the performing rights organizations.

Simply put, by filling in a cue sheet you are supporting the people who supplied the music for your film, and that has to be a good thing.

Any questions on this?  Please feel free to ask :0)

- David.

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Editing Trailers to Music.

AFX Industrial (film scores)

If you're not editing your trailer to music then what are you editing it to?

So far in my career one of the most successful trailers I've worked on has been viewed an astonishing twenty three million times on You Tube alone. But why are some trailers viewed millions of times while others get only a few hundred views? As the composer behind this trailer I'm very familiar with the music and this puts me in the unique position of being able to analyze just why this trailer has been so popular.

Every film maker wants to make an awesome, influential trailer so let's consider some of the fundamental qualities that transform a mediocre trailer into an awesome one. 

Approach I. Editing to silence

After many years of watching mediocre and amateur film trailers I can usually spot the trailers that have been edited in silence and had music added on top afterwards. The major problem with editing to silence is pacing. Have you ever noticed a metronome on top of a piano? A metronome simply helps a performer find the pace of a piece and the interval of the metronomic clicks are divided into BPMs (beats per minute). Of course, if a piece of music is played at the wrong speed by the performer then it leads to audience dissatisfaction ... 

One of the first things I discuss with any musician or composer I collaborate with is the speed or pacing of a piece of score. And, it is well known in musical circles that the rhythm of a selection of notes can often overshadow the importance of the actual notes themselves.

So here you are with a stack of footage for your trailer all shot in lovely high definition, but where do you start? How do you divide this footage up into specific chunks of time with the sole intent of pleasing an audience? You may decide to chop it into five second chunks, or you may not have a system at all, either way if you're editing to complete silence how can ever you be sure that it will have the impact you're looking for? 

What if you enjoy editing to background music (like the radio) and you inadvertently cut a few edits to the beat without even realizing it? The trouble with editing to your favourite radio station is that when you come to add music later, no matter how hard you try, the new music may not make any sense in conjunction with your trailer's pacing. Now let's look at the alternative, which is editing your trailer to music.

Approach II. Editing to music

Earlier I mentioned that a composer will often use a metronome to set the pace, and although a metronome can keep perfect time, editing your trailer to a metronome may not result in the desired effect. When music is discussed you'll often hear the words 'feel' and 'timing', when respected Jazz or Blues artists are mentioned it's often with a certain reverence to their sense of timing. For instance, a chap named WC Handy (great name) is considered the 'father of the Blues', but if we played a recording by him (if there are any) alongside a metronome I'm certain his timing would drift considerably. 

So, how can we say a great artist has good timing if, in reality, this is scientifically proven to be incorrect? This is one of the great paradoxes of music, when we say a famous and respected virtuoso musician has great timing what we interpret as 'great' is their ability to play around the beat. So, paradoxically, great timing is not the ability to play in time, it's the ability to play out of time in an empathetic, pleasing manner.   

Audiences respond to well timed entertainment. Trailers, comedy, music, the list is endless ... and generally if it's well timed then it will be more successful. If you really want to appeal to an audience you can apply a sense of timing to your trailer by editing it to a piece of music that has the 'feel' you are looking for ... Job done.

Of course, you need to have written permission (or a license) to use the piece of music you have chosen to edit to, if you don't (or are not sure) then beware as this may be a pointless exercise! 

Please go and take a look at my War Thunder Trailer. Notice how the editor has paid special attention to the timing of the Russian words that fall in and out of the frame. Notice how the words have motion, and observe how quite often the motion itself comes to rest on the beat, rather than allowing the words to appear on the beat. 

The editor is not only paying attention to the timing he is also editing around the timing (in the same way our virtuoso musician would play around with their timing). So, this effectively gives you two levels of timing variation. The first one is decided by the composer and is set in stone when the music is recorded. The second level of timing comes from a clever editor, who, much like a musician has an innate sense of rhythm which he uses to deepen the level of interest and audience attachment to the trailer.

Speed of light vs. speed of sound!

One fundamental editing error I see time and time again is the failure to understand that light waves travel faster than sound waves. Next time there is a thunder storm please stand at your window and observe the delay between the moment you see the lightning and the moment you hear the thunder.

Sometimes, especially if it is a very bright flash of lightning, the delay can easily be fifteen seconds or more! Now apply this principle to your trailer editing skills. Of course the delay between the light entering your eyes and the sound entering your ears will be milliseconds, but our senses are very sensitive, even at these speeds. 

