Introduction
Note: This lecture is available online (except for audio and video clips for legal reasons) at
http://coppercloudmusic.com/zgi2010/
Why does a film need music?
Or does it?
Psycho vs. The Birds
Sound and music cause physiological and psychological responses:
Some feelings that sound inspires are innate, some are learned, like church music.
My dog's favorite word: "Chookeebyebreawah"
Film mirrors real world human experience, except for music. Violins don't start to play in the background when you fall in love. But some violin music makes you feel like you did when you fell in love.
For whatever reason music has the ability to hack into our emotions. It can be an extremely powerful tool to talk to your audience. Tell them what to feel, tell them where they are, smooth transitions between scenes, or really confuse them.
Recut Trailers:
All human experience is about change, our minds focus on change. Our eyes and ears especially single out the new or different. Good story telling involves change. The unexpected inspires curiosity. A good score will change with the action, and when it's not needed, it will get out of the way.
If you want to emphasize something, make a change in how it represented visually or sonically.
Also, if you want to keep something interesting musically, use multiple layers of instrument lines.
Avoid verbatim repetition. Your audience will get bored and try to tune out the music or noises.
There's power in silence. Important dialog coming up? Kill the music, maybe even the foley, too. That change will cause your audience to focus again on what they are about to hear.
Music allows you to soften or harden transitions, compress or elongate the passage of time, comment on characters and their motivations, and clue in or even trick the audience. It can't put in something that isn't already there!
Choosing Music
Style is always first consideration. Then decide on mood, instruments, tempo, etc.
The style helps you place your setting, time period, and general feel.You can have more than one style, but it should work for your film and have your score still feel like a connected whole.
Know the cliché
Expectation and good story telling:
"A guy walks into a bank..."
What do you expect to happen? How interesting would that first idea be?
What makes an interesting story, or joke, or piece of music is to take that expectation and then turn it. Know what is expected and do something different.
A slight change makes it interesting, a bigger change can make it funny. A huge change makes it surreal.
Allow for Happy Accidents
Play bits of music off of amazon.com or iTunes while you have a scene looping in another window. See what works, and what doesn't. Try to figure out why and see if you can apply what you've discovered to other parts of your film.
Remember, if something doesn't work, try something else!
Composer / Music Libraries / Licensed Music
Use what works. If it doesn't work, find something that does.
Music Library
By far the easiest is the music library. Usually very high quality recordings. Most grant you a usage license just by purchasing a disc or downloaded file. Prices can vary greatly, but can be very economical. Downsides are that you have to edit your film to match the music, and that it's difficult to find several tracks that suit your different emotional directions, but still work well together without your film sounding like a hodgepodge of different genres.
Music CDs: Usually grant you a license to use the music just by buying the CD. Read the fine print!
Good site for licensing music, they have wide variety of styles and even popular artists. Depending on your distribution (festival or general theater release) and the popularity of the artist fees run between $200 and $55k.
Licensing Existing Music
Licensing well known music is usually prohibitively expensive. It is also time consuming, even with lesser known artists. The parties that own the publishing rights must be tracked down and a deal negotiated for the rights.
On the plus side, smaller films can usually get a break, or even a cheaper clearance deal for festival performances only.
Their asking price will also depend on the popularity of the music you want, how many seconds of it will be in your film, if it occurs in the open titles or end credits, if there are lyrics in the music, and if the lyrics or title of the song are the same as the title of your film.
Some terminology, there are two types of usage licenses and you'll usually need both.
Synchronization License: allows you to put copyrighted music into your film and distribute / show it
Mechanical License: allows you to use / reproduce the actual recording of the music. The only time you wouldn't need a mechanical license would be if your production recorded it's own version of the song, or just have a character singing it on screen
There are many agencies that you can hire to track down and negotiate a deal for you
Music Clearance Companies:
http://www.themusicbridge.com/
Composer
The last option I'm going to cover is using a composer, because that's what I know. Even if you don't use a composer, most of what I'll cover can be applied to any music you put in your film.
How to find a composer?
This really shouldn't be a problem. Almost everyone involved with music wants to score films.
If you don't know someone you can post a job listing at
Or track down someone via google or a social networking site:
What you need to know is that composers are like actors, most can only do a couple types of role well. Listen carefully to their demo work and make sure it'll be a good match. Someone who specializes in slasher films might not do that well with a romantic comedy.
