Transcripts
1. Welcome!: Hi, My name is Jonathan Hagel, and I'm a composer, a musician and also an educator. I got a degree in piano performance and composition and also then a master's in education and run this music school and I compose music for film and for commercial. This class is called from silence of sound, and it's about the journey that you take when you start off with a film and there's no music and you're gonna create something that's gonna have a tremendous emotional impact on the way that people are viewing that felt. It's a big responsibility, and there's a lot of challenges that come up along the way. And to get there I'm gonna take you through a couple different storylines of challenges that I've come into contact with so that you can walk away with some working strategies for how to best tackle this challenge of writing for moving picture. Here's an example off how the music can dramatically change how you view of film. As you can see, the music can have a big impact on what happens, So the choices that you make on what kind of music you're gonna put in there can have a big impact on how people are viewing the film. So who should take this class? Basically, anybody who's interested in writing for moving picture I should mention that we're not going to cover in this class is is not gonna be a software tutorial on how to record into music software. So I would assume that you have a some familiarity with GarageBand logic or something some other program like them that you can navigate those components on your own. The second thing, we're not gonna get into any sort of production advice like using compressors, mixing, mastering their plenty other tutorials you can look at for that we're going to focus specifically on the journey and the process and the choices you make when you're trying to compose for moving pictures. Specifically, we're gonna follow four different storylines. So I have made a composite of experiences that I've tend to run into to create some fictitious stories that will allow you to see what it looks like and what the process might be like when you're composing under different circumstances. Looking forward to having in this class, I think we're going to cover a lot of great material
2. Class Project: for this class project, you're going to create your own custom score for one of the videos that I chose for you, and I picked up four different possible options ranging in and challenge and style, and so feel free to look through them and the one that resonates with you the most. If you're feeling particularly ambitious, you can try all four, but you can only upload one class project. So if you're going to do numerous ones, you're going to need upload those different videos and material to the same class project. So basic construction here is pick the one you want to work on. Set up your Daw to score the video. The main first task is your preparation. I want you to go through an ad, some markers for the start and stop points that are in the creative brief. Or if you decide to change the most things on, choose different moments. That's fine. Just have a clear idea of why you're making those different choices. And as when the next part fill out the worksheet that was similar to the one I walked through each one of the videos, which is the temp called the template and decisions to be made for the videos. And you chose, um, and make sure that you are again articulating in there any changes from the creative brief that you're making eso that there's kind of a thoughtful process behind that. Uh, the next step is to try out some ideas, so spend as long as you need to to record some rough draft ideas. But pick one of them you feel like is your best and balance and export that audio to the video. Now there's not await upload video to this class projects you're going to need a hosted somewhere else. And that means you can use YouTube, Vimeo, Dropbox or some other means to do so and then include a link in the class project for how we convey view that that video now this rough draft should not be. It's It needs to be in the middle, not too rough, but not to complete, kind of like what you would send as a first draft to a director toe listen to. So you want to give an idea of what you're thinking, but not too much on then lastly, finish it out and polished Oppa's Muchas you feel like you need to and then balance and export that to video as well uploaded somewhere else and include a link so we can take a look at your final version. Four. Main Deliver Bols A screenshot of how you're going to lay out your markers, fill out the template describing your thought process behind this rough draft. And then finally, the final version of your score look forward to seeing your work, Thanks.
3. Overview of composing for moving picture: So whenever I protest felt their decisions that need to be made and I've created a slide for you that has a number of different points that you're going to probably have to deal with. Um, the 1st 1 is in any sort of moving picture. They're gonna be hit points, starting stop moments when you need to change something in the music or you need to start it in, you know, initially and then where you need to end it. Um secondly, you're gonna have to think about some sort of tempo. Is the tempo gonna be ambiguous? Meaning that you don't really hear a clear meter or tempo, Or does it need to be very clear so that you're measuring the music out? Either it's because it it helps along the action of the movement. Or maybe the temple is gonna change. It's gonna start off ambiguous or unclear, and then become more clear throughout there. Whatever ends up happening with the temple, you're gonna have to make some sort of decision in relationship to it. Thirdly, you're gonna have to think about how you want to respond to what's happening in the images there. You can really either anticipate things, and that's the typical scenario where someone's walking into a house, it's dark and the music's really intense. And you know something bad is gonna be happening or you're reacting to something. Action takes place. A change in the plot happens, and then the music responds to that, and probably most pieces are gonna have a little bit of both. But as you map out what decisions you're going to make musically, you're gonna need to think about that balance between anticipation and reaction. Fourthly, you're going to think about the mood in the feel of the music. And the big question is, are you going to match what's happening in the images or you going to contrast them? Matching them would be. If it's very dark film, you're gonna provide music that's dark, or if it's fast moving, you're gonna move quickly on that. When you're contrast ing something, the film you might be choosing to move the music very quickly while the images are moving slow or vice versa. Or you might make very light music for a very dark situation. Those air some extreme examples. In contrast, you might use some more subtle means to provide some support to what's happening. We'll talk about some specific examples later in the examples we're gonna go through and the last thing with regard to move and feel you're going to need to think about the instrumentation. Do you want to do something that's forth like a thick in nature with lots of instruments that are happening a very full sound? Or do you want to have something very thin, like just maybe only a piano or single in guitar instrument? Each of those has a very different impact upon the mood in the field. Finally, another decision you're gonna have to make is about how this particular cut and the music that you're creating for it relates to the whole. And, um, sometimes if you have a short piece, it's going to be You don't have to relate that to the whole. But you need to think about what comes before this piece of music and what comes after it, and so that it can impact this sort of decisions, and you're gonna make for musical level
