Technical

What is film music?

When Emmy Award winning composer and educator Richard Bellis talks about a common error of new composers, he cautions that they should not score their impression of a scene, as this is redundant.   Rather, the music should say what the scene isn’t saying or cannot say.  This impressionistic tendency is also something which inexperienced filmmakers request.  If you have a sad scene, and you simply throw in sad music, or a funny scene and you have funny music aping the action,  the result will often be very amateurish and unsophisticated, because the music is not fulfilling a necessary purpose.  If music can be thought of as another character in a film, imagine an off-screen actor parroting the on-screen actor’s lines verbatim.  What use is that?  Does that further the objectives of the work?

Let’s go back, waaay back… ok, not that far…

One way to begin thinking about the sometimes complex and subtle function of film music is to consider it’s functional history.   Again, I have to credit Bellis for this concise way of looking at it.

The first role of music was fairly utilitarian – to cover up the noise coming from the projector in the theater.  Any music would do, and was performed by a pianist at the front of the theatre.  It had no relation to the action on screen.

Once projector was moved to the booth, music started to be used in silent films to fill in for sound and dialogue, and began to relate to on-screen action, though most of the music was either standard classical repertoire or even improvised on the spot.

When the “talkies” arrived, music provided color and scope for black and white films.  Once technicolor arrived, music stood in for all the sex and special effects that could not be shown, due to censorship or technical limitations.

Now that we can show sex scenes in living color while talking CGI dinosaurs stomp through the ruins of a city with no projector noise to ruin the fun, the role of music has become very subtle.

Play it against, Sam…

I like to think of music as being an emotional alchemical substance.  It’s the medium that can translate emotion and also turn it to gold – something bigger than the mundane; profound and powerful.  It can also be whispering the secret lives of the story and the characters.

I recently had a great conversation with a filmmaker after a panel on music in film.  She wanted my advice on what kind of music to have to support a specific scene in her film.  The character had just undergone a hugely traumatic incident, and suddenly runs out of the apartment and into the streets, as if to escape events, even life itself.  She imagined a very powerful drumming, something huge and driving to underscore the events.  I wondered if this was the best approach – wasn’t that simply a re-statement of what was already on-screen?  I argued instead that the music should speak to what the audience cannot see or hear – that this is a very personal, emotional moment, but that to one person, it will feel like the biggest thing that has ever happened.  The music might then, instead, be intimate and tragic.  This would contrast against the violent physicality of running away, and connect the audience to the emotional story of what is happening.

I like this example because it shows how music can change the way a visceral scene is perceived by the audience by playing against the action, and getting to the ‘heart’ of the story.

Whatchoo talkin’ bout, Bruce Willis?

The question that is asked, in order to really understand the problem, is: “Who or what is the scene really about?”.  Again, if music is another character in the film, then the spotting session is like a table read for the actors.  You are finding the motivation.  It’s thematic, story and character driven.  In a chase scene, you don’t tell the actor “Ok, this is the chase, so act like you are being chased!”.  No – the director and actor determine the reason they are running away and that’s what drives the action of the chase.  Music does the same; while you see the actor running, the music (for example) might give the audience a look into their mind, motivation, emotions.

In the next installment, I’ll explore ‘the moment’ – when and how music can successfuly get in and out of a scene.

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I’m thrilled to have worked with my good friend Jason Leaver on the first season of his new web series, Out With Dad.  It’s got a wonderful cast, a great script, and was truly a labour of love for all involved.  Despite being made on a micro-budget, the production values are very high and I wanted to bring the same attention to detail and life to the score.  I was lucky enough to enlist the help of some talented musician friends to help realize the score.  You can watch episodes of this excellent show and read my more detailed production blog at www.outwithdad.com!

The Spotting/Cue Sheet in progress...

Being organized is glamorous and sexy!

… well, maybe if you wear a sequined dress while filing (remember to shave your pits if it’s strapless, gentlemen)…

The spotting session is one of the first things a director and/or producer will do with the composer on a project. During this session, which usually lasts 3 – 8 hours, you watch a fine cut of the film. Scene by scene, frame by frame, the filmmaker will talk about what they want in terms of music – the style, genre, mood, emotion, dynamic, and importantly the function of the music in a scene. The composer takes detailed notes, usually saying quite little, unless asked for input.

Whadda I do with this chicken scratch??

