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MUSIC FOR THE MEDIA

BROCHURE

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UNIT MFTM 08

TELEVISION DRAMA AND FILMS

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OverviewSmall drum roll as we reach the part o this course many o you have been

looking orward to. Scoring flms is what most people start out wanting to do.

The technical aspects o writing to picture should be more amiliar by now. In

some respects, having spent the last three units teaching you how to reect

every shot change and hit point in the music, Im now asking you to orget all

about that and write music that works with the flm in a completely dierent

way. We will be taking you through the practical steps involved in the prepara-

tion o the project. Theres plenty o advice on what you need to ask, how tolisten to the director and communicate your ideas to him or her. You will be

hearing rom some o the most respected and best experienced composers in

industry about the challenges and pitalls o flm music.

ObjectivesIn this unit you will:

Learn to understand the role o music in drama; how it interacts with the

other elements and becomes a part o the story telling process. Find out the importance o spotting and how it works.

Practice writing simple tunes that conjure up specifc emotions and moods.

Understand the importance o musical motis within the drama.

Grasp the practical requirements and usual sequence o events in working

on a drama.

Start work on the frst part o a complete short eature flm.

Modules

Module 01 TV Drama and Films

Module 02 Scoring TV Drama and Films

Module 03 Short Films

UNIT MFTM 08: TELEVISION DRAMA AND FILMS

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MODULE 01: TV DRAMA AND FILMS

For many composers, writing flm music is the Holy Grail, and its not that

hard to see why. The superstar status o composers like John Williams and

Hans Zimmer and the enormous sums o money involved (A-list composers

are paid millions o dollars and more or a ew months work) are two o the

more obvious reasons. But it goes much deeper than that. Music in flms is

vitally important. In television, it is easy to eel that you are really providing

ancy wallpaper which has to ft around everything else - also when my

precious creation comes out o a small speaker on a TV, I sometimes wonder

why I bothered. In cinema there is a saying that the music is hal o the flm.

When you sit in the darkness o a cinema and its your music that flls theroom - wow... well, what can I say? (Pause to wipe away tear o emotion.)

Why am I learning about flm music?

A lot o this might sound like some distant objective, a million miles rom

where you are now, but that isnt true. Low-budget short eatures oer an

accessible route to flm drama. You will be hearing rom some short-flm

makers and going to work on the frst part o a two-part assignment, scoring

an entire short eature.

In this unit we will be concentrating quite a lot on the groundwork andpreparation. In most flms you get a very short timescale to work to, so this

preparation needs to be absolutely right, as you wont have a second crack

at it.

Your assignment in this unit is to score the opening sequence o the flm. You

will then get some eedback rom your tutor beore pressing on with the rest

o the flm in the next unit.

As most o the music you have written so ar has been or television, whats

the biggest dierence now youre moving onto flm?

Je Rona talks about how TV drama is dierent to flm.

Je Rona

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Debbie Wiseman

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Debbie Wiseman has scored many

television dramas rom Jekyll to Judge John

Deed and has also scored many flms.

George Fenton

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George Fenton composed

the theme tune to Bergerac,

and has done many

television dramas and flms.

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MODULE 02: SCORING TV DRAMA AND FILMS

First steps...You send a showreel to a director, or she/he turns out to be a riend o a

riend, they see some other piece o work youve done and they want to talk to

you about a flm. On more modest projects, it is almost invariably the director

who chooses the composer and some director-composer partnerships have

lasted most o their careers. On larger budget productions there is a lot more

consultation and it isnt just down to the director. On a $150 million dollar flm

theres too much at stake to give you a chance because they like your reel and

you seem like a nice person. They will normally turn to a sae pair o hands

who has done flms at this level beore. Very occasionally a new ace will breakthrough but they have normally done incrementally larger projects so this is a

step up rather than a leap rom nowhere. Assuming that your frst flms are

low budget productions, none o this applies and they are looking or the best

person to do the job or the very limited amount o money available.

The frst meeting

Sometimes they will send you a copy o the script in advance but oten you

will meet with the director, usually with the producer in attendance. Its really

important that the composer and director understand each other and develop

some kind o rapport i the score is to be successul. They will have heardyour music and i they didnt like it you wouldnt be there, so this meeting is

to confrm that youre the right person or the job and that in practical terms

youre available to do it.

So what do you want to know?

What are you supposed to ask?

1 Whats the flm about?

This will tell you a lot. You will probably be able to slot the flm into some

kind o category - action thriller, romantic comedy, horror flm etc. The

analogies the flmmaker use will also be helpul. Its kinda Die Hard but

with attitude.

2 What are their aspirations or the flm?

Are they aiming or theatrical distribution, estivals, straight to video? I

you know what they are aiming at it gives you another big clue as to the

kind o music they will be looking or, and who their target market is.

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3 Whats the budget?

Were talking about the total budget o the flm here. No-budget is pretty

much anything under 100,000. Low-budget is anything rom 100,000

to 4 million. It obviously depends slightly on what they are trying to do.2 million on an action movie goes nowhere, whereas its a reasonable

budget or a romantic comedy. You also want to know at some point

soon what the music budget is. On a no-budget flm, and even many low-

budget flms, they have no money at all or music. Some 1-2 million flms

have 7,000 or less or music. They know they can get you to do it or

nothing, or even subsidise their flm with your money to pay or musicians,

so keen are you to get into this business. Be careul. This is not a

practice to be encouraged and we will talk about the difcult dilemma o

working or nothing and look in more detail at flm music budgets in later

units.