4. Documentary: Jumper: So the first project that we're gonna look out it's a documentary. It's about this guy who skis off of cliffs, so it's very dramatic. There's a lot of big mountain shots, and it's a very long document. It's over an hour long. So this is a particular cut where he does his first jump off of a bridge. The director gave me a reference track, and we'll play that in a minute. He's a little bit attached to it on the challenges for me is going to be that the style doesn't really match how I'm approaching the rest the fell. So I'm gonna need to find some way to listen to what what he wants from this and apply it to the style that I'm writing and the kind of tone for the rest of film. Okay, so what to do next is I'm gonna show you the clip that we're gonna work on. I'm gonna play it for you without the music. And the reason for that is I generally always listen without the music first to get my own feel for how things might go, because sometimes I might come up with an idea that is very different from what the director thought they wanted, but they actually like that idea better. So I want to get a fresh look at it without any music. So play that out and then we'll play the reference track with music, just skiing and jumping off big cliffs. And we started talking about parachutes and he knew I was into it, too. And he was just really excited and fired up about it and would not stop asking questions. My jump started in 2007. Jesse Hall took me to the Peruvian bridge in Idaho, and when we showed up in Idaho and it was a beautiful sunrise over the Snake River and seven in the morning, it's kind of cool. You know, Jesse was like, All right, climb over the rail. I remember climbing over the rail and Jessie's. I can't look at the horizon. Take a deep breath, then give the count's. I remember looking at the horizon and being like, yeah, I'm ready is beautiful. Stick a deep breath, three to one, see a 321 and parachute opens, and you're like, Oh my God, this is just the most beautiful thing I've ever done in my life? Yeah, his first day base jumping. We did nine jumps, which is crazy most of time to do one or two. OK, now let's watch it with the reference track. Just skiing and jumping off cliffs. And we started talking about parachutes and he knew I was into it. Teoh and And he was just really excited. Fired up about it and would not stop asking questions. My jump started in 2007. Jesse Hall took me to the Peruvian bridge in Idaho, and when we showed up in Idaho and it was a beautiful sunrise over the Snake River and seven in the morning, it's kind of cool. Jessie's like, All right, I'm over the rail, climbing with the rail and just look at the horizon. Take a deep breath. Your account's I remember looking the horizon already. Beautiful, stupid, Deep breath. 32 what? 321 And here she opens. And you're like, Oh, my God, this is just the most beautiful thing I've ever done in my life. Yeah, his first day base jumping. We did nine jumps, which is crazy most of time. One or two. OK, so we just finished watching the clip, and now we have some decisions to make. The first point we talked about before was locating different hit points. Um, you know, as you're watching, I'm curious. If you saw a clear start and stop point, obviously him jumping off the bridge is kind of a big moment. So that's something that's gonna need to be addressed. Starting point, Probably where the mountain first opened up might be a good place to start. I don't know if you had some different ideas on that, but those are the kind of things I'm gonna be using for where I'm in a transition tempo A So you can hear. There was a very clear, upbeat tempo that was going on the reference track, and as I mentioned, he's pretty attached to it. So somewhere in there, I'm gonna need toe have a tempo to that's upbeat, and that builds towards that jump off the bridge. Um, but it looks like I have some flexibility in the beginning with regard to what the tempo might be when it's in that very soft pad like area. Okay, responding to events. Um, in this situation, there is a certain degree of anticipation. We're watching him build this buildup toe when he's gonna be jumping off the cliff. People are talking about it. And so there's a lot of anticipation that's happening there, but also some a degree of reaction, because when he actually jumps off, how the music is going to change and respond to that moment is also a big point. So we're anticipating up to the jump, and then we're kind of reacting to what happens afterwards, Um, the mood and feel that we're gonna look at for this piece. Um, it's a question of where we get a match it or we're going to contrast it. You can hear from the reference track that the his idea or what he's looking for something to really match this mood of the excitement and energy to jump off this bridge. Um, so I don't know, for I'll choose to contrast it very much, probably more to match where things might be, um, and in terms of the instrumentation, things being really thick or thin. Obviously, this is sort of a big moment, so it's gonna need a big sound in that process. Now, using a soft sound would have a certain degree of contrast because you were kind of anticipating this to be a big moment. And if the music was really subdued, there would be a certain amount of contrast there. It doesn't really feel like that might be right for this particular film in this cut, so I think a larger instrumentation would be important. And finally, in terms of how this cut fits into the relationship to the whole, there are a lot of other jumps that happen in this film. So there needs to be some degree of relationship between those other jumps and between the sounds that I'm using in those, Um, but this is not the climax of the film, so I can't go all out here, needs to hold back a little bit.
5. Initial Work on Jumper: Okay, so we've watched the reference track. We've talked about some of the key points that we want to focus on the decisions we need to make for this particular film. Let's look at how this plays out for beginning our score. One of the first things I want to do is to try to put in some sort of markers to give myself a reference for what's happening. So, Teoh, here's Thea. Um, we'll start going through this and find where those points are. You knew I was into it, Teoh and and he was just really excited, fired up about it and would not stop asking questions. All right, well, that's our one of our first moments there. Let's see when that actually came in right about that. So I'm gonna create a marker here, and the marker helps me. Just remember what's happening and where things air out says I start to write music. It's going to put those things in place so he wants to start the music right on this point again. We're listening to the reference track that he provided to my jump started in 2007. Jesse Hall took me to remarked when he first starts talking, my jump started. My jumps slide that over. So now have a marker for Lin. So this first section, because, um, there's no talking in it. It's on Lee a little bit of sound in the background, but mostly just setting up stage for this have a lot of freedom for what can happen in that particular section. My jump started in 2007. Jesse Hall took me to the Peruvian bridge in Idaho, and when we showed up in Idaho and it was a beautiful sunrise over the Snake River seven in the morning, it's kind of cool. Just was like All right, I'm over the rail climbing with the rail and just look at the horizon. Take a deep breath. Your account's look in the horizon. So there was a change in the music that he had that started about right here was coming. We're gonna change and say This is where the clear tempo starts. Accounts look in the horizon. It's beautiful. Stupid deep breath. Three to what? 321 And okay, that's the moment he makes us sound with his mouth. Here, jump here she opens and you're like Oh, my God. This is just the most beautiful thing I've ever done in my life. Yeah, his first day base jumping. We did nine jumps, which is crazy. Okay, now worth into the cut. All right, let's go through this time without music, Make sure it's all correct. And he was just really excited. Fired up about it and would not stop asking questions. Okay, there's a moment where it changes was ambiguous section here, and then he should start talking. The jump started in 2007. Jesse Hall took me to the Peruvian bridge in Idaho. And when we showed up in Idaho, and it was a beautiful sunrise over the Snake River and seven in the morning, it's kind of cool, you know? Just was like, All right, climb over the rail. I remember climbing with the rail and Jessie's. I can't look at the horizon to take a deep breath. They voted accounts. I remember looking at the changes happening here. I'm ready is beautiful. Stick a deep breath. Three to one. CIA, 321 Here. She open her. She Okay, so I'm gonna work on a couple of different musical tracks. Um, not take you through that process. Come back in a minute and I'll show you what I come up with. Alright, so I've laid down a basic piano part. I generally start with writing something on piano. That's my main instrument. You can really use whatever instrument feels most comfortable to you. The goal of initial sketch is just to try to figure out if the music you're writing fits and it's less about trying to make it sound fantastic. It's only for your reference, so feel freedom to make something that's a little bit Messi. This is my first take it what this looks like. Let's play this together. He knew I was into it, too, and he was just really excited, fired up about it and would not stop asking questions. My jump started in 2007. Jesse Hall took me to the Peruvian bridge in Idaho, and when we showed up in Idaho and it was a beautiful sunrise over the Snake River seven in the morning, it's kind of cool, you know, Jesse, is that all right? I'm over the rail. We're climbing with the rail and just memorizing. Take a deep breath. Give the count's I remember. Looking arising. Stick a deep breath. 