The Deal / Payment
Specify how much the composer will be paid and when, usually half up front and half on completion. Also, terms for "signing off" on cues, deadlines, and causes for firing. Some may work for nothing except a future percentage of profits.
Package Deal
Composer gets paid a lump sum which includes his fee, rental and recording costs. Protects you from cost overruns, but you have to be explicit in your contract about what is required from the composer.
Live Instruments
A few live instruments can make all the difference in a score, even making sampled instruments in the background sound real. Real performers and the additional time and costs (prep of sheet music, rehearsal time, recording costs) greatly affect your timeline and budget. If you want them, your contract needs to be explicit on those issues.
Work for Hire / Publishing Rights
If you can't afford to pay your composer much, you probably shouldn't push Work for Hire. By allowing them to keep the copyright to the score, you encourage them to work harder on the score. They may be able to use the music elsewhere in the future or release it on an album, as opposed to losing it forever. Work for Hire is cleaner from a legal standpoint though. Your mileage may vary. At the very least...
Big Four Terms your contract must have:
1. Right to Synchronize to Picture, and exploit the picture including score
2. In all media, whether now known or hereafter created
3. In perpetuity
4. Throughout the universe
You may also want to include a Non-Disclosure Agreement or Clause (NDA)
Contracts and releases:
http://www.filmtvcontracts.com/
http://www.perfectlylegalforms.com/
What your composer needs:
Spotting session and/or spotting notes - watching film with composer and discussing what you want
Spotting Notes usually notes look something like this:
7M54 - ALEX AND DAVID BEFORE BOXING MATCH
01:13:20
START score when David and Alex "bump" into each other
Uplifting when Alex's trainer shows up
Continues gently
Becomes darker at flashback of gravesite
END on a cadence at end of scene
Styles, instruments, feel of film, what is the film trying to say
Temp music or examples - temporary music placed in rough cut to help with editing or preview screening
Sign-off agreement - how and when you decide to OK a cue, only really needed in a formal or a medium to high budget project
Locked copy of film or reels
DVD's are great, as are mov files that can fit onto a disk.
Smaller version of is a great help and makes sending over internet easier
Composer will use a smaller version for composing, 320 pixels wide is a good size
Apple Tutorial on using Compressor to convert video to small, web friendly format:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/tutorials/#tab=fcserver&tutorial=mov-comweb
Sending over the internet: post to a website using http / https / ftp, use rar file for password protection
Time to develop themes and demos for your OK
Time to write and record finished cues
Composer Speak
It's a good thing if you express what you want for a particular scene or event using "feeling" words rather than obscure italian musical terms like rubato or diminuendo. Words like "heroic", "warm", "timid", "brooding", "playful", "harsh", "arrogant", "itchy", "buzzy", or "conflicted" are a wonderful help.
General
Cue: a piece of music for a scene
Sequencer: software a composer uses to organize music and audio data into a cue. Usually has a video window synced frame for frame to the music
Stem: an individual instrument's audio track, part of a whole cue
Spotting: meeting in which the producer, director, and composer view the unfinished film and discuss where music should go, and what it needs to accomplish
Mock-up: synthesizer and sampler version of a cue that will be later recorded with live instruments. Used to get sign-off from the film makers on the music before it's too late to change
Dubbing: the actual mixing of the dialog, foley, noises, and score into the final audio tracks of the film. Sometimes includes audio processing like reverb as well.
Ducking: editing sound envelopes so that music is soft enough that dialog can be heard, done my the mixing engineer in a larger film
Side-band compression: audio processor that automatically ducks music under a dialog or effects track. Used extensively in documentaries because it is easier with large amounts of dialog or narration
Underscore: music that can fit under dialog and comment without interfering with it
Source music: music that appears to be coming from somewhere on screen, like from a band or radio
Bumper: in television, a short musical cue that comes before or after a commercial break
Hitting the mark: musically accentuating a precise event on screen
Micky-Mousing: hitting almost every event on screen, like a cartoon. Often occurs in action movies.
Musical Terms
Theme: a melody that represents a certain character, place, or mood that repeats throughout film
Leitmotif: a short series of notes, an instrument, or sound that functions like a theme, and represents a person, place or element in the film
Tempo: the speed of the music
Timbre: the essential quality of a sound, what distinguishes a flute from a violin
Orchestration: instrument choices
Quantization: sequencer tool for the artificial "correction" of musical notes to a rigid tempo. A little can be good, too much gives a very mechanical feel, which you may want.