4 Score vs Songs

More and more flms use songs rather than traditional score. Ever

since Pulp Fiction, the commercial imperative o producing a soundtrack

compilation album has driven flm makers to put more and more pop and

rock tracks in their flms. You need to be aware o this. Are you thereore

scoring sequences that ft in around songs or scoring the majority o the

movie. Listen to Anne Dudleys Oscar-winning score or The Full Monty

and youll see how well some people can pull this o. Songs can be veryexpensive - anything rom 1500 per 30 up to many tens o thousands

o pounds. Make sure this isnt part o the music budget they describe to

you.

Other considerations...

Temp tracks

Almost every flm is edited to music to help the editor. The music the editor,

music editor and director choose is very signifcant, and oten you are askedto copy the style very closely. You need to know what they have temped the

movie to. More on this later.

You need to know or a kick o who the flm is aimed at, what genre it alls

into. On the great sliding scale between highly commercial flms like Mission

Impossible and Pirates o the Caribbean on the one hand, and much more

arty movies on the other, where roughly does this flm stand? This will tell you

a great deal about the music.

Commercial flms look or much more straightorward music that to a degreetells the audience what to eel and reects pretty accurately what you can see

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on the screen. More independent minded flms expect the music occasionally

to be ironic, reect the psychology o the flm rather than just the obvious

action and emotion, to say something that isnt necessarily up there on the

screen. It becomes an important strand in what the flm is saying.

Underscore or story-telling?

You need to know whether the director thinks the music is going to

underscore the action or is it going to play an important part in telling the

story. Music can oten help tell the story by helping the audience keep track

o a sense o place, time, character and motive. This is where the leitmoti

comes in - a vital ingredient o almost all flm drama music and something we

will return to in more detail later.

A leit what?

Its oten a short phrase, a ew notes that is associated with a particularcharacter. It can be a rhythmic device or even a particular sound or

instrument that is associated with a specifc character or part o the plot.

In a complicated flm it can help the audience keep track o whats going on,

whos who etc. But music can play other parts in the storytelling. Music tells

you where you are, it can place the action either in a particular country or

continent, or at a particular point in time. How you use your basic themes

and motis, and the ingenuity with which you manage to write variations upon

them, is really at the heart o writing flm music. Thats why we will spend a

little bit o time on this later.

Imagine Jaws without that now amous bass moti. When John Williams frst

played it to Stephen Spielberg he thought he was joking. So how did it come

about? Describing its origins, John Williams says:

You see it was such a mindless thing, this idea, it had the effect of grinding

away, coming at you, just as the shark would do: instinctual, relentless,

unstoppable. I also heard it as a good dramatic device, lurking when the shark

was unseen. I wanted the audience to feel its presence, its proximity, and

since the suspense in the lm was entirely dependent upon just that, I gured

I was on the right track.The key point he makes here is that the music allowed people to eel the

shark lurking when the shark was unseen. Brilliant. Once you attach a moti

to a subject you can suggest its presence, memory, inuence, whatever,

in scenes when the subject is absent. This could be important in your

orthcoming assignment.

Ennio Morricone, who many regard as another master o the simple haunting

tune, has reservations about strong melody...

Personally I can do without a melodic theme. In fact in many cases I havetried to disguise the melodic theme within rests, pauses and silence, and then

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encourage the public to identify those sentimental sensations with musical

colours instead of a theme. Unfortunately, even though Ive conducted many

experiments along these lines, the public still wants to hear a melody.

Its interesting how a single melodic line can give a very precise indication omood, place or time. Even without the instrumentation you probably could

have guessed the location o the flm simply rom the tune. This is a skill well

worth practising.

Mini Assignment

Melody isnt everything but there is a lot to be said or being able to conjure

up a specifc emotion in a ew notes. Try writing a ew short tunes that evoke

the ollowing places, emotions or situations. When youve done it, play it to a

riend or amily member and see how many o them come close to what you

were trying to achieve.

Emotion...

A) Sadness

B) Love

C) Fear

D) Comic pomposity

Place...

E) France

F) America

Story...

G) Anxiety - a child is missing

H) Relie - the child is ound

Time...

I) Medieval - 16th Century

J) 1940s Britain - Ealing comedies, Housewives Choice etc.

O course John Williams and Ennio Morricone are

very much flm composers o the old school. A lot

o this doesnt seem to apply so much to more

contemporary styles. David Arnold works with both

big orchestras and dance music. So what are the

major dierences in approach?

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When do I get to see the flm?

Most composers will choose to sit down with the director and watch the

flm once rom beginning to end in complete silence. Remember you are

probably coming into the project quite late in the day. They may well already

have fne cut the picture, but at the very least it will be a rough cut or a airly

presentable assembly.

Bear in mind the director has spent possibly years on this project and knows

it intimately, so you have a lot o catching up to do in a short space o time.

Most composers would like to get involved in a project as early as possible,

but there seems to be a consensus that there is very little you can do

constructively until you have seen the flm.