How does this relate to editing a trailer? Good question! Well, let's imagine you want to edit a few cuts very tightly to a particular beat or sound within your trailer - but for some reason it doesn't seem to have the impact you're looking for ... If you have exhausted all other avenues to get it to work then maybe you need to consider light speed vs sound speed. 

Ok, what to do? Right, this is where you need to reverse your way of thinking for a moment. If you want the audio and the video event to coincide at EXACTLY the same time, then you must, effectively, put them out of time to do this! 

Now, the theory is fairly simple. We simply shift the audio a few milliseconds AHEAD of the video so now the two edit points APPEAR to coincide. But, like everything in film making it's an illusion, it's hyper reality. Light and sound cannot arrive at the same point at the same time (think how awesome thunder and lightning would be if it did). But, as film makers and composers we CAN make that happen, it's just another tool in our box which will ultimately impress our audience even more. 

Try it out on your awesome new trailer today!

Until next time - David.  

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Why use Pseudonyms?

AFX Industrial (film scores)

Many artists have pseudonyms they release work under, but why release music under a fantasy name? This may seem strange and counter intuitive, after all don't we work hard to make a name for ourselves? So why make use of a pseudonym at all?

 

 

 

Blue or Red?

Naturally when you push your art (music in my case) to different extremes, for the listener some of the results can be a little startling even disconcerting. It's all too easy for composers to become inadvertently associated with one particular genre or style of music, simply because the listener had only ever been exposed to a piece by the composer written in that particular style.

Let me simplify. For instance, if an artist  paints a canvas completely blue and sells a million copies, people may find it hard to come to terms with (or even believe) that the same artist has also painted another canvas completely red. No one buys it.

Now, the only way our artist can sell the red painted canvas is to create a pseudonym. Maybe their manager suggests that they simply adopt the pseudonym 'Red'. So now we have a new artist on the scene whose name is Red, who is selling a piece of art (also entitled 'red') which consists of the red canvas our artist painted way back in their blue stage. Now, under the pseudonym 'Red' the same artist sells a million copies …

There's an urban myth that horror writer Stephen King realized he had a passion for writing children's books. But what parent in their right mind would by a Stephen King book for their young, impressionable child? If this myth is true then your children are already reading Stephen King - just under a suitable pseudonym! Don't be afraid.

Quite often (every time in my case) it's the publisher that decides what our pseudonyms will be and this can often depend on the style of music and the territory they're selling it in. In fact over 90% of my income arrives from outside of the UK (where I live) that's just how the business has panned out for me so far. Talk to any other composer and I'm sure they'll have a favourite territory which they constantly sell in. 

Of course, some of my pseudonyms are tailored for selling to the larger continents (like America and Australia) and as far as my own name goes I generally save David C. Hëwitt for the film score credits. 

The Business of Pseudonyms

You often hear artists say 'I love creating music but really hate the business side', to me this doesn't make any sense. Every industry has a business side to it and if you don't embrace it you'll never fully embrace your chosen industry. Not being able to separate 'music' from 'business' is to me like not being able to separate driving a car from walking! It's hard to describe as the joy of both has to be experienced on a daily basis to be truly understood.

Pseudonyms are just another aspect of the business, they are like different brands or flavours. I may not  necessarily want to be associated with a particular type or style of music that my studio (AFX Industrial) has created. But I still need to sell it to a hungry market so a pseudonym can be the ideal way of concealing my true identity in a perfectly legitimate way. It's also very important not to dilute the authority that comes from appearing to specialize in one particular musical style. But, pseudonym or not, because I own the rights to EVERY piece of music that is created by my studio, I always have total access to these anomalous works - works that would normally be hidden from view. 

The music could be as diverse as traditional Greek wedding dances or lowest common denominator advertising music. Generally these are styles that I don't want to be directly associated with but still need to own the worldwide copyright to - so I can use them if and when they are called for. 

There is nothing more satisfying than the mixture of high level music (film scoring, classical arrangements) and business. I appreciate every transaction, global buyout or film I have ever worked on from both the artistic and business angle. When you can turn your art into something that people across the globe want to pay for, it's a satisfying and unexpectedly humbling experience.