Something I learned while apprenticing was the value of creating a Spotting Notes/Cue Sheet document. This document is the distillation of your notes and lays out the detail of every cue: for each act, for each reel. It contains all the ‘vitals’ including timecode IN and OUT points, length of the cue, format and output notes, and notes on what the director wanted, as well as your ideas. When you are finished, it is your Holy Bible for your score on this project; at any point, you will know EXACTLY where you are at, and what you need to do. You’ll even know, pretty much exactly, how much music you need to write.

Spotting notes should be transcribed as soon as possible, while still fresh in the mind. If left too long, there may be trouble interpreting ones own notes, and one doesn’t want to appear flakey by calling and asking what the director wanted over the speedboat chase with the explosions again? Solo oboe?

Here are some things you’ll find on this type of Spotting/Cue sheet:

Cue Number – more details on this in a moment

Cue Name – something that will bring to mind what is happening and what the cue is for. Some composers are famous for their hilarious cue names.

IN and OUT points – when you review the film, make sure you tighten up your IN points to the frame!

Time - the total length of the cue

Notes – what the director said… what you thought of – your brilliant musical ideas. The scene – what’s happening? Function – what is the music supposed to do – from the mundane to sublime.

Other things – A/B reel indications, Stereo/5.1 etc., and Type – source, library, location, song, etc.

When you are in the heat of creating music under a deadline, this little bit of non-creative housekeeping can save you time and mental strain. You can forget about keeping any data on how a cue relates to something two acts down the road, because you already made detailed notes on this. You know that you have finished 12 cues and 23 and 1/2 minutes of music, and have 7 cues and 16 minutes of music left to write. You made a note that cue 2m06 will be mirrored in 3m01, so you should write that now which shouldn’t take long since it’s just a slight variation. The cue sheet is key to freeing your mind to do the creative work of writing music, while making you efficient and organized. I personally believe it will make your score better, because you’ll have laid out the framework of the WHOLE score, and can see it from a distance. This helps you keep track of how the score fits together as one musical thing, as opposed to a procession of unrelated cues written without a solid plan which was thought out in advance.

Do you use something like this when you work?   Any other time-saving, insanity-offsetting practices you employ?

Photo by Robin Dennis

Naming conventions – a seemingly boring and nerdy topic, but boy – if you are working on projects with a large scope, or multiple projects, and are dealing with multiple versions, mixes, masters, snippets, etc… you need to be very organized or things can fall apart fairly quickly with embarrassing results.

Here is an example of a Cue Number, as it would appear in a film score (on your spotting/cues sheet):

2M03bS

The 2 refers to the reel, or if you are not dealing with reels, it usually refers to the Act. In TV, this split might happen after a return from commercial break. This also applies to working with cues in theater, where acts are clearly notated.

The M refers to music – as in, not dialogue, not FX, etc.

The next set of numbers, 03, is the cue number. This would be the 3rd cue, on the second reel or act. It is vitally important that you preceed numbers 1 through 9 with a 0, as this will ensure they are indexed properly when you are looking at a list – otherwise, your 1m3 will appear next to 1m30.

The ‘b‘ after the cue number means that this cue has an ‘a’ and ‘b’ part, and this is the b part. This may happen if a cue is split up for some reason, but is really still part of the same scene, and is a natural continuation of part ‘a’.

The final S stands for ’source’, meaning this cue will be material drawn from another source – not your composition. It might be a library piece, a song, or some other audio material that you are not creating, but may be responsible for adding. Otherwise, it just acts as a place holder.

Naming conventions for any files that are created should have Cue Numbers included, for reference and proper indexing. You’ll save yourself a lot of time and worry if you know that when you need to find cue 3 on reel 6, but the 3rd version, 2nd mix, it will appear where you expect and be named something that you’ll recognize right away.

2M03bS_TruthRevealed_v2_mix1.WAV

Here is our cue, with the number included in a useful naming convention – Cue Number, Cue Name, version, mix version. This filename tells you everything you need to know about this cue, and is handy when someone calls you and says “I like this one!” and you say ‘which one’ and they tell you the name and you know exactly what version/mix etc, the are talking about. If you kept an accurate Spotting/Cue sheet, you can also reference exactly where in the timeline this should be slotted in, and this Cue sheet will be provided to the music editor/supervisor for reference as well – won’t they be impressed.

If you have several version/mixes saved in different formats, this can save you a ton of headache, especially when you put a bit of effort into creating a filing system that is as neat and logical as your naming conventions. You kind of have to unleash your inner Spock, your inner neat freak, and then once this work is done and you make a habit of this, you are free to use your mental prowess to solve creative problems instead of figuring out where the heck those files are at.

Any cool naming conventions you use?