I like to sit alone in a dark projection room and watch the lm from start to

nish. No distractions, just me and my response to its rhythmic impulses. Is it

slow here, is it accelerating there, am I surprised in the way that I should be?The answers to all these questions have a lot to do with what the composers

function is all about.

John Williams (The Independent 1997)

The composer must let himself go as a member of the public not as a critic,

and must be guided by his emotions. After this he intervenes technically and

therefore intellectually as well as with his artistic abilities. First however, he

must let himself go and then, on the wave of letting go, react to the images

and then respond in a musically expressive manner.

Ennio Morricone (Cineaste 1996)

Interestingly both these composers oten write very lyrical, some would

say sentimental music. At the opposite end o the scale Michael Nymans

approach is ar more intellectual. He oten composes the music beore the

flm is shot or edited. The extraordinarily convoluted intellectual approach to

early short flms like 100-1 where he used 100 chords based extremely

loosely on the Blue Danube, which is also 100 bars long. Drowning by

Numbers and The Draughtsmans Contract are both based on classical

texts, even perhaps his most lyrical flm score The Piano:

David Arnold

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I had to establish not only the usual repertoire of music for a lm but a

specic repertoire of piano music that would have been Adas repertoire as a

pianist. It had to be a possible mid-nineteenth century piece music but not

a pastiche and obviously written in 1992. Initially I was unsure how to pitch

the style, but once I had the perception that since Ada was from Scotland, itwas logical to use Scottish folk and popular songs as the basis for our music.

Once I hit on that idea, everything fell into place.

Michael Nyman

Spotting the flm

Spotting is the process o deciding what parts o the flm to score, where the

cues start and fnish and, to some degree, the role the music plays in the

scene and the flm as a whole. It is the bedrock upon which your score will be

based.

It is also a process o aligning your instincts and expectations with those o

the director. Spotting is very rarely something you do completely by yoursel.

There is normally a conversation with the director which lays the oundations

or the musical direction o the flm. I personally like to watch the flm through

frst time without stopping and without comment. I oten do this with a

quicktime movie sent to my studio.

There is then a much more laborious process o going through the flm

scene by scene and working out exactly where the music goes and what itdoes. This is done in conjunction with the director and oten the producer.

Dont underestimate how long this takes. To spot a 90 minute flm properly

will take all day. A much better idea i possible is to split the spotting session

over a couple o sessions. By hal way through, its really easy to lose ocus

and stop concentrating.

Make copious notes; timecodes, adjectives used by the directors, everything.

I sometimes ask i its OK to leave a voice recorder running throughout. I you

get stuck later in the scoring process, this can be very useul.

I there is any doubt as to whether a scene needs music, I would tend to mark

up the in and out points anyway. Its always easier to drop cues than put them

in later. Likewise, i there is any doubt about the in or out point I would make a

record o the possible alternatives. Sometimes once you are actually scoring,

or the flm has been altered, another entry point makes more sense.

Disconcertingly, there are almost no rules or spotting a flm. There are

a ew general observations I can make but every flm maker is dierent

and Tarantino and Spielberg will use music completely dierently and in

dierent places.

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Listen to Debbie Wiseman, David Arnold and George Fenton talking about

when they like to get involved.

Music and dialogueMusic under dialogue needs, usually, to be more restrained and there is oten

no need or music there at all. Obviously there are scenes where music will

compliment dialogue, and some where at the climactic scene o the flm the

music will need to be quite big but i there is a strong dialogue scene always

ask yoursel what the music is adding and whether it is really necessary.

There are some guidelines about avoiding instruments which use the

same register as the speaking voice. The ute and a womans voice is

one, mid range cello and bassoon with male voices is another. Listen to

how oten composers like John Barry place their music either side o themid-vocal range. A high tune, a low bass and something in the middle, but

David Williams

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Now we have David Williams talking

about his recent flm Fly Fishing,

and looking at the intricacies o the

relationship between Director and

Composer.

Debbie Wiseman, David Arnold & George Fenton

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predominantly avoiding those registers that are properly the preserve o the

human voice, the dialogue. It also sounds really good on a frst-class cinema

digital sound system but it avoids fghting with the dialogue.

Dont get too hung up on this but crucially as with everything else, writearound the dialogue not in conict with it. I you are working in 5.1 surround

sound, remember the dialogue normally comes down the centre channel. I

you are recording live orchestra, it is good to bear this in mind beore putting

a big solo woodwind in exactly the same part o the sound space.

Sound eects

Your music, however important to you and the director is not o course

the only thing the audience will hear. Remember you are hearing rough

dialogue beore the sound editor has been to work on it and there are no

sound eects. You need to know what role sound eects will play, whetherthey are naturalistic or stylised. In a chase sequence, i the sound designer

is producing all kinds o tyre squeals and thumps and bangs as people are

thumped, you need to know that as it will make a big dierence to how you

handle those hit points. I you are unlucky, your music will be obliterated by

massive sound eects which will render the score inaudible. Bad luck. It

happens. It helps to develop a dialogue with the audio post people so they

know who you are and what you are up to. There are requently sounds in the

flm that are in the weird grey area in between music and sound eects and

you need to clariy who is responsible or these. This is also why we create

stem mixes where elements are split out onto separate tracks. This meanswhen the sound o the sword going through the villains heart conicts with

your elegant gong scrape, they can get rid o it or push it lower in the mix.