32 one, 321 Here she opens. You're like, Oh, my God, this is just the most beautiful thing. And they were done in my life. Yeah, his first day base jumping. We did nine jumps. Which it? Okay, so that was a little bit of rough, but I think it kind of got in the points I needed to start it off, and then the most important point was this job. So I'm gonna add a few more parts to this. Okay, So I have a few more parts now to share with you. Let's go ahead and, um, play with that full amount. Sounds like I watch it again here just skiing and jumping off cliffs. And we started talking about parachutes, and he knew I was into it, too. And he was just really excited. Fired up about it and would not stop asking questions. My jump started in 2007. Jesse Hall took me to the Peruvian bridge in Idaho. And when we showed up in Idaho, and it was just a beautiful sunrise over the Snake River seven in the morning. Jesse is right over the rail with, really just memorizing. Take a deep breath, Give the count's Here she opens And you're like, Oh, my God, this is just the most beautiful thing I've ever done in my life. Yeah, his first day base jump. Okay, so that's a little bit more flushed out. What I'm gonna do is export this and provided as an example to the director a quick note about sending something to a director when I generally like to do is really just send them one idea. So I have tested out a couple other piano ideas that I did or didn't like, but I want to give them sort of one cut to respond to, because if they like it that I don't necessarily have to keep rewriting different examples . If I send too many examples to them, it sort of gives the impression that there's a lot more to choose from, and that tends to initiate a lot more rewriting in that process. So let's send this off to the director, and we'll check back later about what their feedback waas
6. Narrative: Simba: Let's move onto a new project. This one's called Simba. It's a short film. It's about a woman and her horse. She goes back to visit the horses sick, and she has to put it to sleep. Now. The direction I got for this film was fairly vague. There was no creative brief. There were no sample music. Well, there was one piece, but the director hated. So I have a lot of artistic freedom to do whatever I want to, which is a blessing and a curse. In some ways, it's difficult if you have a lot of options, But so how things will develop is gonna really be unique. Okay, so let's play the cut that I received for Simba. This is gonna be with no music and we'll see. Give a chance to see what it looks like. I understand that . - Okay , let's talk about some of the decisions will need to make with Simba. I'm gonna use the same format that we talked about. What Jumper? In terms of the decisions that need to be made, the 1st 1 is what sort of hit points that we're gonna look out if you remember. There's a moment where she starts to run towards her horse. That starting point is gonna be a little nebulous, and we'll talk about that later of ending a little bit more obvious. Obviously, when the gun goes off, that's a clear decision point or stop point or something needs to happen there. Okay, tempo, tempo here, the movement and let's take a look at this 1st 2nd again. Notice how the shots are really slow and there's not a lot of quick cuts that are happening in this. So, um, I could maybe draw from that by doing a slower tempo. My gut says that this temple needs to be a little bit on the upper kind of not upbeat, but a faster side. Considering the intensity, this particular scene, I think they have a sense of movement and to move the story along while there's not any talking going on this particular section, Um, okay, so for response, obviously, there's a lot of anticipation here because we're anticipating this. Something's gonna be going on with this horse. There was a gun was running out on the field, and, um so you know something's gonna happen. But there's some reaction to because there's this moment when the gun goes off that her she falls to her knees. That's something we want to respond to. A swell all right mood and feel, Um, there's definitely an opportunity here, I think, to provide some contrast instead of exactly matching and what I talked about before with regard to the cuts being very slow, that a lot of tender moments. And I think that the music could be a nice foil to that by being a little bit more intense , while the same time the video footage is a bit more relaxed and that kind of that could have a nice relationship together. Um, finally, how does this relate to the whole, um, well, for one, it's wrapping up the entire piece, so it needs to feel like a good book in or a finish of some sort of finale moment. For that, I also want to play you a couple examples from earlier scenes that are, there's a couple scenes in this film where she is directly interacting with the horse, and in those particular scenes, the piano was very dominant and supported by a little bit of strings, and so we play those for you. - Okay , so hopefully you're able to see that those were some tender moments between her and the horse, and they again focused on the piano with a little bit of string. So I think that's something for this final portion like that would be very appropriate to tie together something with piano mean being the main part with a little bit of backing for that. So let's get into this and start mapping out where we're gonna, where it needs to be and start composing.
7. Initial Work on Simba: let's dig in and start working on this project. So I've already marked in some scenes here. Um, some moments there's not really much happening in the middle. I feel like, really just the start. And the end is the most important right when she is Ah, starting to run. It looks like my markers a little bit off. So I'm gonna go in there and shift that zoom in close to find merry go right about there. It's the perfect Exactly. Give me in the right ballpark. And then at the end of it, then she's getting ready. Teoh, shoot. Okay, so right on that moment when the gunshot goes off, All right? With this in mind, I'm going to compose Cem piano music. Come back to you with that, with some ideas for what might happen here. Okay, so I've recorded a couple of piano parts, and I'm gonna play him for you. Um, let's just listen to him first. Then I'll talk about kind of why I made certain decisions. Okay, so this is kind of Ah, and I've never written a piano part quite like this before. Um, it's taking a little bit of a risk in the sense that I'm essentially plane one single cord from the entire time. How that ended up happening was I was trying to play something that's just started making a movement, some some rhythmical movement on the piano. Like I said, I think the tempo should be a little bit upbeat. I actually had the Metrodome on. You can hear that. It kind of follows kind of followed this tempo, and I just wanted to see what would happen. And as I started, I kept going holding that particular chord, thinking, You know, maybe at some point I might change to a new court. I'm improvising over the top of this. I'm not really seeing anything that's giving me the information to change. There's no B roll that I'm looking out that necessarily feels like it's a significant shift . In fact, the energy in this whole particular section holds pretty steady. So I actually think this could be if we go back to what we were talking about certain decisions in terms of contrast, or with that I think that holding this piano note could provide a lot of tension because, as we are also anticipating, we don't know what's gonna happen with this With her walking over here? Wait, my guess that she might want to shoot the gunman shooting the horse. But, um, there's some If the music is also not changing, it builds up a certain intention. I don't know if the director is gonna like it, but I might just send it over to him and see what he thinks about it. Um, I do feel like the ending of it, though, although is not quite the right stop point. So if you notice on the computer music gonna make the most sense when we group things into phrases of four bar beats. So we've got four Barbies here. Um, we have another set right here. If I was to move this over just to kind of show you how this is playing out another one here, another one here and then right here. That end. The shot is falling slightly after the end of it. So that's kind a little bit of a challenge right there. What I'm gonna do to address that is I'm going to change the tempo, so let's go back to where I started with. All right, so one more thing. I noticed that when I was playing this out that the shot didn't come right on the beat in terms of the Met, the tempo that I was using. So what I did was I went and I changed. I put a temple marker here and I stay slowed it down ever slow slightly. Just so that the this then So when I my start point, which is right over here, she starts coming in the piano starts match lines up with final shot, not the clean. So they clean this piano performance. But I think it gets the point across for the sake of this example that'll send to the director. So, um, I'm gonna export this. Send it off. We'll see what kind of feedback I get. I think it could be interesting to see if if he'll go for it's a little bit of a risk. Like I said before being that the music isn't changing at all, But I think you got to take risk sometimes and just try something out and see how it works .
