Christian Filmmakers

So who would like an honest critique on their piece for the recent music competition, likely ranging from gushing and praising to brutal and painful?

Alex Beard, composer
Original music for movies and TV!
http://www.alexbeardmusic.com

Alex Beard wrote:

So who would like an honest critique on their piece for the recent music competition, likely ranging from gushing and praising to brutal and painful?

Alex Beard, composer
Original music for movies and TV!
http://www.alexbeardmusic.com

Oh, oh!! Me!! I especially want brutal and painful parts.

And I know it’s going to hurt…there are several parts in my entry where all I can do is cringe…  :(

Rick Holets wrote:

Alex Beard wrote:

So who would like an honest critique on their piece for the recent music competition, likely ranging from gushing and praising to brutal and painful?

Alex Beard, composer
Original music for movies and TV!
http://www.alexbeardmusic.com

Oh, oh!! Me!! I especially want brutal and painful parts.

And I know it’s going to hurt…there are several parts in my entry where all I can do is cringe…  :(

ditto

ooh, ooh, cheers and tears!

Alex Beard wrote:

So who would like an honest critique on their piece for the recent music competition, likely ranging from gushing and praising to brutal and painful?

Alex Beard, composer
Original music for movies and TV!
http://www.alexbeardmusic.com

I sir.

- Gabriel Hudelson -
Music and Sound
for Motion Picture

Paul Munger wrote:

ooh, ooh, cheers and tears!

That about sums it up.

Alex Beard, composer
Original music for movies and TV!
http://www.alexbeardmusic.com

First of all, everyone should take what I have to say for whatever you feel like it’s worth; after all, you pulled together an entry, and I didn’t! So congratulations to each of you for whipping up the music and getting it in on time! 8)

I’ll start with my general reaction to all the entries, and I’ll get to the individual reviews later (probably tomorrow or Wednesday).

There were two things that struck me after my first listen to all of the pieces.

The first was that, on the whole, I didn’t really get a sense of story, or at least a sense of a story direction, from any of the entries. There were lots of ideas, and plenty of good ones. I was emotionally moved, and I had lots of imagery evoked. I pictured movie scenes in my head, and I found myself thinking about what kind of scenarios would go well with the music. Much of the music inspired my imagination. But I didn’t get a sense of story.

In other words, although I was stimulated while listening to the music, and much of it would work well in a film, I didn’t feel like things had direction. I didn’t feel like everything was inevitably leading to a climax, or that our characters (if there are to be any) had any sort of arc, or that there would be much of a plot if a script was set to this music (that feels weird to say). I suppose plot is the keyword here. Scenes, yes. Emotions, yes. Imagery, yes. Plot? No.

A few came close. Gabe, I felt like the middle two quarters of your entry drove the plot rather well, but the beginning and end kind of confused me.

Rick, I thought yours was the best on a musical level, and I suspect that’s why you got so many votes. Your orchestration was good, and I thought it was the most enjoyable piece to listen to. I even got somewhat of a sense of a story with your piece, but not quite enough.

I voted for Hannah for this reason. Too be honest, I felt like hers was fairly simple when it came to musical construction (lots of repetition and piano chord outlines and stuff), and inferior to Rick’s on a musical/compositional/orchestrational level. Indeed, I think that Rick’s, Gabe’s, Benjamin’s, and Luke’s entries all had some musical ideas that were more interesting than Hannah’s. But I felt like Hannah’s entry had the closest thing to a story of all the entries, and I voted for her entry, since that’s what this competition was supposed to be about.

The second thing that struck me was the similarity of genre/stylistic approaches. Sure, they were all somewhat different, but looking at the slightly larger picture, all were primarily dramatic (in the sense of drama as a genre). If I recall correctly, there were elements of other things (quirkiness, Western, militaristic, fantasy, and such), but there was primarily drama. It was as if the composers were all tackling drama as their genre-of-choice, whether consciously or not, and playing to the emotions of the listener, as opposed to the sense of story.

It’s not that any of it’s bad, really, just less ambitious, on the whole, than I expected. Some of that had to do with the size of the ensemble (which I realize is determined as much by the technology and libraries at your disposal as anything else), some of it had to do with the choice of instruments (I heard lots and lots of piano!), and some of it had to do with the tempo (not much variation within and between the entries). There were other factors, too, but I’ll get into those individually.