The Legality of Pseudonyms

I would imagine the use of pseudonyms to sell products has been around for as long as the word pseudonym itself. Actors change their names, rock stars adopt stage names, in fact using a pseudonym has, in certain sectors of the entertainment industry become not only accepted but expected.

I think if there's any confusion over the legality of pseudonyms, it's fuelled by the assumption that a name you adopt must, ultimately be reflected on a legally recognised document such as a birth certificate or passport. There really is no need to go this far. And what if you wanted to use more than one pseudonym?

No, the legally binding nature of any pseudonym is crystalized when both (or more) parties agree to use  the name to sell product X. It will then be legitimised by a detailed and specific contract signed by all of the parties involved.

To track usage, artists like me are given a number such as '42217659' by the copyright protection agency that deals with the territory in which the artist currently resides. Any pseudonyms created will have their own unique number which will ultimately link to the artist's original number. Pseudonyms have to be applied for and verified by a copyright protection agency, also known as a PRO (which stands for performing rights organisation).    

It can appear to be a bit of a rabbit hole, but what I'm describing here is the business side of music, this is it. Think about insuring your car or filling in an application form for a credit card, if neccessity determines that we MUST understand something then we have to find a way to understand it.    

  

The Importance of Pseudonyms

There are many constrained and localised markets in which a product can easily live out its shelf life using just one brand name. But, with an internationally recognized product (indeed language) such as music, it positively demands different names to sell it! Simply put, if Vladomitkavichkz Kovishtzhaztavwodkz wants to sell his hard core Rap music in the USA. Then it may be advisable for Vladomitkavichkz Kovishtzhaztavwodkz to adopt a more accessible name that his fans can relate to ...

So, we can see that although pseudonyms may at first appear underhand or even corny, I can assure you that this is because the nature of the pseudonym is misunderstood. Music (like any other product) simply needs to appeal to it's target audience to ensure it (like any other business) keeps making money - and pseudonyms enable this to happen. 

Until next time - David.

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Is Amateur Music Crushing your Film?

AFX Industrial (film scores)

For most people music is a very personal thing and it's often difficult for film makers to be objective when dealing with their score. So how do you tell the difference between amateur and professional music?

'Doing' it yourself.

I haven't touched a musical instrument in two months. If you look at my home office, apart from a few old manuscripts that I'm currently working from you will see no indication that I 'do' music at all. Most of my work is actually conducted in complete silence … Of course this is not the general image people have of a composer. If we take the 'doing' element away from music (playing drums, guitars and keyboards etc.) then music's universal appeal quickly disappears. It's the very act of 'doing' music, the instant gratification of strumming a chord that people find so magical. But for me that was always the most unsatisfying element of music - that it could easily become random chaos simply because it had to be 'done'.

I was always much more interested in how composers appeared to have total control over music, they could prevent it from becoming random - unless they desired it to be! I then realised when you distance yourself from the physical aspect of playing or doing, you slowly start to become more analytical about music and composition in general …

Incredibly, freeing ourselves from the limited and often repetitive nature of physicality (especially where musical instruments are concerned) can be liberating … By taking away these physical constraints and allowing music to be manipulated in the virtual world of your imagination (and manuscript paper) you can achieve the impossible. Contrary to popular belief, traditional music notation presents you with a seemingly infinite array of possibilities. If I picked up a guitar and started strumming I would lose interest after a while but sit me in front of a sixty piece orchestral score that I'm currently writing and the possibilities (and the hours) just whizz by.   

     

How can you tell what amateur music is?

As a film maker this is the question you need to be asking on a regular basis. Music can win awards, it can make a movie and as my title suggests it can also crush the film that your dedicated movie making team have worked so hard to produce.

But how can you tell? What if the music on your film right now is perceived as amateur by everyone who watches the film except you? Now that's a scary thought! What if the music you thought was dramatic simply turns your film into a comedy or a parody and you hadn't noticed? Sickening thought eh? You have now successfully crushed your film into an unrecognisable genre and the audience have no clue whether to laugh or cry!

I want to help you to understand what amateur music is so you can avoid it.

We all understand that the definition of an amateur is someone who doesn't get paid for the work they produce … But what if the composer in question does get paid and by that definition is now a 'professional' composer, yet the music they produce is still amateur? That would be terribly confusing. For instance, if you paid your tone deaf sister in law to write the music for your new film then it would make her a professional composer right? Even if the music was painfully amateur it would still be professional music … Wouldn't it? Well, if we agree that the definition of a professional is one who gets paid then damn right - her music appears professional! But ... still sounds amateur.