8. Director Revisions: Jumper: So I just got the feedback from the director. She doesn't like it, so she wants it to be more upbeat and joyful rather than kind of the brooding mood that was there. Which is tough feedback, because that basically means I have to rewrite it. It's not a simple change like, Oh, could you make it a little faster? In this point, it's just like the whole tone is off. So I'm gonna have to kind of go back to the drawing board on this particular piece, and there's a couple other things that she pointed out and I will show you on here. Let's go back to the reference track that she provided with music. Um, he knew I was into it, too, and he was just really excited, fired up about it and would not stop asking questions. So right here there's kind of a low choir kind of awe sound or voice type sound. She wants that part of it. So we have to figure out how to find some sound to match with that, Um, and also just again this kind of bigger sound if you count on Apparently this boom that happens in the background there. I'm gonna play one more times. You can hear it climbing with the rail and just write rising. Take a deep breath, but you can's looking horizon. So she likes that boom means let's take a deep breath. Three to what? All right, So those are some of the feedback about taking the consideration when we go back to the drawing board, come up with some new material and show you that bit later. All right, Back to the Jumper Project. I've reworked some of those parts. If you remember, we talked about the director wanted to be a lot more upbeat, Um, to include some sort of choir or sound. In the beginning, I found a good sound that went just perfect without, um and then for to include some those booms and just to have more energy in general. So let me take you through a couple of the different spots that I came up with. So I found this chance sound that, um, matches from the beginning. That seemed to fit exactly what we're talking about. And I also found some great percussion slams that would have some of those the big boom sounds and then in general, just sort of made it more upbeat and full and intense, matching as well to sort of the mood music that I showed you from the beginning of the film . So let's play this one and see how it sends. It would not stop asking questions. My jump started in 2007. Jesse Hall took me to the Peruvian bridge in Idaho, and when we showed up in Idaho and it was just a beautiful sunrise over the Snake River seven in the morning, just like all right, I'm over the rail with the rail and just look at the horizon. Take a deep breath. Your account's look in your eyes to It's here she opens and you're like, Oh, my God, this is just the most beautiful thing I've ever done in my life. Yeah, his first day base jumping. We did nine jumps, which is okay, So export this and send it off the director and see what she thinks in the new tank.
9. Director Revisions: Simba: Okay, So I just heard by from the director for Simba, and he likes that you like The risk factor was really, um totally was out of the realm of whatever he had expected or thought about, but he loves it. So we're gonna go with the piano theme. So now I gotta figure out what to do next. Um, the one thing that he wanted to try hey, wanted Teoh have the piano flourish and so that you can hear the gunshot clearly. Now, I personally I don't I think that's gonna feel off. It's the media's gonna finish, and then there's gonna be a moment of silence and then the skin's gonna go off. But what I found is that sometimes better when a director's asking for something rather than trying to, um disagree or provides apartment, I'm just gonna do it and send it to them. And then you concede that it's not gonna feel right. So what we're gonna do is go in here and shift that audio over so it finishes at the right spot and send out a new track. So let's go do that now to get the director of shot where the gunshot. The piano is finishing earlier than the gunshot. I'm gonna need to make that a little faster now. The advantage of my recording is that I recorded a MIDI track for the piano, not an audio track. So when I changed the tempo, the piano is gonna get faster. Two it's that could mean distortion to that. If I had recorded a guitar, something else. You know that squishing and changing the meter on audio is much more difficult. I'm not gonna get into that too much. I just didn't want to mention why that that's this is particularly easy to change a shot for him. So to do so, I need to get the way it currently stands. Let's play through for a 2nd 1 time. So here's the ending. Okay, right on that shot. Still little messy, but we'll clean that up later. It's what I need to do is go back to the tempo that I had set at the starting point back. When the piano starts off, I need to change it so that the shot the music ends on this final bit before the shot, so the music needs to go faster. So what I would do is increase the tempo a little bit. Let's just try it one point up from 88. 89 beats per minute and see what happens. Needs to be a little faster. I think so. Let's make it one more one more faster here. Okay? So, again, personally, I don't think that fits really well. Let's play just back up just to get a better feel for working away into it. I am. I don't think that feels right, but, um, I'm gonna export this. Send it off. The director, see what he thinks.
10. Alternative Revisions: Simba: the director for Simba. He got back to me on that early cut over where I short in the piano a little bit. He doesn't like it, so that's what I thought what happened. But it's a lot better if he made that decision rather than if I advocated for it. So, um, where do we go from here? Like what I said we looked at before. There were some scenes where there was her on the horse and it was just a piano and a little bit of strings. So I want a reference that I do need to put in some strings to this, predict their section. But it's also the end of the piece. You know, this is the most dramatic moment horses, shots, not the same moments of intimacy and tenderness that are happening before. So I'm gonna need to probably experiment for a little bit to see if I want to add Mawr instrumentation to support that, but yet still keep the elements that consistency and the connection to other parts of the felt. So let's go try that. Okay, so let's dive into refining this a little bit more. One decision that we haven't really talked about, and the director really didn't give me feedback on. So one experiment around a little bit is when the piano starts in the beginning. Um, I feel like I particularly like how in the movie she starts walking towards the horse before the piano starts in. But there needs to be some sort of anticipation beforehand. So I have added some strings before this toe walk us in there. Let me play this for you. We can hear ourselves. I understand. So the action changed first, and then the music followed. It's a little bit more reactive to it, playing one more time. I kind of like that timing. But I did play around with some some changes, some different omens, and I'll show you one right now where the piano came in would come in a little bit earlier . Let's look at that and see how that differs from the one I just played you. I understand. So again, I'll play that one more time. Piano comes in. Then she moves, understand? I think either one could work. Um, I felt like since the piano is gonna be playing the same chord the whole time, we don't really need more of that, um, happening. So going back to the when I think that I'm gonna be working with where the strings are happening, two moves starts walking, Then the piano comes in. I think they think that works mine. It also just makes the piano whole piece a little bit shorter. The other 21 thing I tried out was to maybe have there be a late finish. Now, this is not something I sent to the director. I just wanted to see it for myself. I'll play it for you where maybe the strings hold out after the gunshot to see what impact that might have. I think I fell right, but I wanted to try it at least just to see if it would. So let's come back to the the piece I'm working on here. So, as I mentioned before, the scenes with her and the horse always involved some strings in there as well. And so I went and started to add some string parts to see if that might work out. I'm gonna play through one take here, just a piano in the beginning because I think that's a good way to start bringing the strings from war. Tension is as it goes along. Yeah, well, im mixed feelings