Compose music for film

Usually the music played throughout a film or television programme is called a "score". When composing the music it all starts out with a main melody so that the writer of the music can get a shape and feel to it. They then start to incorporate more instruments to build an overall product. When creating a piece yourself, you need to make sure that it relates to the concept of the film so that you can successfully grasp the attention of an audience, also by making it simple but not too repetitive so the audience doesn't become bored.

James Horner

James Horner is the creator of the titanic song 'I will go on' The molody starts off very simply but slowly worked on to give an emotional impact. The tune started with a simple piano sequence and then incorporated an orchestra which gives the audience an even more emotional feel. This is because the visuals of watching Jack and Rose, although their time spent together has been shown as romantic, by the music played the audience can tell something is going to go wrong.

Hanz Zimmer

Hans Zimmer wanted to make something 'truly provocative and something people could truly hate.' He wanted to make something close to the edge and close to being to much to shock the listeners. He wanted something which contained extraordinary tension 'like razor blades or string' without making it sound to different to the rest of the music and noises of complete insanity.
He had done hundreds of experiments to get this pure, insane noise which goes so well with the joker such as razorblades on piano wire and pencils tapping walls and floors.
Christopher Nolan would go to the edge then Hans Zimmer would push him further which is why the soundtrack to the Dark Knight is so effective and shocking.
Zimmer moved away from the stereotypical 'bad guy' and wanted a sound of pure anarchy and fearlessness.


Immerse yourself
Watch the film repeatedly. With sound and without sound. Each time you watch it you will notice something different and get more and more ideas for you music. Doing this will also give you an idea of timing for you music, the speed in the music, and when it should change to show a atmosphere. For example, A montage clip of something strange cutting to something exciting.
 Even watching other movie clips with a similar atmosphere and emotion as your scene can give you an idea of what instruments and tempo to use. However, it may become to similar and not original.
Be original
Trying to make a creative piece of music within the constraints given by the director can be a difficult thing. Having to tone down something that is complicated and you're proud of may be a frustrating thing to do but keeping in touch with the director and asking his\her opinion could save you a lot of frustration removing elements you're happy with.
Make sure you have the correct gear.
You could have lots of great idea's and music but if your music isn't to a good recording standard getting a chance will be so much harder. Generally you'd need higher end software which allows for MIDI ( A technical standard which allows a wide variety of instruments 'Musical Instrument Digital Interface).
Stick to the feeling of the film
Make sure you really understand the emotion the director is trying to get across and be prepared to change your music to vary to different emotions as the scenes change. If its a montage, many emotions are shown in a short time so changing it even slightly is a must. You may have to watch the scenes repeatedly to know when to change the sounds as emotion in movies are key.

Screen shot of Meta data

In order to be able to find the files I have to work with in premier, I have labelled each clip and pasted them in a file called "Final project" By doing this my work is easy to find and in order to be able to work with.

Screen shot of after effects

This is a screen shot on the effect 'walking through wall' i was working on. Before i shot the main scene i practiced it using after effects. I did this by filming someone walking into a wall, then the actor removing themselves from the shot to then film the empty wall. I then put this footage into after effects and cut the part where he is about to walk into a wall and then the empty wall. This then shows someone walking to a wall and disappearing. To make it more realistic, i put a mask around the beginning of the character and move the mask a tiny bit each frame to show him slowly almost sliding into the wall. To make it even more believable i keyframed his opacity so each frame where hes getting closer to the wall i dropped his opacity by about 20 percent so he's disappearing into the wall. Personally I prefer this effect to the final scene because it looks alot more believable because of the natrual light used from outside and the angle is alot easier to work on rather than side on.

Research into recording ambient sounds and dialogue

What is ambient sound?

Ambient sound is anything within an action shot that the actors within the piece will be able to hear. They are background sounds which are present in a scene or location. For example:
  : The sound of birds tweeting, the church bells, the train. These all work well together to effectively glue the emotional scene together, if there was a dark scary scene maybe a colder tone would be added by using a quiet location with small amounts of ambient sound to be used.

How do I record ambient sound?

To record ambient sound all you need is a clear microphone which will record the sound clearly. You do not have to hold a mic up when filming a scene you can just record the element you would like separately. Usually when recording outside a foam shield acts as a wind guard around the microphone so you can pick up background noises without any interruptions from the wind or any other background noises not intended for the scene.




Why do we need ambient sound?

We need ambient sound so that you give the audience a realistic idea of the film that they're watching so that it becomes more believable no matter what the situation is. Adding ambient sounds is very important to a scene. When selecting the environment, it can add a lot more to the scene so that it effectively 'glues' the piece together creating an overall outcome of having a realistic and believable environment.




What is dialogue?

Dialogue is a scripted piece in which the actors perform using speech while being filmed by a cameraman. Dialogue can be used for many different things, such as narration, a conversation, or to give a vibe of the genre used etc. Dialogue is one of the most important pieces to a movie to show the audience a good idea of what is going on within a scene. It also adds comedy, horror or drama which affects the viewer emotionally. Just by the actors using the script and chosen genre they can make any words given fit the scene. For example; this scene shows a clear comedic element by the words chosen and how the actors say them.











Why do we need dialogue?

Foley Sound Research

A Foley Artist works alongside the visual film, ad or video game, adding sound effects to make the film come to life. A Foley artist will use a range of props and accessories to create a 'layering ' of sounds which will then be used to compliment the dialogue.

Foley Artists are necessary to the film making industry as the priority on a film shoot is dialogue. It is then necessary to create the illusion of incidental sound and to add drama to the audio. Foley artists describe their work as 'a marriage of picture and sound' and a craft which puts detail into a film using their 'performance'. There are some items which feature within a film, for example, horses which cannot be brought into a studio so the Foley Artist will have to use her or his imagination to re-create the sound the horse would make. (see illustration below*)

The Foley artist creates the sound using a layering technique. For instance all footsteps relating to the characters are laid down, followed by background footsteps. This is followed by anything that is moving on the screen which in turn gets a sound. This is called the 'Prop Pass'.
In order to be a Foley Artist is is necessary to posses a creative mind and highly developed sense of timing.

The advantage of using real objects as opposed to digital sound is that the audience would recognise the authenticity of a sound they can relate to, which makes experiencing the sound more real for the viewer, for instance Ben Burtt, who created sound for the Star Wars films tells the story of stumbling across the perfect sound effect for a laser gun. While out with his family he accidentally touched the wire on a radio mast. This produced the perfect noise .
Also on the Star Wars film the 'Imperial Walker' sound effect was created by cutting large panels of sheet metal.
* For the 'Game of Thrones' a mic was buried within a basin of earth and another used above the earth while actual horses hooves , hand-held by the artist were used to beat the surface.

Final Video