Dissonance / Consonance: relative tension or harshness of harmony, and the lack of it. Example of going back and forth from dissonant to consonant.
Shock chord: a loud, sharp, harsh collection of notes used to surprise the audience
Drone: a long, sustained note or effect that doesn't change in pitch. Instantly are "felt" by audience rather than noticed. They lose their effect if too long.
Swell: a rising and falling of an instrument's volume
Crescendo: rising volume and force to a peak
Ostinato: a motif that repeats over and over, acting as a back bone for other melodies
Counterpoint: two or more different melody lines that play over one another
Atonal: music which appears to consist of only "wrong" notes
Cluster: a group of instruments all playing semi-random pitches
Tremolo: fast repetition of notes
Trill: fast repetition of alternating notes
FX
Reverb: audio effect that simulates the natural acoustics of a location such as a concert hall, tiled room, or warehouse. A little goes a very long way. Amount of reverb: 10% 40% 60%
Delay: audio effect like a crisp echo, is also good for causing a dreamlike feeling
Impulse response: a digital representation of the acoustics of a location, usually a multi-channel sound recording of a loud sharp noise (starter pistol.) A life saver for ADR, or if you want your source music to really appear to be in the scene with the actors. A room versus a warehouse
Example Clips. Yeah!
Style
John Barry, the composer for the original James Bond films was signed on to write the music for The Incredibles, the perfect person to spoof the genre. Though he dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, Michael Giacchino followed the style perfectly, even choosing record the entire jazz orchestra in single takes to get the 60's vibe right.
clip-rainmaker-crossingstyles.avi
Recent law school graduate in Memphis, where a lot of classic blues came from.
clip-raising_arizona-unexpected.avi
Unconventional music for a police chase.
The music here needed to be stronger.
S
The music clips we mixed together here are probably too strong, but are better for a chase.
S
Traditional Japanese drum music called Taiko, and an ancient theatre form called Noh. Juxtaposing old and new (tribal gang and futuristic landscape.) Fast rhythm gives it energy.
SO
Gasps, mimicking pain, or being out of breath. They speed up as the fear in the scene increases. Creates a visceral feeling of fear and alarm.
OH
cinderellaman-ethnic-instruments.avi
Can you you guess the boxer's heritage? Fiddle, dulcimer, Ullean pipes, low Irish whistle
SO
The Ullean pipes convey that the workers are of Irish descent.
SO
clockworkorange-conflictingmusic.avi
Malcolm McDowell's character is a sociopath who experiences joy from beautiful music and by violence. The choice of uplifting music during his attack is intentionally disturbing.
S
Theme
Same brass instruments play Indiana Jones theme, then the evil Nazi theme.
SOT
Use of the main theme, but with a different instrument (piano instead of alto sax) and with a different vibe.
T
A key scene in the film, almost every theme and motif used in the film appear here. Shows use of orchestration in creating themes. Also note that the reaction music appears about a half second after the surprise.
TH
Orchestration
Half speed Gamelan gongs and metal percussion emphasize the cold metal of the space station.
Throughout this film I used the sounds of a musicbox and a duduk, an ancient form of the oboe, often regarded as being most imitative of a man's voice. Here the instruments are used in an upbeat title sequence.
Still using the musicbox and duduk, the mood is sad. Scene includes a flashback to the main title sequence.
americanbeauty-power-of-bass-strings.avi
Starts with silence, then muted, sustained violins come in. Piano softly plays one of the main themes. The emotional impact of the dialog is reinforced by the bass and cellos coming in.
O
Synthesizer and then bass strings imitate slo-mo footage and slowed down helicopter foley. When we return to normal speed we have every instrument in the orchestra playing something different, a massive cluster of sound. the cue fades out into the next scene.
O
cinderellaman-versatility-of-strings.avi
Strings capable of love theme and then creating an oppressive mood. Note that the English horn is used in this film to mirror the feelings of Zelweger's character.
O
Toni Collette's character is represented by flutes, while Paltrow's is by clarinets and possibly a bassoon. The mood invoked by the music is of good intentioned scheming.
SO
A hurdy-gurdy is a crank driven violin with keys. the strings resonate inside the instrument and create a wheezy, claustrophobic sound. This mimics the feeling of being in a chemical warfare suit. Note also the change over to guitar and drums for the touchdowns.