You need to be aware o the eects and where they are likely to be. This is

particularly important in the grey area between music and sound design.

For example, in a recent flm I did there is a dream sequence on a deserted

beach. I did music which involved weird voices and wind chimes and the sound

designer did heavily processed natural sounds. Where he stopped and I took

over was a very grey area so you need to talk to people to fnd out whos

doing what.

You may well fnd a big action scene with machine guns and explosions right

let and centre, but that doesnt mean they wont want you to score it, even

though it may well be completely buried in the mix. Its something to talk about

when spotting though as many sensible directors will recognise where the

sound eects will carry a scene.

In points

Sometimes its obvious where the music should start a change o scene

or the launch o a rocket or example but oten its a matter o judgement.Do you want the music to come in with a bang or drit in under the outgoing

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lines o dialogue? Sometimes just leading the action - ie starting just beore it

works well. Always be careul not to give the game away by agging up a joke

or a surprise moment with a timp roll or crescendo.

Out pointsOten, it is much harder to judge when and how to stop a piece o music. It

helps to look at the total soundtrack in a flm like a relay race and where you

have a musical sequence you have the baton. In fnding an out point you are

sometimes looking or someone to hand the baton to, another sound event

that can take over. So I am oten looking or lines o dialogue or a strong

sound eect that would be the trigger or the end o the cue.

Dont however, underestimate the power o silence. Particularly in a flm with

a lot o music, a moment o silence can say a lot more than anything else.

Opening and closing music

Almost always there is some kind o main title music that introduces the flm,

your theme maybe, the style o the flm and sets the scene. You need to

take account o any company logos that precede the main title. Sometimes

your music will start over these logos, other times they have their own sound

eect or music.

Likewise the closing titles o the flm. They are an opportunity to do your thing

and write a piece o music that stands by itsel with no reerence to the action

and without competing with sound eects or dialogue.

Songs and commercial tracks

Very requently the flm will include commercial tracks. I they have decided

to use tracks, one would hope that the music supervisor has already cleared

the tracks. They usually cost a lot o money and you absolutely need to know

whether the tracks are cleared, what they are and where they go in the flm.

I theres any doubt over whether a track is going to be used or not, you need

a back up plan.

Source musicA term used to describe all those bits o music in the flm that arent score.

The music at the school dance, the music on the radio in the car, the music

the busker is playing on the train shortly beore being eaten by a three-headed

monster. It depends what the music is but oten it will be your job to come

up with something. These are oten the frst cues you will write as they can

be required during flming. They can also be very demanding, requiring you to

come up with authentic north arican music or a rock track circa 1953. On

bigger budget flms they would oten sub contract these additional music cues

to other people or licence tracks but on smaller budget flms it may well be

just down to you.

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Pre-records

I they have an actor dancing to a track or someone singing a song, indeed

anything that will eventually need to tie up with the score, it is vital that they

identiy these sequences beore they start shooting. I they dont - as oten

happens - then you will fnd it very difcult to nail the scene. You dont haveto provide them with a fnished cue but they will need something with a clear

beat and easy to ollow pitch. Then at least you can replace the parts later

ar more easily as you know the tempo and key. This is particularly true in

animation where voice recording takes place frst, anything up to a year

beore you start scoring.

Conclusion

Making a flm is a very complicated thing to do. I have never met a stupid

flm director. It takes considerable intellectual ability to keep all the various

interweaving themes o a flm in your mind at the same time and to correctlyjudge the pace and impact o the movie. As the flm composer you need to be

able to completely get their concept and what they are trying to do. I you

dont, it will be - at best - an uphill struggle. You need to share their passion

or flm. The more flms you see the better, as you will have a common

vocabulary, points o reerence about musical styles and how the music is

used by other directors. O absolutely critical importance is how the director

describes the flm or the sequence, the adjectives they use. This is your key to

how the director wants the music to contribute to the flm. The silent partner

at these spotting sessions is the flm editor.

Although seldom actually at the spotting session, the editors sense o pace

oten makes a huge dierence to the kind o music you write. How much

space the editor has given or the music to speak or itsel will undamentally

change the flm. Again, use reerences to pieces o music that both you and

the director know, to get an idea as to the kind o eel he or she is ater.

At the end o the spotting session you should have a much better idea o the

role o the music and the thrust o the music in the overall flm. Now you can

see where this cue is simply underscoring, this cue needs to highlight the

action etc.

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Ater the spotting session

Cues

You need to go through the flm again working out how the music you spotted

will divide up into cues. I you have an 8 minute action sequence, that isntgoing to be one single uninterrupted cue. You need to work out how to divide

it up into manageable sections. I you are working with live orchestra you

need to take account o how much they are likely to be able to play in one go,

given they havent seen the score beore. Also, where there are dramatic

tempo changes with no lead in, consider splitting it into a separate cue as

the rehearsal time to get that kind o thing right is something you might not

be able to aord. I try and keep action sequences to no more than 2 or 3

minutes each. When you reach the end you can always leave a high pedal

note hanging and then start the new cue underneath so they overlap.

Splitting music up into shorter cues also helps when they make late changes

to the picture.

Cue numbering

Make up a cue sheet so you have a clear list o what has to be achieved. The

normal way o labelling cues is by reel number then cue number. 1M1 is the

frst cue o reel one. 3M6 is the sixth cue o reel three.