Now, please do keep in mind that right now I’m not claiming I could have done any better, particularly with the first point. In fact, despite my classical training and background with concert music, the more I’ve been getting into film music, the more I’ve become dependent on a project and picture for inspiration! Even back in my high school/college days, when I composed, I need some sort of story, premise, or plot to inspire my music, and that’s only become more of a “crutch” for me as the years go by. So I recognize that a film composer writing for a nonexistent film is a significant challenge! It’s one I daresay that I might have greatly struggled with, had I managed to get to writing an entry in time.

However, I will offer some quick advice in this matter: There are multiple ways to work around this handicap.  (I’m not saying any of you are compositionally handicapped! I’m saying that I very well may be, and if any of you share this struggle, then I’m offering you some advice!)

One way is to write your own story. It can be extremely basic. Decide on a genre and start with something simple. For example: comedy, guy gets rejected by girl. Plot: 1-Guy is lonely, 2-Guy sees girl, 3-Guy asks girl out, 4-girl says no, 5-credits. Or, as another example: sci-fi, woman gets chased and abducted by aliens. Plot: 1-Woman is running through field, 2-Reveal aliens, 3-Woman falls and is surrounded, 4-Aliens take woman up to the ship, 5-credits. They don’t have to be 5 points. There can be 2, or 10, or whatever. So start with that.

Next, consider a sense of how long each segment is. Much of this is intuitive, and it comes from watching and scoring lots and lots of movies. In fact, Calix strongly suggests that filmmakers “time” films, and it’s not unlike something I think many of us composers already do for cues in projects on which we’re working (see my list of timings in the thread on The Dream). These can be rough estimates at first (we have 5 points for each of these, so let’s say 2+2+2+3+1).

Then, as you go, start filling in various details. In example 1, maybe the guy’s in class, bored at the beginning. Maybe he’s all by himself at a lunch table. Maybe he’s waking up in the morning, or maybe he’s going through a dull, daily routine, all by himself. Or maybe you work through all of the above. Then, maybe the girl sneaks into his line of sight. Or he accidentally runs into her. Or a friend introduces them at a party. Or he’s spying on her from a tree outside her house. Or maybe all of the above. In example 2, maybe the woman trips at some point. Maybe it’s dark outside, or maybe it’s midday. Maybe she’s in a city park, a baseball stadium, or a forest. Maybe she’s screaming for help, or maybe she’s trying to be as stealthy as possible. Maybe she’s stolen something from the aliens, or maybe they want to eat her. Maybe she runs inside a building, or she turns around to fight. Maybe other people come to her rescue, but to no avail. The point is, the details can change, but with an outline in place, and with plot points to work toward, it will be much easier to determine the direction of the score.

Next, figure out some sync. points. These can be emotional swells (guy works up courage to ask out girl), significant turning points (woman trips and aliens catch her), lurches in tempo and orchestration (woman turns the corner and alien pops out), or whatever. It’s your story, and your music, so the sky’s the limit! But sync. points, for me, provide a framework on which to base the structure of the cue.

In this case, another important element is the silence. Think about this as a finished movie. When would the music come in? And how? How would it go out? Why is there music at this point in the story, but not this one? Get a feel for the timing, and play the movie in your head while you doodle. Think about what’s happening, and apply that to the score.

In short: imagine you’re scoring a film, by creating one in your head as you write.

Another option that might help is simply popping in a silent movie, or another short film, and scoring that.

I suppose that’s cheating on some level, but that’s a trick that Danny Elfman told me about a few years ago. He said that he was so conditioned to both scoring to picture and working under a deadline that he had a hard time writing Serenada Schizophrana, and he shared that trick as a way one might deal with that kind of writer’s block.

(And I figure if it’s good enough for Danny Elfman, it’s good enough for me! 8) )

So anyway, those were my initial impressions across the board, along with a couple suggestions on how to tackle these issues!

Alex Beard, composer
Original music for movies and TV!
http://www.alexbeardmusic.com

I had a story in mind that I’ll tell whenever it’s OK to, but I don’t want to mess up the competition.

- Gabriel Hudelson -
Music and Sound
for Motion Picture

I was about to foolishly ask “How would t?” and then I realized, “Oh, right!”

Alex Beard, composer
Original music for film and TV!
http://www.composeralex.com

Read yesterday. Still processing. 
Thanks for the notes Alex. If/when you do individual reviews, I will be reading them all!

Interesting insights Alex.  This whole challenge will show whether or not the music can be done first, as it does present quite the quandary!

In Christ,
Paul