Required Viewing

I've seen all these movies but one. The Social Network.

Obviously, I'll be watching them all again, I just thought that was interesting.

Required Viewing (for both Film Music in Practice Modules)

American Beauty. (1999). [film] USA: DreamWorks SKG: Sam Mendes.

Batman. (1989). [film] USA: Warner Bros: Tim Burton.

Casablanca. (1942). [film] USA: Warner Bros: Michael Curtiz.

From Russia With Love. (1963). [film] GB: Eon Productions: Terence Young.

Gladiator. (2000). [film] USA: DreamWorks SKG: Ridley Scott.

Gravity. (2013). [film] USA: Warner Bros: Alfonso Cuarón.

King Kong. (1933). [film] USA: RKO Radio Pictures: Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack.

King Kong. (2005). [film] USA: Universal Pictures: Peter Jackson.

Lawrence of Arabia. (1962). [film] GB: Horizon Pictures: David Lean.

North by Northwest. (1959). [film] USA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM): Alfred Hitchcock.

Psycho. (1960). [film] USA: Shamley Productions: Alfred Hitchcock.

Skyfall. (2012). [film] GB: Eon Productions: Sam Mendes.

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. (1980). [film] USA: Lucasfilm: Irvin Kershner.

The Adventures of Robin Hood. (1938). [film] USA: Warner Bros: Michael Curtiz.

The City Lights. (1931). [film] USA: Charles Chaplin Productions: Charles Chaplin.

The Dark Knight. (2008). [film] USA: Warner Bros: Christopher Nolan.

The Godfather. (1972). [film] USA: Paramount Pictures: Francis Ford Coppola.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. (1966). [film] IT: Produzioni Europee Associati: Sergio Leone.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. (2001). [film] USA: New Line Cinema: Peter Jackson.

The Mission. (1986). [film] US: Warner Bros: Roland Joffé.

The Pink Panther. (1963). [film] USA: Mirisch G-E Productions: Blake Edwards.

The Social Network. (2010). [film] USA: Columbia Pictures: David Fincher.

There Will Be Blood. (2007). [DVD] USA: Paramount Vantage: Paul Thomas Anderson.

Day one

I can confirm that Andrew does have an unconditional place on the following course:

COURSE: MA Profession Media Composition

START DATE: September 17th 2018

END DATE: September 17th 2019

MODE OF STUDY: FT1 (Full Time - 1 year)

COST: $12,950

Today was the first day of induction.

New monitor, bun card

Sceptre 43" Class 4K (2160P) LED TV (U435CV-U)

Out of the box, as a computer monitor, the text is rough - even turning Sharpness down in the menu only helped a bit. The key is getting into the factory menu - Press "Menu" then the numbers 7343 while at the main menu - and changing the Sharpness curve to 0 across the board.

My monitor is dying a horrible death. So I had to order a new one from WalMart. I know.  Anyway, those instructions above are from a review on the WalMart site. Monitor is $189 plus tax.

I like Postable for sending fun cards for birthdays. I made my own design for this year. Will probably draw another animal for next year.

Demented 6th Chords

I think this is right: If you find yourself on a IV chord, Option one: put it in the 1st inversion (b) and play it. In C the IV chord would be F major, in first inversion the bottom of the triad is A, the middle note is C, and the top note is F. Then you get to make an augmented sixth! Just lower the bottom note of that triad (this would be an A going to A-flat) and raise the top note (F to F#.) Now you have a triad that's Ab, C, and F#. This is the Italian augmented sixth. It resolves (by step) to a I or a IV chord. Alternatively, do all the above steps and add a flat seven to the chord (this would be an Eb.) That is the German augmented sixth. It normally resolves to a I because it's hard to avoid parallel fifths resolving to a V (because that Eb makes it hard.) Option two: there's the French aug 6. That's on a ii chord. The ii chord (say, Dm) is put in the 2nd inversion (c) such that the triad is A, D, and F. Lower the bottom (A becomes Ab), raise the top (F becomes F#) and add in a flat 7 (this is a C because we're flatting the seven of the ii chord) and resolve to the I or V.

7 9 11 13

As a general rule, whenever you have a chord that goes above a seventh, you would include the note it goes up to and the seventh, missing out the other notes. This would meant that in C11, you would include the F, which the chord goes up to in order to make it C11 and the seventh of the chord, B, but you wouldn’t need the ninth, the D. If you went further, say C13, you would miss out the ninth and eleventh of the chord, but include the seventh and thirteenth and so on. The most common note to be omitted from the chord would be the fifth as the root as the third gives us the strongest feel of a major or minor chord, as the case may be. So in order to create a C9 chord in 4-part harmony, you would have C – E – B – D. If you wanted C13, it would be C – E – B – A, with A the thirteenth of the chord.

Pivot

Pivot chords are chords that are the same in two different keys. They're used to modulate from one key to another. Since V I establishes your key more than anything, you probably want to avoid them as pivot chords. Pivot chords really only works within two keys on the circle of fifths.

Dunes I

Sand dunes.

Harmony

NotePerformer is a set of alternate sounds for Sibelius.

Accented passing notes mean notes which land on a new chord but are passing notes between the new chord and the chord previous. Un-accented passing notes mean you go from a chord and then make a passing note before you hit the next chord.
I'd never actually understood what "suspended" chords are. I mean, I play guitar so the term is all there, I'd just never gotten it. But you can suspend any note of one chord when you hit the next chord. An anticipation is the opposite of a suspension. You bring a note in early. (And frequently they're in a dotted form.)