So, now you have amateur music crushing your film that was created by someone who you just defined as a professional by paying them. This is an easy mistake to make - yet it sounds ludicrous when you write it down like this doesn't it? 

I think from a distance there is also a tendency to homogenise music, most see it as an instantly accessible hobby. For many, music is, after all, just music … However this is a little like believing that chemistry is just chemistry and banking is just banking. But just like chemistry and banking, music is a multi faceted subject containing a microcosm of different areas in which people specialise. Imagine the myriad of subheadings you could place under the word chemistry, similarly music has a myriad of subheadings, divisions and specialisms.

If we look at the subheading of 'popular' music, an anomaly that film makers are constantly surprised by is our deep rooted belief that musical fame and musical ability go hand in hand when they so often don't. Think back to our earlier scenario where you paid your tone deaf sister in law to write an (unintentionally) amateur score for your film. Now lets take the same scenario template and replace it with a mega-star like Michael Jackson (may he rest in peace).

Of course Michael 'did' music, but if you could have isolated Michael with a copy of your film and asked him to score it totally alone, I guarantee the results would have been embarrassing and amateurish. I'd imagine no one would ever dare tell him that! And again, as a director you would have ruined your film - because rightly so it's hard to believe that someone of such status and perceived musical ability, simply couldn't score your film to a professional level.

As you can see it's hard to define the nature of amateur music, especially when amateur music has been created by a professional artist. However, if we're looking for the definition of a professional (in any field) then they could be defined by an acute understanding of their own limits. If we understand our limits and exploit only our strengths, then the risk that our output will appear amateurish is greatly diminished.      

 

The Band Are 'Doing' the Music.

This is a very common scoring mistake. The director kind of likes the music created by a band with a line up consisting of (say) three banjos and a penny whistle. Then the director mistakenly employs the band to write his film score. And the serious nature of a film, that has taken years to produce, is instantly turned into a parody like this:

Love scene = banjo cue

Fight scene = banjo cue

Panoramic tracking shot = banjo cue

Horror moment = you get the idea!

But it's all 'music' isn't it? Please don't fall into this way of thinking, when it comes to scoring films there are a multitude of different disciplines required and a vast and seemingly baffling array of options available to you. Directors' always like to keep tight control over their productions and I often think by employing a band to 'do' the music, they're subconciously ensuring things don't step too far away from a musical idiom they feel comfortable with. Once you start employing professional scoring teams and orchestras you are forced to step outside of that comfort zone, and for many directors this can be daunting.

I know that many of the disciplines to do with film making can be picked up by a director over the course of their career, but I think as scoring exists on the periphery of film making, it can be one of the hardest elements to get a handle on. I imagine (unless the band's music is integral to the story) this is why lower level film makers tend to use a band to score their film. 

But, if we think about how expensive and time consuming making a movie is, and how many people are involved in the process. Then it's scary to think that ultimately, the music alone indicates to an audience whether your film is to be received as a professional or amateur work. There's a lot more hanging on the music than you may have initially realised ...

For an audience, your score needs to appear as aspirational as the vision you had for your film. Audiences are very fickle and many go to the movies just for the music. If an audience feels cheated by an amateur score then it could put them off seeing any of your future work. And, for so many film fans the score is unquestionably part of the total experience, don't disappoint them with a badly recorded indie band instead of a score - they can hear that anywhere!

Until next time - peace to you all. David.

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But I Paid $0.99 for it!

AFX Industrial (film scores)

 

Why you can't download music from iTunes and score your film with it.

 

OK I'm going to bust this myth once and for all.  So, you really want to get your film scored cheaply and you can possess every single piece of music you have ever loved on iTunes all for $0.99 a download.  Conveniently these downloads are 320 kbps Mp3s, which any savvy film maker knows can be easily dropped into the timeline of your movie, job done.

I mean its perfectly OK if you already paid for it, surely?  Well no.  Unless the intended audience for your film is you and you alone, then you are now breaking copyright law.  If the ultimate aim for your film is for it to be broadcast to an audience whether it is on TV or at a film festival then you will need a license to use this music.  In the eyes of the law ignorance is no excuse.