about the strings in there. I wanted to see if there would be something to do to provide some variety to the piano line . Um, I'm gonna keep working with it. My general approaches. It's always easier to remove things later to add it back. So I'm gonna keep pushing a little bit and come back in a minute. Was maybe even a more complete example. All right, so I am coming back to send by here. I added some extra parts to it. Um, it feels like it's a bit too much, but let's listen to it. Okay. So obviously had a lot more parts to it. I do want to mention something that I changed in this version, as I built up, is that I did away with the click truck. I have been using a very clear meter this whole time, as you may have been able to hear here into those other previous examples with the Metrodome. But I felt like the nature of this particular, and he needed something to feel a little bit more wild and improvisational. So it took me a long time. Actually, I just started in the beginning and performed the whole entire thing live while I was watching the video and t get to the finish where I had the right amount of build to get to that ending. And, um, um, the advantage of that is I think it sounds the piano since a lot more fresh. The challenge with do anything off the tempo is that it's very hard to add other parts to it now. The advantage here is that I don't have any other rhythmical parts. It was just the string portions. Now what I don't like about how this the strings impacted this is because the melody line for the strings when the when they're going up in the high strings, there's a certain degree of not being resolved. And when it's not resolved, it gives you a clue that this is not over yet. Let me play this for you and see if you can see here all that feels so again we're listening to the high strings, knows how others, especially in that moment, right there where you can hear it. It's clearly not resolved here is Well, what I don't like about that is I thought when it when the strings weren't in there, that there's more of a feeling of being unsure of exactly what is gonna happen. And the strings actually provide maybe a bit too much anticipation and leading sort of the person to realize, you know, this driving towards this gunshot and I kind of like it better when there's a little bit more surprised to that. So when I reworked out, here's what the, um, the final version ended up less. Okay, so and I like the simplicity of that better. I think it it references more of the piano and the string relationship that she had with the horse in previous scenes and that tension of without changing and so much, um, the mute, the cords staying the same. The string sounds being on the same note the entire time. I feel like that just has a lot more attention tension that's built into that relationship . So let's send this off to the director, see what they think
11. Commercial: Deer: The next project is a commercial, and there are two parts to it. There's kind of two complementary commercial shots that are similar, and we're going approach them. I think there's some nuances. It can be learned from looking at both of them. And this one is a bit different in terms of the creative brief, because it's very specific. And the reason it's different is because I'm working with a music production company and not directly with the director of the client. So how that works is there's an agency. Agency Contracts the Music Production Company, the music production company that hires several composers to write tracks that they submit to the agency. We don't know which track they might pick, so it could be mine that selected or could not be, have a very short time frame. Usually it's about 24 hours to finish everything up, and so in this situation there's some pretty clear direction that I walk through in a minute for what needs to happen on this particular cut. So let's play the cut for the first commercial which will call dear and give you a chance to see how it looks without music, If I could give you only one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be it's intelligent headlights with a different settings. The bison on headlamps adapt to any speed, whether or traffic situation, which makes it much safer to go running through the woods at night. Trust. May I know what I'm talking about? Now let's look at the cut with the reference track. Now they The feedback the week out from the creative director was that they don't like the lack of energy in this particular piece. So, um, that's more. What they're looking to do is to kind of re do that and get something more energetic. But let's take a look at it and then see what we think afterwards. If I could give you only one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be it's intelligent headlights with a different settings. The bison on headlamps adapt to any speed, weather or traffic situation, which makes it much safer to go running through the woods at night. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. Okay, so I guess I see what they're talking about. There's, um a lot of light sounds in here not a lot of you. Only one reason to U S intelligence. Not a lot of depth for a large period of this. So if they're looking for something stronger, then I might needed to change the instrumentation, not utilize this very closely. So it's kind of a funny example there providing a reference track, but they're saying we don't like it so and yet they somewhat like it cause they had chosen it before. They just needed to be a little different. So the challenge is trying to figure out which parts to keep and kind of work with and the what parts to change. And I think what? I'm looking at this. There's a couple things to come to mind and we'll talk about that in a minute. Okay, let's take this dear commercial and run it through this decision matrix and see what kind of information comes up. So initially hit points with a commercial are gonna be very clear. It's it's very short. Um, what is it like about 30 seconds the length. So there's gonna be a clear stop point and the clear any point. And also there's this moment whom when we fast forward here we reached. There's a reveal of this dear and then the car. There's a pause and then it comes back in. So those were gonna be a couple key points that need to be hit. Um, in terms of a tempo, commercials need to be a pretty quip pace. So we want to have something that's pretty upbeat. I don't think the temple that they were using in the reference track was that far off. Maybe that's a good example, something that we take forward into the composing process and simply respond to their feeling that it didn't have enough energy by doing more with orchestration or the instrumentation on it and kind of keep a similar tempo in terms of responsiveness. You know, there's definitely a lot of dark images here. It's a night. There's kind of some quick edits that are happening, so probably something that feels very much in line with the moving picture and a commercial tends to be have closer scoring than, ah, film or a documentary. Meaning that we're going to look is only 30 seconds long, so every second counts. And so the changes that are happening are gonna be very specific and the music needs to be changing in those moments. So we're definitely there's some anticipation for when this reveal happens. And that pause also creates, um, anticipation reaction for when the car comes back. But they happened so quickly that there's not a lot of time for things to build. So it's, I feel like it's a little bit more in the reactive stage than it is in the anticipation stage. It's like, Oh, there's a dear music cuts out, the car comes back, music comes back in. Let's play that again to give you a sense for how that looks he'd with traffic situation, which makes it safe to go running through the woods. Nine. Trust me again. Clear hit points there in a lot of responsiveness to what's happening now. The mood. The mood is definitely pretty dark, and I think they're example was dark. I think I want to go that direction to to match the what's happening in the woods and thicker instrumentation if they don't feel like it has enough energy, adding more instruments can often times be a great way of adding more energy to a peace. Finally, the relationship to the whole well, it needs to relate to the other commercial cut. That similar to this will look at it in a few minutes. But for the most part it's a stand alone piece, so it doesn't need to relate to some. Whatever came before it or after it, it really needs to just hold it so.