Once you have your cue sheet it will reveal how much music there is to

be written. You can also see how much music there is or specifc groupso musicians so you can start to plan your sessions. For example, on the

Jackboots on Whitehall flm I did, there were a number o Scottish scenes

requiring traditional instruments. Only when the flm was spotted did I know

how much o this music was going to be required and thereore how many

sessions we would need.

Send a copy o your cue sheet to the directors, producer and editor so

they all know what you are planning to do. It acts a little bit like minutes o

a meeting so i there is any disagreement, they cant raise objections later

saying they didnt know this was the plan.

Film club

The best way to learn about spotting is to watch really good flms and analyse

in considerable detail how, why and where the music is used. To this end, we

have set up a flm club or students. It works much like a book club where

everyone will watch a particular flm and then join in discussion with one or

more o the tutors on specifc aspects o the score. You will fnd more details

o the Film Club in the student area o the web site and on the student orum.

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Gulp. . . where do I start?

I you know the flm is coming your way but you havent seen it yet, there is

some stu you can do. Largely research and thinking. It is very difcult to

write anything until you have seen the flm in some orm, even basic themes.

I have oten composed brilliant little tunes or projects which seem hopelesslyirrelevant the moment I have seen the flm. You can certainly keep some

basic themes on hand but be prepared to ditch them i they dont work. That

basic theme is absolutely crucial. It is vital that its right, because i it isnt

you probably wont have a chance to go back and put things right - there

wont be time. So concentrate really hard on reecting the spirit o the flm

in the principal theme. You are going to have a chance to do this on your

assignment.

Theme development

Some flm makers are very keen to establish the basic themes or the flm,sometimes well in advance o actual scoring. This is a long and protracted

period o coming up with both melodic ideas and also a sound which starts to

ocus on the flms musical personality. You need to be careul about jumping

in and nailing your colours to the mast when you have yet to see the locked

picture o the movie. It may evolve and change a lot beore you see the fnal

version and the approach you will take now may not be the one you fnally

decide is appropriate. You can work on ideas and develop approaches but you

need to judge careully whether to involve the director at this stage and that

comes down to your relationship with him or her.

Even i theme development is not the right phrase or your particular movie,

this is the time to look or resh sounds, sound design, fnding strange

instruments, all those things you wont have time to do when you start

scoring. Build up a bank o options and sounds, so that when the flm is there

you can just go to work.

When can I start?

In a perect world you wait until the flm is locked. That means that the actual

duration and edits will remain the same. In reality, things oten continue to

change ater this point and so you need to be prepared to adapt your scoreto new pictures where scenes may have been cut or shortened, extra scenes

put in. This o course will aect your cue sheet which was made to the locked

cut at that particular point.

You may have no choice but to start too early i the schedule is tight. I have

scored whole animated flms to the animatic when the fnal animation has run

late. Its a long way short o ideal but you have to do what you can to make

it work.

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How long do I get?

On a ull length eature anywhere between our and twelve weeks is airly

normal, but deadlines are getting tighter and tighter with every passing year.

This in turn means some composers eectively run a team o assistants,

orchestrators, programmers and other composers to pull a huge scoretogether in the time available. Remote Control in Santa Monica run by Hans

Zimmer works along these lines. Harry Gregson-Williams has a team o

people he works with who travel all over the world with him. On big scores

or big flms, particularly where you are combining live orchestra and other

sampled and electronic elements, the amount o work is huge and you need a

lot o people to handle the inevitable last minute changes etc. John Williams

talks o writing three or our minutes a day, every day, seven days a week

until the job is done. Thats on average 50 to 100 minutes o orchestral

music on a major action picture. James Newton Howard has spoken o 2 to

3 minutes a day. The norm is to write between 15 and 20 minutes a week.On short flms the schedule is usually much more relaxed as the amount o

music is comparatively small. Because they have almost no money to pay

anyone, they are used to having to wait or people to have a chance to do

the work. I youre getting a small ortune or a big eature there is a much

stronger commercial imperative to get the thing fnished on time.

Remember that they may need your score fnished by a specifc date to qualiy

or certain tax breaks. Sometimes just the temp synth score will do.

Live recordingAt the end o the scoring process will be some live recording hopeully. With

substantial numbers o players, this needs to be booked well in advance

so you need to leave plenty o time at the end o the scoring schedule to

accommodate orchestration, part preparation, recording and mixing. This

can account or weeks on a big movie. I this ,ects you then raise a support

ticket and we can help give you some guidance on this.

A eature flm is a marathon not a sprint. Getting good at writing ast is a

huge advantage. Even when you slow down to make it as good as possible,

i all your productivity is well honed you will be spending your time on stuthat really matters, not fguring out how to route a particular sound in your

sequencer. Being right frst time is a big time saver and that comes with

experience.

Deadlines and short eatures

On short eatures like the one you are going to work on you sometimes get a

lot longer, largely because most short eatures dont have any money and they

can hardly expect you to put o paying work to ft them in.

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MODULE 03: SHORT FILMS

Tell me more about these short eatures...