SO
This scene could have been scary, but instead the music tells us that it's mysterious. The hammered dulcimer is a traditionally appalachian or folk instrument, emphasizing the setting. The bass flute mimics the voice of Jodi Foster's character.
O
Again there is mystery here, but there are no percussive elements that would interfere with the foley of the wood chopping.
O
A group of instruments all starting at different pitches is called a cluster. It creates a disorienting, dissonant sound. Slow rising or falling glissandos of string clusters are a horror show staple. Note how the glissandos mimic the eye glow.
OF
Theres only a few long notes and very little movement in this cue, but the feeling of hope is conveyed almost entirely by instrument choice. The drums match the tempo of the children's running feet.
O
Music sneaks in during the previous scene, pizzicato (plucked) strings mirror his fast but ambling gate. A lone clarinet warbles slowly to make you feel disturbed. Out of tune dulcimer (maybe banjo) brings the anxiety up further, mirroring the photographer's insanity. Finally, the foley from the train matches the jump cuts at the end.
SOH
This is a date movie, so the music is never too dark. Throughout Paul Bettany's character is associated with guitars and Kirsten Dunst with piano. Mood changes as Paul says "Look." Both piano and guitar play through love theme.
ST
Hitting Mark
Jumps cuts that tell the passage of time are emphasized by being placed on downbeats and the beginning of the singer's words.
Wall to wall music. Garbles the dialog, constant soft movement, but essentially just a drone. Doesn't comment, not memoriable because there's no "hummable" melody.
BH
Here's what happens if you are hitting the action / Micky-Mousing, and are off by a few frames.
BH
End of a four minute scene that is the epitome of a great action cue, finally gets to this point of relative silence. There's a soft metallic synth sound that mirrors the creaking metal of the fire escape and a breathy sound to remind you of the wind. The music gets out of the way of the railing breaking off the wall. then there's a short pulsing of synth bass to sound like a heartbeat. Double bass slaps (drum sound) and short staccato string bows rhythmically lead up to the door bursting open. harp harmonics and plucked strings (pizzicato) for sneaking around, but the rhythm of the notes is unpredictable and the expectation of those notes keeps your focused. Finally it ends anticlimactically and goes quiet. That sets you up for the surprise of the car door slam in the next scene.
HO
Great use of silence as we go into this scene. We're straining to hear the voice on the phone, makes the click from the holster seem much louder and surprising. Music comes in immediately after, it doesn't get in the way of that click. The first musical hit sounds like a growl, drums sound like running, synthesizer bass sounds like a rapid heart beat. Finally there's a drum roll to his escape.
HO
The gist of the scene is that the bad guys are tracking down the hero, the dialog isn't that important and has some tech sounding jargon. Because the mood is what's most important here, the music takes a greater roll. Notice the use of drum hats and cymbals, which interfere with hearing the s's and t's in the dialog, because the dialog isn't that important here it's okay to use them. Also note that jump cut where Cooper hits the wall and the crash cymbal and drums take off. Most of the cuts in this scene line up with the hats.
SHO
Cold ending hitting the cut. Note a few seconds of silence to let audience realize that the film is over before credit music starts.
H
Johnny Depp's character is waiting for the man outside to stop following him. His character's theme has a playful military march feel to it. To indicate the passage of time, the music abruptly changes on the cut to sustained strings and a treble piano part that mimics the nervous tapping of his hand. When the lights come on the nervous music stops.
SOH
Stock horror picture gag. Dragging a pick across a piano's strings, and a rising glissando of clustered strings with a cymbal crash at the end. We have a half second to relax, and then comes the scare.
HO
All the classic (and cliched) Micky-Mousing (closely following action) from glissandos upwards when looking up, downward glissandos when looking down or things falling, xylophone runs for running feet, bassoon playing while something silly is being said, glockenspiel for innocence, tremolos for building anticipation, and finally a shock chord when something scary happens (Roger actually gets shocked!)
HO
A crescendo leading up to the cut.
HO
Commenting
If you watch this scene without music, there's little or no tension. the bowed metallic sounds, the crescendo and tremolo strings before he looks up all tell the audience how to feel. The timpani roll builds up the tension for the turning heads.
C
panslabyrinth-flying-10-second-rule.avi
Flutes line going up and down, up and down is an old trick to mimic flying or flapping wings. Bass strings swell up to mirror her surprise. Mens choir makes an Ahhhh sound when the camera cuts to the open mouth of the statue. Plucked (pizzicato) strings imitate cautious footsteps, and finally a hollow synthesizer sound emphasizes the emptiness of the labyrinth.