12. Commercial: Mannequin: So now we're gonna work on the second part of the commercial pair. Okay, As I mentioned before with this commercial that there were two parts, there was the deer one which would bar started working on. And now we're gonna pick up the one will call Mannequin. It's the same sort of sequence, but a different character. And, uh so let's take a look at what that one looks like without the reference truck. If I could give you only one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be it's outstanding design with a new sedan body shape. It turns more heads than ever before. It's the best mirror I could imagine. Too bad I'll never drive it myself. OK, now let's look at it again with the reference truck. If I could give you any one reason to drive the new Astra him would be its outstanding design. With a new sedan body shape, it turns more heads than ever before. It's the best mirror I could imagine. Too bad I'll never drive it myself. Okay, so let's take mannequin through the decision. Make fix. We've been using on these other pieces again. It's a commercial so hit points are gonna be very clear. We have, you know, beginning point. Um, we have this point here where there's a transition to her face. This is a little bit of a difficult one because, you know, we're gonna respond when it's blurry or when it actually changes. It comes into focus. Um, and then we have this point at the end when the car comes back, so hit points are pretty clear. Um, tempo clearly, again, being a commercial, it needs to be upbeat and needs to have a clear and fast tempo to keep it moving. Um, are we responding? Are anticipating to events. I think that again, with a commercial, there's less anticipation and more response, especially with some of the quick edits and the changes with the reveal of this particular character. You know, if there's a theme here that someone's, there's a voice over, but it's maybe not who you expect before it was. Maybe this deer, and now it's a mannequin. It's a little unclear. So it's How do you make the music convey that? There's a moment of surprise that happens at at this element here, but that's a little bit more of a reaction than it is an anticipation, in my opinion, the mood. It's not a dark piece like it was before, but it's definitely moody. You know, again, these shots air. There's a lot of dark coloration in them, a lot of gray here, not a lot of color. And it's a little bit lighter than the one in the force, but still pretty. It's still pretty moody. So I think having that the music fit that match, that would be good. And again, we want to have some sort of relationship to the other commercial cut. But some of that is already accomplished by the format being so similar, car driving around, reveal of the character and then back with the car at the end. So the music just needs to really support this particular section. So let's dive into the work on this piece specifically
13. Initial Work on Deer: Okay, so it's time to dive in and start to create some examples. I pulled the video into logic and laid out some markers for it already. Let's take a look at where those landed the initial one here. If I could give you only one marked where I right where it starts, it's not on the downbeat. I'm not gonna worry about that for the moment. It will be a important to do later, but not the moment. And then the ending right when the deer comes in, so get in there close. We can see right where that change happened. So it's kind of right in there again. I just kind of put that in there. For the moment, I had a different color on it. Sometimes I like to show the I am display color, so I know where to while watching it clues me into a little bit better. And then let's turn these other ones a different color, like light blue. So in the beginning, the break and then the Andy. Okay, so, uh, we have our start point. If I could give you only one reason to drive the new Astra, it would go running through the woods and comes to the end. Trust. May I know what I'm talking about? All right, So now it's time to do some sketching. So I'm gonna put on some piano parts and come back in a second here. We can take a look at him. Okay, so I've recorded a couple different piano parts. Now, this commercials air tough because the time frame is so small that it really needs toe work . Well, and so there's, um, Generate find that it takes number of takes to try to find something you like. I'm just gonna walk you through a couple different, um, examples to see. But they sounded like if I could give you only one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be It's intelligent headlights with a different settings. The optional lies in on the headlamps adapt to any speed, weather or traffic situation, which makes it much safer to go running through the woods at night. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. Okay, so it kind of what I found was there is a ah pattern in there that works pretty good. At least have fits chord wise. The timing's not great, but again, this is too rough. Track. Was were just starting to lay things in. Um, let's listen to another one here that I tried. If I could give you only one reason to drive the new esta, it would be it's intelligent headlights with eight different settings. Theon optional eyes in on headlamps adapt to any speed with traffic situation, which makes it much safer to go running through the woods at night. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. Well, that one definitely doesn't add more energy. And it's a little bit to happy feeling, I think. And considering that there are other example, let's listen to that one more time. Here again, if I could give you only one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be it's intelligent headlights with a different settings. The bison on headlamps adapt to any speed, weather or traffic situation. So in some ways I feel like that sample truck is a contrast in mood because it's pretty lighthearted and especially right here, where it changes tone, any speed with a traffic situation, which makes it much safer. Um, you know, it gives it a very sort of gentle, happy, even slightly. So you know, I tried that out myself here, but I just don't feel like that's the right fit. So I think something more along the lines of the darker one that I played before again excusing the piano performance. I could give you only one reason to drive the new Astra. It would be it's intelligent headlights with eight different settings. Thea Personal Isen on the headlamps Adapt any speed, whether or traffic situation, which makes it much safer to go running through the woods at night. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. Okay, so I think that's more of the tone that I think that I want to go with. Okay, so I reworked the piano a little bit to give it some or energy. I think this is Maurin Lines, and I'm also kind of trying to hone in on a tempo about 120 beats per minute, which is a good clip of a pace. Um, let's listen to this one here. If I could give you only one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be it's intelligent headlights with a different settings. Optional dies It on headlamps adapt to any speed, whether or traffic situation, which makes it much safer to go running through the woods at night. Trust May I know what I'm talking about? So this is, Uh oh, that feels a little bit better to me. I think that's the kind of energy in the least, a chord progression that I want to go with, Um, something that we need to look at here, which makes us a little bit of a difficult piece, is the way that it's laid out. So with the tempo that I chose, I like the way that feels. I tried a couple slower ones a little bit faster, but this kind of feels like the right tempo. Let's look at this music and lay it out here into phrases. Four bar phrases or two bar phrases. Air, usually more. They just more what pop music sounds like. So people are more acclimated to that. And so each of these core changes are happening over two measures. So I have this for you. Change in this ladies to drive us, and then it shifts again. So again, coming up from the next section, it would be it's intelligent headlines with a different set. And then it comes back again and it shifts again. So right here I have eight bars. That's typically what people are most used to hearing. So it starts halfway through or two goes, Have If you are 10 8 bars now, I have this last little flourish to get to the end, and I have to do so and two bars, so it's gonna fit pretty well. Not gonna be an unnatural it's not. 2.5 bars are two and one beat. It fits very nicely, right toe where the reveal happens for the deer. Pretty darn close right there. They could probably fix that on the edit, but it means that if I start from the beginning, if I can give you, it's a little space. If I could give you only one reason to drive the US tra, it would be it's intelligent. All the court changes are exactly to measure stings. Thea. Optional lies in on headlamps. Adapt any speed with traffic situation, which makes it much safer to go running. That stopping point feels somewhat natural now. The challenge here is it. At this point, it's not an even measure to get back in. So if we look, it's starting right here. Trust me. Well, I would have told him. So there's like an extra beat in there that we need to deal with now. Fortunately, nothing's happening. But if if they were rhythm, that was rhythm that was happening throughout the space, this return would be really awkward. I think we're gonna be able to get around it because of the fact that, as I mentioned, we can continue at this pace. Hit the brake, no music's plane, and we come back in and no one's gonna notice that. We added one beat in there at least will be a lot less noticeable. So I'll play for you one more time, right through this break, and then I'll wrap up and send this to the drug feed with traffic situation, which makes it much safer to go running through the woods at night. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. Okay, so let me send this off to the creative director. Get their feedback again. This is not the client. The ultimate client on the craters director's role is to, um help guide things and They're the ones that talk to the client initially. Know what they want and give me feedback if this is on the right track.