Short eatures are low-budget flm dramas o anything rom fve to 30

minutes, mostly made by directors who want to move on to bigger things and

are using the short flm as a vehicle to show what they can do. There was a

huge explosion o short eature production in the nineties and they all into

two airly straightorward categories:

The act that they have any money at all is quite astonishing. These oten have

fnance rom organisations like the British Film Institute, the Lottery, ScottishScreen, the BBC or Channel 4 and big flm competitions like the Lloyds Bank

Short Film competition. This also tends to mean they are relatively small in

number and competition to work on them is airly intense, not least because

almost all the shorts with money have pretty well guaranteed television air

time or a cinema release accompanying a ull-length eature. The act that

they have been selected or unding, normally in hot competition with other

shorts, means that in creative terms these are oten (but not always) the

cream o the crop.

The vast majority o flms have no budget whatsoever and are made by peoplebegging avours o everyone they meet including you the composer. Some flm

makers manage to scrape enough o a budget together to pay some o the

key sta. Others will pay people on deerral, which means i and when the

flm makes any money, everyone gets paid. Dont hold your breath. Some ull-

length 90-minute eatures are made or as little as 20,000 which is almost

nothing. Most low-budget short flms are about 20-30 mins and are made or

5,000. This means there is little chance o you getting any serious money.

These are coming perilously close to what are known as no-budget eatures

which are made almost entirely on goodwill. In terms o creative quality, these

low- and no-budgets range rom excellent projects that were extremely unluckyto miss out on the kind o unding discussed above, down to projects which

are rankly little more than home movies. Most are somewhere between

the two.

Why should anyone bother?

People oten work or nothing on these projects because everyone wants to

work in eature flms and this is the frst step on the ladder. Indeed, as long as

nobody is making money out o this there is, on this one occasion, no reason

why you shouldnt do the same. I would not under any other circumstances,

and especially when it is in any way a commercial product, advocate workingor ree. They make them as a kind o promo or a longer flm and i it ever

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gets picked up and turned into a ully blown eature you and everyone else

involved in the project might get a crack at the big time. All this seems a little

bit o a distant prospect rankly.

They are oten a lot more experimental than mainstream flms and giveyou plenty o room to try things out yoursel. Because they are airly short

you can do the work in a relatively short time. They look good on the list o

commissions and once your work is out there, other people see them and

you could be in with a chance o a much bigger job. Most o these flms are

shown at flm estivals but a growing number are popping up on television and

returning to the cinema as a short beore the main eature. You do it largely

or the experience, or your showreel, or the contacts and or un. I you dont

hope or any more than that, you wont be disappointed.

Read the script!Whether its a ull length eature or a short, the script will tell you everything

you need to know. Most low budget flms ail because the script is simply

not good enough. I you fnd a really good script then you have ound, in all

probability, a really good flm.

Many short flmmakers spend so long struggling to get the acilities to make

the flm that they spend nothing like enough time on the script. You can

quickly tell the quality o thought behind a project with a quick glance at the

script. Some are really great - others are a total disaster. You need to fnd

out where its going as well. Many o these flms end up in short flm estivalswhich is fne. Some, rankly, go nowhere. They might, on the o chance, be

picked up by a television company. Be careul. They almost defnitely wont.

Despite all this there is almost always competition rom other composers to

work on projects like this. Remember Michael Nyman frst worked with Peter

Greenaway on highly experimental short flms, a partnership which brought

them both ame and ortune. Working on short flms is how David Arnold got

into the business .

Listen now to Ian Diaz, king

o the no-budget shorts and

Chris Baroot who made the

25-minute short youre going

to work on. Theyll give you

some o the background to the

wonderul world o the short

flm and then Chris will tell you

something about the flm you

are going to work on:

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The seven short flms I did, made by fve dierent flm directors, have led

directly or indirectly to three ull length eature flms. I you pick either the

scripts you like or the directors you believe in and do a good job, they will take

you with them onto their next project.

Chris Baroot & Ian Diaz

DVD: MFTM DVD 01

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AUDIO FILE

Finally i you want to know the true value o working

on short flms listen to Nick Hooper. He specialises in

television drama, and recently scored the last ew Harry

Potter movies.

Nick Hooper

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PROJECTS

Read the instructions or each assignment very careully and onlysubmit exactly what the assignment asks or.

Now, we are oering you a choice o projects here. Those o you who want to

specialise in this area can spend as many tutorial credits on this as you like.

These flms are all between 10 and 30 minutes long and we dont want you to

score the whole flm.

Each flm can be a single project or spread over several, each one using an

additional tutorial credit. You will be working on these flms over both units 8and 9.

Do least: The minimum would be to score some frst cues in this unit

and then, taking account o the eedback rom your tutor, score

more cues rom the same short flm in the next unit.

Do more: You could submit a spotting project frst which is a cue sheet o

where the cues would start and fnish throughout the movie.

Ater Death A dying Cypriot in 50s England looks back

on his lie

Voices Inside A British soldiers guilt at an accidental

shooting in Iraq

Dead Clean A comedy about a hit man

The Phoenix Scif horror thriller

Cold Night Ater Dawn Extracts rom a ull length US action thriller

MFTM 08 A Ater Death spottingThis is a very eective and beautiully shot short flm made or HTV television

by Greek Cypriot director Yianna Americanou.

An elderly man lies dying in a hospital bed remembering a traumatic episode

in his lie or which he will never orgive himsel. Set in a 1950s seaside town

its a story told almost entirely in pictures....and music, with only minimaldialogue.

