Dr Vasco Hexel teaches at the royal school of music and did a PHD in music as well. His presentation was on 'Narrative Film Music.' He showed us a quote by Stanley Kobrick that inspires him to make music.
He told us that:
a film is split into 3 sections:
Sound Music Visuals
-dialogue -composed -footage-sound FX -compiled (selected pieces that exist) -CGI
-Foley
We then discussed what music does, and the goes as follows:
music...
...helps establish geographic location
...establishes a time period
...provides continuity between shots
...bridge temporal and spatial lapse
...direct audiences attention
...induce mood/emotional response of the viewer
...communicates meaning and furthers the narrative
...supports dialogue emotionally and dramatically
...establishes character (a character being accompanied by a particular sound
...heightens the sense of reality
The different types of music include:
- diegetic (natural sound inside the film)
- non-diegetic (outside the movie, songs)
- underscore (composed music accompanies the narrative)
- Source score
- Song or compilation score
The next speaker we had was Dave Dirch who titles his presentation "A hackers guide to composing for film"
In order to create certain atmosphere and emotions, he said that one has an option of sound to use such as:
-Foley
-Effected Foley
-Built up layers (adding levels of sound)
-Cutting most of it and selecting the best parts to use
For example, if we wanted an emotion of sadness to be portrayed in a film, a piano would be used as an instrument to compose for that particular emotion.
Dave also spoke about the 'intensity map' which is how various instruments rise in tension in particular times of the scene. - I found this concept very insightful as it allowed me to understand how filmmakers hook the audience in specific scenes in films.
Some composers layer feelings, use foley and portray atmosphere not themes through the use of a sound collage. Nevertheless, there are other ways to compose sound, such as, FX. These include Reverbing: examples include-Large space, eerie, strange; Delays: examples include - repeating, echo, fade; Distortion: examples include - aggressive, confused, surprised, suffocated. Last of all, musicians gain the emotion they want from an audience with the use of scales as they have the ability to change the mood and emotions. For example, there are scales that convey positivity, sibilant and melancholic emotions. One can also blend scales whether its in harmony in order to depict peace or in dissonance to display conflict and aggression.
We were then able to create our own music on the app thumb jam on his iPad and this gave us an insight as to what it would be like to compose for our films later on in the course as well as later on in our career.
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