• Passing notes
• Auxiliary notes
• Suspensions
• Anticipations

Reflecting motifs and counterpoint.

- High and low pedals.

- Alberti bass and broken chords.

- Bringing parts in and out.

Someone Else's Dream

See, you were living in a house with a bunch of other people. And in the basement was where you had a whole mechanical platform built for shooting. And we were sitting on the floor and a bug came crawling by and I said it's a silverfish, I'll smash it, give me a shoe. And you said no, get up, get out of the way. That's a liquid mouse. And I looked and it was more like a translucent shrimp undersea type creature but it was hinged in the middle. And you said that one of the teenagers you knew had created it and we should get out of the way. And sure enough, when it walked into the light it dissolved down into a tiny crystal. And then right away it sort of melted into this epoxy type glue and spread out and got all over everything. And I did get some on my fingers but I never found out what happened cuz the dream changed into something else at that point I think. Anyway: You know a teenager who created the liquid mouse.

32

So, apparently I'm putting notes on classes over here. Instead of Tyrannosaurus Mouse blog. Nobody knows why.

Fantasy is the last bastion of the fast moving run - those 32nd note patterns that John Williams uses at the start of ‘Hedwig’s Theme’ in Harry Potter for example. It’s not only strings, but also woodwind and harp as well. These aren’t as difficult to write as they sound if you are really certain of your harmonic orientation, but easy to get wrong if you are not. They are however difficult to do with samples and it remains a major challenge even with specialist libraries like Orchestral String Runs at your disposal. If you don’t have a specialist library, try layering tremolando samples with a spiccato. That works pretty well for strings.

Ephalant.

8dio has some nice sampled orchestral instruments.

Vocalign has a $150 version. But so far I think I don't have any real sync issues on the ADR in our next movie.

Focal. They make some headphones. They're about $1500. Seems like they sound pretty good.

Garritan Personal Orchestra.

Wanna find the frequency of your tinnitus? Or, if you have really good headphones, where your hearing actually kicks out? Yeah. No. But yeah.

I had to compose a short piece as an entry assignment to the graduate program at Thinkspace. So this is what I did.

My notes

Arrange for percussion in the same way you do for the rest of the orchestra, top, middle and bottom or foreground, middle ground and background. Think of percussion in layers.

This was the actual Castrol Oil spot I did the brief to. I'd have only gotten a "pass" on that.


I still think mine is better.

Masque has a whole series on wireless microphone rigs for actors in theater. None of them are pretty.

I'm working on a SSATB for a Pushkin poem. It is a mess.

Zebra is a software sythesizer by u-he.

Standards for delivery for learnings

By default, I would give them 24bit 48kHz stereo WAV files, but make sure to ask first.

In your cue sheet, label the column that has the location of 2-Pop's as "2-Pop" or "2-Pop Location"

So if your music actually starts at 10.00.01.12, you would put a two pop at 09.59.58.00, exactly two seconds before the start of the first frame of the picture.

You then put the timecode as part of the file name and then there can be no confusion

1M1Ver1-09.59.58.00.wav

Many composers just give the editor the start time of the audio file without putting a two pop on the front whhen they're delivering cues like this. I often put the timecode as part of the file name to stop it getting lost or separated.

DEADBEAT-1M6V1-01.02.03.12.AIFF

Great...

Now we have music that is

1. At the correct sample rate

2. At the correct bit depth

3. In the correct audio format

4. With the correct sync mark or two pop on the front

 §

I would always send a text file with the upload or enclosed with the package. It should include:

Your name, address and contact details.

The name of the production, the production company and the producer it is intended for.

The technical details of the files i.e. 16bit 48khz AIFFs.

And the date or version number to avoid confusion.

If your music is received by a busy post-production house, they might have dozens of things on the go at any one time so your stuff could easily get lost.

So you covering sheet should look something like this:

Composer: Jim Farmer

Big Bad Music Company

14 Acacia Gardens

London W12 9RJ

Tel: 020 8740 1234

Project: 'Florida the Sunshine State'

Production Company: Elgin Productions

Contact: Peter Swain

24bit 48khz AIFF files

Music - Final Mixes 15th March 2015

1 Opening Title 10:00:00:00

2 Crime in Paradise 10:04:00:00

3 Capital City Money 10:06:00:00

4 Closing Titles 10:08:00:00

More important than life itself

In future every time you submit an assignment I expect you to do something like this. If you don't, your work will be returned unmarked. I know its boring and mundane, but if you don't get into the habit of doing it professionally you will eventually run into big trouble.

§

Check frame rate

Be sure picture is running at the same speed as the frame rate

 

 

Writing to a Brief

Nick Bye has a one and a half minute film for Titanium Oil that needs music.

It's a new, high tech oil which has a lot of clever, high tech molecular chemistry gone into the creation of it.

The premise of the product was to create an oil that can cope with the aggressive, high pressured nature of a modern engine.

The film represents the strength of the oil, but to make it sexy, attractive and interesting. It shows a dancer, wet head to toe in silver paint. She represents the engine. She walks into a large cavernous space with lots of lights and atmosphere. We aren't sure if she is a human or a machine, until she lifts her head and the camera zooms in on her eyes and we realise she is machine. We see cogs and mechanics behind her eyes. She launches into an energetic, spikey, powerful dance. It needs a strong rhythm which sounds like a cross between an engine, clashing metal, noise, heat and pressure.

We cut to inside her eye amongst the cogs, where the titanium molecules of oil are now lubricating the mechanics. We zoom out through CG graphics back out of the eye and we see that the dancer is now gold. She is now dancing in a very fluid, sexy way.