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Spot the flm and submit a cue sheet with timecodes o your choices. In no

more than 1000 words, explain your choice o cues, in points and out points

and a suggestion o what role the music should ulfl in each cue. Upload as a

text document or pd.

MFTM 08 B Ater Death frst cuesWe would like you to score two sequences rom this flm, sequence 5 and 6.

You will then receive eedback rom your tutor. For you project in the next unit

we would like you to take that eedback on board and complete more cues

rom the same flm.

05 Print Room 10:03:31 10:04:56 125

06 Bicycle Ride 10:04:51 10:06:41 146

Keywords: Simple, lyrical, acoustic, moving, with a very subtle sense operiod not hitting them over the head with a 50s moti but

something maybe in the instrumentation which suggests a

ormer time.

VIDEO FILE

Ater Death

DVD: MFTM DVD 01

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Ater Death

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MFTM 08 C Voices Inside spottingVoices Inside is a flm about a British soldier in Iraq and his guilt at the death

o a child. The score needs to work very sensitively with the pathos o the

drama. It will clearly need middle eastern inuences as you can hear rom

the snippets o temp track. A lot o the flm is almost like a play. Your scoreshould underline the evident emotion o the flm, be dramatic when required

and upliting in the fnal scenes.



and a suggestion o what role the music should ulfl in each cue. Upload as

a text document or pd. Note that Voices Inside has some temp music on.

Obviously the director put it there or a reason but that doesnt mean its

always right in either tone or position. So take note o it but dont assume

thats all there is.

MFTM 08 D Voices Inside frst cuesWe would like you to score a short section o this flm. You will then receive

eedback rom your tutor. For you project in the next unit we would like you to

take that eedback on board and complete more cues rom the same flm. We

would like you to score three short sections.

000130 Opening sequence

This is where you defne your style and approach to the flm. You need to

carry it through the whole sequence where the soldier is wrestling with his

nurses. Personally I would choose to score these chaotic sequences with

a more emotive rather than an action packed approach but ultimately the

choice is yours.

132-214 Sedation

Some kind o change o tone is required here as he lies sedated in bed.

418-431 Flashback

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Voices Inside

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MFTM 08 E Dead Clean spottingDead Clean is a comedy o mistaken identity as an ordinary person

inadvertently gets mistaken or a hit man and, tempted by the money on oer,

decides to have a go himsel. The flm needs a lightness o touch but with a

clean sense o comedy. Some reection o the Greek background o some o

the characters would be a good idea. There is also a good opportunity orsome action scoring as the flm reaches its climax.





MFTM 08 F Dead Clean frst cuesWe would like you to score a short section o this flm. You will then receive


take that eedback on board and complete more cues rom the same flm. Wewould like you to score three short cues.

000-043 Main Title

Establish the sound, theme and style o the score.

052-122 Hitman Caught

Light underscore

314-445 Dinner

Comedy underscore. A lot o this has no dialogue so the music has a lot to

do.

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Dead CleanDVD: MFTM DVD 01


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VIDEO FILE

Voices Inside

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MFTM 08 G The Phoenix spottingSpot the flm and submit a cue sheet with timecodes o your choices. In no




VIDEO FILE

Dead Clean

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Chris Baroot

DVD: MFTM DVD 01

Folder: Unit 8 > Projects

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AUDIO FILE

Heres a briefng rom Chris Baroot in order

to help you do this.

VIDEO FILE

The Phoenix

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MFTM 08 H The Phoenix frst cuesWe would like you to score a short section o this flm. You will then receive


take that eedback on board and complete more cues rom the same flm.

PHOENIX 1M1 Opening title

The music needs to start at 10:00:01:00 as the frst titles start to emerge.

It continues pretty much without a break until the scientist says you will

remember nothing and they mix through to the lab at 10:03:32:17. This is

a long and important piece o music which well go through in more detail in a

moment.

This is where Chris Baroot wanted music when he went through the flm. You

dont have to agree with him but its a good starting point. He basically almost

wants wall-to- wall music.

At 18 seconds the French ruins ade up. You may choose or the music to

develop a bit at this point. The ollowing sequence is entirely one shot mixing

to another which means there are precious ew really hard hits. You can write

a reasonably coherent piece o music right through to the main titles.

Chris Baroot

DVD: MFTM DVD 01


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AUDIO FILE

Heres a briefng rom Chris Baroot.

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The Phoenix

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The moment when the little girl emerges is quite signifcant and could well be

reected in the music in some way at about 10:00:54:00. This isnt a hard

hit-point. Its perhaps more to do with a development in the spirit and eeling

o the music.The main opening credits come up and leave you to keep the eeling you

have so careully created. This is the best part o a minute, which is quite a

long time. You can, i you like, use this to bring in some o the other themes

you are thinking o using later in the flm, binding the whole thing together.

Remember this is still the opening, the equivalent o the overture. You want

people to stay with it. Give them a eeling that something is going to happen.

You have an unusually good opportunity to state and develop your main theme

so make the most o it.

The computer graphic that ollows the main credits also needs some help

with obvious hit points where the Phoenix bursts through and where it flls the

rame.