14. Initial Work on Mannequin: Okay, So the information they provided about this particular cut was again that it didn't have enough energy. And I can see that. I mean, it's only got this piano happening and let's listen to a couple of points here again. If I could give you any one reason to drive the new Astra him would be its outstanding design. With a new sedan body shape, it turns more heads than ever before. It's the best mirror I could imagine. Too bad I'll never drive it myself. Especially this last part. Um, you know, consider that they wanted so much room from the other one. You can see that it just sort of comes right back to the same piano here and leading up to the reveal this moment. Here s Mayor. I could imagine. Too bad I have a driving myself with only not that the slowing down IFC isn't being a problem, but the fact that there's no other instrumentation, the piano slowing down really lowers energy in that point. So, again, this is the feedback there. Providing the challenge is how to take the reference that they have but to change a little bit. So what? I feel like I could be done. Um, it was definitely play with the piano idea, a good piano player so they can play off without, too. Bring some strength to a good piano part Onda also just received. Maybe they're faster pace or something more than And so let's take a look at some of the examples that I worked on, and I'll show you kind of talking through those. Okay, so let's dive in and see what happens when we start toe play with this particular cut. Make a little bigger here for you to see. Um, I want to put some markers and again. So let's find out where the starting point is already marked. The beginning here for when it comes in and let's go to the end. There is this. This is a really fuzzy moment compared to the deer which jumped out at you, this one sort of as a blurry reveal. I mean, it's hard to know exactly when, and it's actually happening here. Tinian. Change these a slightly here, go back that point, and where the reveal is, you could either maybe go from this moment when the face first becomes visible or sort of this moment right here. It's a tough call. You kind of just put it sort of right in the middle for now, as I'm sketching since super important at this stage. But it's something that will need to figure out as toe when, um, how that process works. So if I listened to them the reference track again, if I could give you any one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be it's outstanding design. I want to play with some piano parts and then come back to. So I worked on a couple different piano parts and let me take you through some examples that I created to, you know, see how they said If I could give you any one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be it's outstanding design with a new sedan body shape, it turns more heads than ever. It's the best mirror I could imagine. Too bad I'll never drive myself. No. Okay, well, that's a little dramatic. Also the time he didn't seem to work out really well for this. Reveal where it was sort of ended too soon. Now I have the Metrodome on. When I was playing that to to try to keep this rhythmical movement. If I could give you only one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be it's outstanding design. With a new sedan body shape, it turns more heads than ever before. It's the best mirror I could imagine. Okay, so that's one example. Let me play free another one. If I could give you anyone reason to drive that you Astra, it would be It's outstanding design. With the new sedan body shape, it turns more heads than ever before. It's the best mirror I could imagine. Too bad I'll never drive it myself, still sending a little bit light to me again. I'm just, you know, sometimes you have to put a lot of ideas out there. Better to create more and eliminate them than to be stuck with not enough Chinese. If I could give you any one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be it's outstanding design. With a new sedan body shape, it turns heads than ever before. It's the best mirror I could imagine. Too bad I'll never drive it myself. Well, that would have better timing, Um, but again, it still feels a little bit Melo. If I could give you any one reason to drive you Astra, it would be it's outstanding design. With the new sedan body shape, it turns more heads than ever before. It's the best mirror I could imagine. Too bad I'll never drive it myself. Well, it doesn't feel right, but I do think that the some of the quicker pace seems to work well with the changing of images. Let's look at that one again. If I could give you any one reason to drive you Astra, it would be it's outstanding design e intended notice, a little bit more of the quickness of the cuts that are going on in this one, Um, but it doesn't feel right. Even that's the same similar idea. If I could give you me one reason to drive you Astra, it would be it's outstanding design. With a new sedan body shape, it turns more heads than ever before. It's the best mirror I could imagine. Too bad I'll never drive it myself, and there was a little bit too slow. So somewhere in there I'm gonna find another. Basically, I'm that happy with any of these. So somewhere in here I have to find a balance point. I think between some of that triplet feel if I could get something a little bit more of a quicker pace to it. So I'm gonna take a I'm gonna work on that a little bit more and might just send off some of these ideas to the creative director to give some input, See if he has any ideas on how to change what's happening on that will come back.
15. Director Revisions: Deer: Okay, So her back from the creative director, they gave me a thumbs up. They said, Sounds good. Um, again, they didn't show it to the client. They're just giving me feedback to continue the work. They're not gonna give the track to the client until it's totally done. So I'm gonna keep working on it now and have started to lay in more specifically, um, the some different parts. So I'm gonna start playing you through some things. First of all, I want just to put down, get my tempo and again. Oh, there was one more thing that changed too. They changed the timing of the voiceover. Fortunately, it didn't really affect the start and stop time, so it didn't require many modifications. But I did have to restart the program and load in the new sample and start this piece from scratch because of that. So I'll play through just the initial piano sketch and then some of the pieces that I'm gonna be putting into this headlights with eight different settings. Thea personal rise in on the headlamps, adapt to any speed, whether or traffic situation, which makes it much safer to go running through the woods at night. Trust. May I know what I'm talking about? Okay, so I've gone ahead and recorded number different parts. I'm gonna take you through here to show you how I wanted to build some energy in this particular piece. Um, as I mentioned before, because of the fact they wanted more energy. It's the dark imagery. Definitely want to have something in there. That sort of evokes some of that mystery that I think they're trying to convey. In the commercial units go to the forest. There's a lot of twists and turns, so I want to find some sounds that have a lot more kind of nuance to them in that regard. So I'm gonna play for you. This version. Um well, just gonna walk through and see what's what's there. If I could give you only one reason to drive us, it would be It's intelligent headlines with a different settings. Optional lies in on the headlamps, adapt to any speed with traffic situation, which makes it much safer to go running through the woods and night. Trust me, I know what I'm told. Okay, so let me talk you through a few things on here. and why I made those decisions. I have noticed from the reference track that there was, ah, buildup where they started off with some lighter sounds. And then, as we start to get close to this reveal of the deer there, cement energy that builds up. So I want to hold off a little bit. So there's somewhere to go. But give it a little bit more room from the start. So included more based sounds and some thicker notes than what was in the reference track In the beginning, let's play that again and listen to it. If I could give you only one reason to drive us tra, it would be It's intelligent headlines with a different settings. Three optional lies in on headlamps adapt to any speed with traffic situation, which makes it much safer. This is really the turning point right here where we switch from starting to bring in some of these other sounds to swell up to that finish. Safer to go running there with woods and trust me, I know what I'm told. Okay, so I'm pretty happy without that sounds, I'm gonna export this and send it off for the creative director again and see what kind of thoughts that they have
16. Alternative Revisions: Deer: Okay, So I heard by from the creative director they showed my track to the client, and they're really happy with it. Ah, a couple of things. Though they would like to see different. They want to see a bit more energy. In the beginning. Let's go back and look at my example to notice what they're talking about. So in my the sample that I sent in them, it is a little bit of a soft start. If I could give you only one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be it's intelligent headlights, you know, the rhythmical elements. And the first a couple measures there is pretty light. Um, I get their point on that. So I'm gonna need to do something to spruce that up a little bit when we play one more time again. If I could give you only one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be it's intelligent headlines with a difference. And the other thing they wanted to do was at the end of the piece where, um, let's make this little bigger so you can see where the words changed those words when they pop in right there they want those to be emphasized about someone to figure out something to do so that when it switches from the work, the car to the words and that other than not just experts, comes in to emphasize that some way. So let me get working on that, and then we'll come back and take a look at the final version. So here's the final version, I add. It's more rhythmical energy in the beginning, and then what I did was add some guitar in there. I made some rhythmical tones there and the very end. Um, also used a guitar to emphasize those last words. And here's how it turned out. If I could give you only one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be it's intelligent headlights with a different settings. Three optional lies in on headlamps. Adapt any speed, whether or traffic situation, which makes it much safer to go running through the woods at night. Trust me, I know what I'm talking. Okay, so I'll show those moments real quick again so you can notice it. The very end. Listen to the further where the words come in. So kind of a clear emphasis on that and also from the beginning, where there's more rhythm. If I could give you only one reason to drive the new Astra, so those moments that satisfied them and they were really happy with the final project.