ST
The speed of the music slowly increase through the cue as the tension rises.
S
Editing and FX
clip-blood_diamod-reverb_is_scary.avi
Echoes are just scary, I don't know why. Here a military crackdown is accentuated by heavily reverbed percussion.
A slight tone cluster from the strings to show something is wrong, then after the bump to the head, silence and a tone like ringing in the ears. Everything goes quiet so you pay attention to the title card.
Mom comes home from the hospital after a suicide attempt. Music plays and we don't hear the dialog, until the important conversation later.
The opposite of above. Music plays around the important dialog and foley (door bell), not over it.
The source music is supposed to appear to be coming from jukebox, louder when the camera is closer to it, but the timing is off. Also when Michael Caine is across the bar it just stops. It would have been better to have it be heavily reverbed and fade it out over a longer period. They could have also altered the EQ as Caine moved about.
BF
This scene shows shock and emptiness. The background noise fades out, replaced by a hollow, breathy sound. The piano is drenched in reverb, making it sound distant and lonely. The bass drum mimics a slow, heavy heartbeat. Slowly, the garage and street noise return as he walks away.
FOH
casinoroyale-stopping-music.avi
Typical action car chase music, then a shock chord when we see the body in the road. the music cuts off cold which forces us to concentrate on the sounds of the crash.
M
Dropping out crowd noise foley except for photo-bulbs to mimic feeling of being stunned by a punch.
F
This clip needs some set up. The man in the tower has been fatally shot and is trying to warn his partner down below that the killer is looking for him, he had tried a shouting, but no one heard. He drops coins to get clear the crowd below and prepares to jump as an Irish lament plays. The music is placed so that it ends as he jumps. Halfway through his fall, all sound, even the rushing wind, stops. This is so everyone is listening closely when the horrible splat comes.
HSF
The dialog here is not as important as the feeling of bonding, so the dialog cuts out and we only see laughing and chatting as tender, but sad music plays.
SF
Flashback sequences often have echos (delay) and a heavy wash of reverb. They also put it reverse and stuttering sound effects to reflect the visual special effects in the flashback.
F
Disturbing adaptation of a disturbing Shakespeare play. The young girl has had her hands and tongue cut off. Her scream is replaced by a synthesizer pad and a woman singing a sustained note.
OFH
Emotional effect music plays over the swing source music. Note the use of reverb on the swing music to push it into the background.
F
roadtoperdition-machinegun.avi
the audience expects to hear the gunshots from the machine gun. By cutting out the rain foley and the gunshots, this scene has a surreal calm, mirroring Paul Newman's character's resignation to his fate. The rain slowly creeps back in, in time for his last words. The falling piano notes mimic the falling bodies and the rain. The deep strings make our chests vibrate, giving a feeling similar to feeling a powerful emotion.
FO
The internal monolgue is heavy with reverb and the sounds resemble ears ringing. After time is called, the monologue is dry. A piano, which is associated with Kirsten Dunst's character plays when she calls him. The tempo of the drums (tabla and toms, ancient and modern sounds) matches the action and most of the racket hits come close to drums hits.
OFH
Use of Licensed Music
A lot of what the composer of the documentary Baraka did, was music editing. Using a wide palette of source material and his own music he created a soundtrack as long as the film. Here is a clip from the "war" sequence. To underscore the fact that conflict is universal he used instruments from around the world; Scottish Bagpipes, a Japanese Taiko drum ensemble, Tibetan Rag Dung horns, and Armenian Zourna.
Another Solaris clip. Mentally unstable character is listening to mentally unstable music (Insane Clown Posse.)
lostintranslation-song-mood.avi
One of the few movies where the music was selected before filming began. Many of the songs in this picture where played by the crew during production, and some shots where designed for those cues. Also note how music ends nicely right before the splash.
SHL
marieanntoinette-pop-music.avi
The choice to use pop music here is to emphasize how this party felt at that point in history, to be accurate of the mood, not the style.
S
Using licensed music for comic effect. Note the editing on the first music and the abrupt cutoff of the second.
LH
Film makes frequent reference to scenes from Point Break and Bad Boyz II, so the film's climax uses the exact same music form those scenes for this parody. Both music and film had to be edited to match up right.
L
All materials © 2002-2010 Jason Downer