There are many horror stories out there.  One where the director had not budgeted for the music but had spent $9.99 on iTunes downloading famous rock tracks for his film.  Remember just because you have paid for it that does not mean you can use it in your film, not legally anyway.  So back to the director who scored their film with iTunes Mp3s ... The film was rejected for broadcast because they had no licenses for the pieces of music.  OK no problem they thought, we'll get in touch with the publishers and tell them we 'had no budget'. Well the publisher's agent finally gets back (after a month or so of course) with a quote.

'A basic understanding of licensing is essential if you want to get your film shown in public'. 

I'm not going to tell you how much the quote was for but I do know that the budget for the film was $150. However, the quote was so high that the five people involved in the film would have needed to sell all of their houses and cars and max out all of their credit cards to be able to pay for the music licenses.  And that still would not even have begun to cover the fee.  Of course that is an extreme example but it is best to seek permission before you fall into that trap.  You may also find the license is a lot cheaper if you cut out the middle men and deal directly with the artist you are interested in.

What is a license and what does it mean practically? 

A license is simply formal permission to use a piece of music in a certain way on your project.  It enables the copyright owner to track and verify correct usage.  There is usually a fee involved but the fee's size is dependent on who the copyright owner is (this may not be the artist!) and what the intended use is.  You might be surprised, but not all artists are happy for their music to be used in any situation. Some artists like to place restrictions on usage, so that is another reason why a license is important.  Using music illegally will annoy the copyright holder.  Using music illegally for a purpose the copyright holder isn't happy with will REALLY annoy them.

One way to make sure that you're licensing music correctly is to deal directly with the artists - but be wary of an artist who doesn't understand licensing.  A license is a formal legal agreement, and it can never be simply verbal permission, no matter who gives you that permission.  A basic understanding of licensing is essential if you want to get your film shown in public.

So if you want to license music, then that means that you have to speak to an artist's manager, right?  Well maybe twenty years ago you did, but not now.  Gone are the days of managers and agents for musicians, it is much more of a level playing field today.  Of course, I have publishers who 'look after' my music but I always prefer to deal with the film makers directly and I always offer a discount over the publishers' price.  Also, many managers know very little about the minutia of licensing itself so you often get a much better deal by going directly to the artist.

Artists do use publishers but in the end these publishers take 50/60% of your money that you paid to license the music.  Would you not prefer an artist to get 100% of the money you paid to use their music?  That is what happens when you license directly and it means that your favorite musicians can invest more and give you a better product because of it.

I know that this is 'boring paperwork' and this isn't what you got into film-making for, but spending five minutes dealing with licensing issues today will save you a lot of heartache and wasted time tomorrow.


- David.

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Since I posted this blog update I have had many questions about this subject.  Please either leave a comment with your question or take this anonymous survey on film scoring,  I appreciate your feedback.

For more info email me to license music from me visit my website.

For more information on licensing music go here: UK

For more information on licensing music go here: USA

Farts in a Baked Bean Can?

AFX Industrial (film scores)

I haven't blogged in a while (and I can only apologise for that) but today I want to share with you some of the daily tasks involved when preparing ideas for a new film score ...

The Theme  

One of the first things you need to get right as a score composer is the theme for each film, it's always helpful if the director has a set idea of the kind of score they want, as this can take a lot of the guesswork out of the task! Believe it or not, when I first started doing this, the more amateur the director was then the more I would be asked to 'guess' what sort of music they required! If I failed to guess then I didn't get the job!?

This is a bit like me thinking of a colour and asking you to guess what it is ... Pointless and combative, but thankfully I'm dealing with more and more professional directors who have a definite idea of the score they want. If it's farts in a baked bean can that you want as your score then let me know, I can do that! Just ask! Although I'd probably find a synthetic way to generate an approximation of that sound ...

Anyway, my point is it's better to tell the composer what's on your mind rather than letting them come up with all these wonderful, musical ideas for your new film: 'Farts in a Baked Bean Can II', when all you really wanted was farts. The Terrence and Phillip song in the South Park movie utilised farts in an incredibly creative way - it's one of my faves! But just think how dull South Park would be if the composer hadn't been asked to incorporate farts into that score.