17. Director Revisions: Mannequin: Okay, so we're back to the mannequin piece and I worked on the piano again. Think found a better compromise. Let me play it for you. If I could give you any one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be it's outstanding design. With the new Sudan body shape, it turns more heads than ever before. It's the best mirror I could imagine. Too bad I'll never drive in myself. Okay, so it feels a little better, but I'm gonna do is I'm gonna work on flushing this out a little bit more because again, the feedback from the client initially on the reference track that they provided was that it didn't have enough energy. So a piano on Lee one would still be a continuation of that place. Um, without any particular energy that's going on with it. So especially this ending here, the drive myself. I want that to have some some definite move to. So I'm gonna work on some of that. Come back to you. Okay. So I got the feedback from the creative director. They shared the final version with the client and a couple more points of modification. They thought they like it. They felt like the beginning could have more strings in it rather than just piano. Which makes sense. I should've maybe noticed that because the reference track again is only piano and something they didn't like. So the final version definitely needs to have more than just piano in it. And then a little bit more move at the end, and I think we're good. Let me play through for you the final version. If I could give you only one reason to drive than you Astra, it would be It's outstanding design. With New Sudan body shape, it turns more heads than ever before. It's the best mirror I could imagine. Too bad I'll never drive in myself. So again, let's listen the beginning. A little bit more strings in there. Two for the provide war substance. If I could give you only one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be it's outstanding design with you Sudan body shape, it turns more heads than ever before. It's the best mirror I could imagine. Too bad I'll never drive in myself. When I'm using is a cello sound that I'm swelling in there to hit certain points while walking through those. If I could give you any one reason to drive the new Astra, it would be it's outstanding design right when the car was changing. Put in the cello sound toe. Emphasis. Outstanding design With new Sudan body shape, it turns more heads than ever before. Right here the cello changes from her face to her hand. On those notes, you sit down body shape. It turns more heads than ever before way. It's the best mirror I could imagine. Too bad you'll never drive in myself. Okay, so that was the final version and they were really happy with it.
18. Final Thoughts: well, that concludes this course. We've gone through a journey looking at four different types of films. We've looked at narrative films. We've looked at documentaries and some commercials. Hopefully, by weaving through these different storylines, you're able to see what kind of challenges contend to come up when you're composing in these situations and have some strategies for what to do when you might encounter them to yourself. Okay, so now it's time to work on the class. Project has some instructions there for you, for one what to do. You can read through those to find guidance, and if you want a composer film, you just got to try it at some point. So this is a perfect example to take a stab recording for some things and submit that to the class. Get some feedback from your peers and try out some of the examples that I've set up for you . So go over there, take a look and give it a try. Thanks for taking a class
19. Student Critique: Well, hello again if you're taking this class of the first time and you've arrived at this point the first videos I made a couple of years ago and I'm jumping back into this class to provide some extra material because I think could be really helpful to go over some of the student projects that have happened since then and provide some further feedback and advice that would benefit all of you. So what I'll do first is play the video with no music, just all the background sounds. Then I'll play the student examples and go through and provide some direct feedback around . Maybe what I might do different. So here's original video with no music and now here is the students Rough draft for this piece on. What I encourage these students to do is the same thing that I do initially, which is to just try out some ideas. Don't worry too much about production, but just try to get the layout of the melody and the theme tow line up with the hit points that you need to hit. So this might sound a little unfinished, but that's OK because we're just trying to look at the form in the shape. - No . All right. So I think this is a great starting point. And what I did to analyze this a little bit further that I pulled it into a built in so I can start to lay out the format and see where things were at. So here's what the video starts, and one of the first things I'm gonna do is go through and identify where the title is. Because that's kind of where we're aiming for at the ah, about Right Right about there. And put a marker there. Okay, so let's give this another listen, - you know. All right, so this starts off and establishes a very clear theme. Repeats it a second time. So the 1st 1 starts here the second right here. Gonna put a little marker there for that one, too, just to keep track of things for the purposes of this class. And then the third time the theme comes up is right over here. So we start off with establishing this theme place through it twice. Then we have this kind of, like interlude, period. And then it comes back to the theme at the end What I noticed immediately was in this middle section, approximately right in here. Things started to feel pretty dull and boring to me. I didn't really know where it was going was becoming very repetitive. And some good advice that I heard from my composition teachers in college when I was studying and also from my piano teacher's is if any time that you're going to repeat something, never do it the same. So this piece repeats this main melody line three times in a row with really no variation. So my first encouragement would be toe Look at what can we do at least by the third time that the melody comes around that something is different. If something's gonna be changing now, you might be able to accomplish that by an arrangement may be introducing another instrument, and so this is just a rough draft and not considered to be the finished piece, so I don't want to over analyse necessarily how you might introduce Mawr variation to it, but that would definitely be a direction that I would be pushing the student to think about now. The other thing that I'd say is it felt like in this middle section that were kind of just filling space until we get to this point here and then the theme comes back and we finish up by the title. Now, I've definitely done that before when I'm making a rough draft because I'm playing along trying to anticipate where the hit point is that I'm getting, too. And I'm improvising apart and it kind of just takes longer than I thought. And then the music for that section ends up just sounding really mindless and pointless because it's not really going anywhere. It's just filling space, and that's definitely something you want. Avoid when you're making music for moving. Picture music needs to be either building intention or decreasing intention. It doesn't stay stagnant. So if your music at any point is stagnant, it's gonna feel really awkward. Okay, so here's a theme again way. Think of what to do in this particular section here to provide more variation. One thing we could do is to change, maybe the core progression when it turns around again for the second time, maybe something like that that helps change it up a little bit. And maybe in the third part we could move the melody line up. So instead of starting here like that Now, I think that the timing wise, if we cut out some of that part in the middle where it feels a little bit stalled and we make the third iteration a little bit longer, I think we can still land at the titles. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna play this again and a mute this track and see if I can get the timing tow line up correctly and we go, - I need to play a little bit slower. You can see I didn't quite make it for the end. I mean, try that again. - Okay , so that was a little bit. And the other thing I would suggest, as this would get developed a little bit further, is the start. Thinking about arrangements are bringing in another part. And maybe when we get to the final it aeration of a theme and maybe a talked about like so it goes things like this. Maybe we owe bring the piano part down a little bit lower, maybe add more face to the pio. A couple different variations I would want to work on to come up with a final idea to summarize. I think this is a great starting point and there's a very clear theme. It's got a nice ending to it. I think it fits very well with the film. Question will be whether or not the director would like it, and they would fit with the overall theme of the film. Now we don't really know anything about this story, so it's hard to say if the music is a perfect fit for it. If it was a story about this guy going out the seat of fish and he ends up getting killed in a storm or there's a fugitive who stowed away in the boat and it's gonna murder him, this wouldn't be the right music for that. But assuming it's a nice tale about maybe a man who reunites with his daughter, um, something along those lines. This theme that the student created has a very nice, nostalgic quality to it that could certainly work, but I'm hoping that you get out of this demonstration today is how to take a theme and work with it a little bit to fit in this particular time slot, where you're trying to start at the opening and then land on the title sequence at the end
Jonathan Haidle