The piece that ollows can either be a continuation o that sequence or a

separate sequence in its own right. You need to highlight where the girls

eyes change colour. This whole sequence really builds up to the skull on the

ground. Bear in mind that at about the same time as you maybe reaching

a climax the frst piece o dialogue comes in at 10:03:32:17. This is a

structural problem to which there is no obvious solution. I would ask Chris to

move the dialogue a little bit later.

1M2 Waking in the lab

This sequence is completely dierent. There is plenty o dialogue. You are

writing truly incidental music with the object o increasing the sense o

apprehension at the mention o the client. This security camera crops up

throughout the flm and does have a slightly big brother eel to it. It reminded

me a bit o HAL in 2001. So keep it simple and i you can subtly suggest

some kind o theme which is connected with the client.

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MFTM 08 I Cold Night Into Dawn spottingSpot the flm and submit a cue sheet with timecodes o your choices. In no



text document or pd. Here is Serge Rodunsky to talk to you about his flm.

MFTM 08 J Cold Night Into Dawn frst cuesWe would like you to score a short section o this flm. You will then receive


take that eedback on board and complete more cues rom the same flm.

Director Serge Rodnunsky will explain the background to the project and what

the flm is about . Like many indie flms there are excellent bits and bits where

they could obviously have used more money or more time. You take the rough

with the smooth, make the most o the best bits and do your best to help the

less good bits to seem convincing.

Now sit down and watch the flm.

Make notes and think about themes and motis as you go through the

sections. Pay attention to your gut reaction the parts you think work, the

bits you dont. This frst viewing is extremely valuable. The public will only see it

once. You will probably watch these sequences dozens o times. You will never

again be in the position to see it aresh so try and make the most o it.

Serge Rodnunsky

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Cold Night Into Dawn

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Listen now as Serge describes what he wants in this key opening sequence.

Preparation

Obviously the frst thing to do is to watch the flm sequences baring in mind

what Serge has already said. Remember most flm makers speak more

eloquently through their work than when trying to describe it. You may well

fnd theres more to it than the basic plot itsel would lead you to believe.

What are you looking or?

You are looking frst and oremost to get a eel o what the flm is about, the

separate threads and themes that run through it.

Characters and motis

The second thing I am looking or, almost beore I start thinking about where

I would put the music, is what the music is going to do. Remember what

Serge was saying and what we were talking about earlier, how music can

play dierent roles in dierent flms. Remember John Williams and Ennio

Morricones approach to allowing themselves to react spontaneously to the

flm. Look or an angle and the idea that will open the door to this flm or you.

So what do you think the role o the music will be here?

First

The flm is set in Chicago in winter. Its a cold city and Serge is obviously

looking or a cold aspect to the score. You get lots o opportunity over

that opening title sequence to do your thing. Theres the aerials, the lead

character, his ashbacks etc. You have a great opportunity to establish your

basic approach and the theme or sound o the main character.

VIDEO FILE

Cold Night into Dawn

DVD: MFTM DVD 01

Folder: Unit 8+9 MoviesVideo: Cold Night into Dawn A Dur: 500

Serge Rodnunsky US CD 4 Track 7

DVD: MFTM DVD 01

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AUDIO FILE

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Second

This is an action thriller. You need to build peoples expectation o what is

to ollow.

ThirdWhile Serge doesnt want music that overwhelms the picture and the action,

he is obviously not a an o small, thin music. He wants something that will

make his low-budget indie look and eel a bit more like a studio picture.

How important is the music?

In this flm the answer is very important. Action thrillers like this rely heavily

on the score to create tension, pace and even occasionally to make sense o

the plot.

RememberDont overwrite. This is the single most common mistake. However,

remember that Serge is counting on you to help make a $1million movie look

like $10 million. His single most telling phrase or me was Dont write what

you see on the screen. Ask yourself what would they have done with $100

million . This is the approach you oten have to adopt with a lot o low budget

flms.

Time to get writing

So you have pretty well completed your preparation work. You know what

you are trying to do, where the music is going to go and what major themesyou need to come up with. For this unit I want you to score the main opening

sequence up to the mix through to the lab and the frst lab sequence.

Sequence 1M1

Opening titles

The frst nine seconds are the opening production credits which need

something simple and tense underneath.

@ 9 seconds we come through to Chicago with a robber approaching

a gun store. Tension.

@ 41 seconds the action picks up a bit as the robbery gets underway.

Dont overdo it.

Save something or the...

@ 1:38 there is the shoot out and the robbers make o. Music

peaks with the shoot out.

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@ 2:00 the main titles start with the long aerial over the lake.

Heres where you build your main theme. Introduce main

characters theme as we see him.

@ 3:16 we start the ashbacks to Vietnam.

@ 3:33 hes looking at his wedding ring and thinking o his ex-

wie.

@ 4:11 street scene pan up the building and into the gym where

the emale FBI agent is working out. Theres then a

transition ater the street shot into the gym where the

tension is relaxed so the mood is a bit gentler. This is

where you can establish her theme beore coming out

around 445.

Theres a lot going on here. The challenge is to reect all these various things

while keeping it a coherent piece o music. Remember as the opening title

sequence were not listening to very much else. There will be some sound FX

o the helicopter and trafc and some dialog o the ex-wie. This is all you are

going to be doing or this unit. You have a lot o work to do to get this opening

sequence right. You will then get eedback rom your tutor and you can put in

the revisions and press on with the other sequences.

Good Luck!

mftm unit 8

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