I sat down with visionary director Antony Lane recently (I'm currently scoring his Invasion of the Not Quite Dead) and he played me all of his fave monster movie scores ... He did tell me later that he was worried about my reaction! My reaction was I loved it! I love music and especially classic movie scores, how could I not? It's totally my thing, even the most primitive low budget films can often have amazingly deep scores. I would have been more disappointed if he hadn't shared his passion with me!  

This kind of breaks the ice a bit too, especially for directors who don't have a lot of experience in dealing with the idea of musically thematic material for their film.

The Nucleus of an Idea  

So I will assimilate what the director wants and that will help generate the nucleus of an idea and at the very heart of that idea will be a simple choice of musical interval (3rds, 5ths, Tritones, minor, Major etc). For the non-musical among you these are simply distances between notes on an instrument, I would say that prior to any melody being written it's fundamental that a composer decides on the basic intervals they will use. No note exists in isolation and it is that simple relationship with the next note that decides the interval. Using the wrong interval at the wrong time can impact negatively on the feel of a score - this is the nucleus, it's even more important than the melody.

Once you have mapped out your intervals then the next major task is deciding on instrumentation - of course there are a huge amount of instruments to choose from! To simplify the process we can often think of instrumentation as a palette of 'colours' from the darkest, deepest Celli and Contrabasses to the sparkling highs of Violins and Piccolos in their  upper  registers these are just some of the colours we can use. But what about more esoteric instruments like the guitar or ethnic percussion? Well, of course these do have a place but you need to be careful as such strong 'colours' can overpower a score and lead the audience in a direction that may not have been intended! It's best to tread lightly when stepping outside the orchestral palette otherwise the score can become too dominant - large orchestras (although this sounds paradoxical) actually tend to 'disappear' behind the scene more than a solo instrument like a guitar would. I think the reason for this (apart from the audience expecting to hear an orchestra) is simply that many voices (instruments) are harder to hear than one voice individually. 

The Physicality 

If you follow me on Twitter then you'll hear me talk about a piece of software called Sibelius a lot - it's simply a way of writing musical notes on virtual manuscript paper. A bit like MS Word but for music. If you have even a passing interest in music then you will have heard of a 'sequencer' like Garage Band, Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, Digital Performer ... The list is pretty long and as the years go by the format and usefulness of each platform tends to change, usually dictated by current trends. The reason I always go back to using Sibelius is that its fundamental structure is based on an idea that is around five hundred years old (traditional music notation).

So the physical, day to day  aspect of what I do is inexorably linked to Sibelius, for some it is often hard to believe that the most compelling music I have ever written comes from what looks like a very dull word processing package! Take a look below:

     

That's pretty much it, but writing music isn't about funky graphics and anything that swerves your attention from those black notes on a white page is a no no. I'm sorry it's not more exciting for you to look at but I spend most of my time in this one piece of software ... I've now been using Sibelius for over ten years and after a while certain technical aspects just become second nature. In fact with a piece of scoring software like this you are only limited by the conventions of music notation themselves, that may sound constrictive but I can assure you that conventional music notation is infinitely flexible. Probably much more so than you'd ever imagined.

What goes through my head when scoring?

I know this is going to sound dull and un-artistic but, as I score I'm constantly comparing the intervallic relations of one note to another (which I touched on earlier), so it really is a question of mathematics. I'm constantly crunching numbers while I write music - I guess if you want to be a composer you really have to like mathematics, luckily I do!

Of course, there is an emotional aspect to any score and the goal is to make your audience feel the intended emotion especially when they hear the score for the first time! Without getting too bogged down in the mechanics of music notation itself, the emotional aspect of a score is like another layer that you build over the mathematical base. This layer can consist of dynamics (ff,pp), accents (emphasis on certain notes), articulations (pizzicato, arco) and playing techniques (such as legato and staccato). There are many more tools we can utilise to evoke emotion but I won't get into that here.  

I think that a lot of the above, and more, goes through my head while I score and juggling that amount of mental data can be extremely fatiguing - and also time consuming. I'll often start to score at 09:00 and, before I realise, it's 18:30 and dark outside! I guess there is a certain amount of job satisfaction involved, I realised this when I discovered that I was an inverse clock watcher ... Rather than looking at the clock and saying 'oh no, is it only 14:25?' I find myself looking at the clock and saying 'oh no, it's already 14:25!' And I have soooo much to get through! 

Until next time - peace to you all - David.

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