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.

Enstudentia

We require you to write a piece of music that starts as suspense for the first 30 seconds before turning into an action cue for a further 30 seconds. The action section should build to a climax by the end.

For all programmes we welcome mature students who may not have formal qualifications. Responsibility for the assessment and accreditation of non-certified prior learning, including experiential learning, lies with the Programme Director and Course Manager.

Students must include a short covering letter that includes;

• Applicant’s name and email address
• Applicant’s technical resources; DAW and main sound libraries so ThinkSpace Education can take this into account.
• Any other information the applicant feels may be relevant.

This covering letter should be as a text file or Microsoft Word document.

Applicants should follow the instructions online to upload their portfolio and covering letter.

APEL

If applicants are applying through a non-standard route and wish other professional experience to be taken into consideration, they must contact the Course Manager who will outline what additional material may be required. An interview, on the telephone or via Skype may be required in addition to the portfolio.

What we will require will be:

• First degree graduation certificate
• Scan of your passport photo page (or equivalent photographic ID with your address)
• Two recent official documents or invoices confirming your current address
• Certificates, including IELTS, confirming any other qualifications you are relying on to support your application
• Two references, at least one of which should be an academic reference where appropriate

 ------------

Audio Files: When submitting audio files, please convert them to MP3 at 128 or 250Kbs. Unless specifically required to do so, do not send in WAVs AIFFs or other uncompressed audio formats.

Text: You can send in your reflective journals, assignment commentary or any other written work as a PDF, word or Text file.

Video: Where video files are required, output your movie as QuickTime movie or .MP4 file at the same frame rate as the source material. We do not accept windows media files. You should aim for around 10-15 mbs a minute. A tutorial on how to format and compress your video files is available on the website.

 ---
 

Indicative Reading

Required

Cooke M (2008) A history of film music (1st edition). New York: Cambridge University Press

Hill J and Gibson P (1998) The Oxford guide to film studies (1st edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press

Karlin, F. and Wright, R. (1990). On the track. 1st ed. New York: Schirmer Books.

Rona, J. (2000). The reel world. 1st ed. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books.

Recommended

Adler, S. (2002). The study of orchestration. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton.

Jones C and Jolliffe G (2000) The guerilla film makers handbook (1st edition). New York: Continuum

Monaco J (2009) How to read a film (1st edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press

Jacob, G. (1940). Orchestral technique. 1st ed. London: Oxford University Press, G. Cumberlege.

Mancini, H. (1977). Sounds and scores. 1st ed. Greenwich: Northridge Music Inc.

Piston, W. and Piston, W. (1955). Orchestration. 1st ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Read, G. (1979). Music notation. 1st ed. New York: Taplinger Pub. Co.

Rimsky-Korsakov, N., Shteinberg, M. and Agate, E. (1912). Principles of orchestration. 1st ed. Berlin: Edition Russe de Musique.

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.

Tempest in Post

The Washington Post reviewed the production of The Tempest I composed for.


An irony is that the above teaser for the show uses music which I wrote that didn't end up in the show. Anyway, I got "Andrew Bellware’s atmospheric music complements the now-funny, now-sinister pageantry." I'm both sinister AND funny.

Sound designing on a blog

This is what they've been using for the masque.

(OMG. Blogger just sucks. I put in all these embedded YouTube videos and when I publish, it just trashes the code. It's really infuriating.)

Alan Vista has some pretty excellent VSTi plugins including marimba and xylophone and cymbals.

Klanghelm makes a free version of their variable-mu limiter. It's a bit crankier to me than the Waves emulation of the Fairchild 670, but it's pretty nice.

Montclair State has a string quartet competition due on June 3, 2018. The prize is $2500. Anna Thorvaldsdottir is on the jury.

Batacuda:

Deportee:

St. James Infirmary

More and Thenwise

I am especially amused by Mail-A-Letter. Because, you know, you can mail a letter. On the Internet.

Brooklyn Shoe Space offers classes in making shoes and sneakers. I'm kinda academically interesting in the notion of DIY footwear.
Oneday had a Kickstarter for their sneaker kits.
University of Fashion is a paid site with lessons on drawing for fashion. I think the 9-head height is silly though.

The Girl With the Dragon Gifts On A Train.

So we have a movie where the lead is a black girl. This is a big freakin' deal. Sure, we've got a hard-ass British Army sergeant. But the army isn't made up of soldiers who are just insanely evil, like 28 Days Later. They're maybe not quite as realistic as Dog Soldiers but their incompetence is only minor.
Other than that we comfortably have a lot of women in speaking parts. And we have the lead played by a black girl.

The Girl With All The Gifts is a simply terrible name for a movie.
Would you think it is 
1. a delightful Christmas story 
2. a post-apocalyptic zombie movie 
3. a creepy Scandinavian murder mystery?

Exactly. And something more like this should have been the key art.

 We haveta haveta haveta start casting black women and Asian men as leads. And Native American and African and South Asian and... steer away from the brown-haired white boys the way we do.
Hey, sure, maybe not all at once. Let's cut 'em down to 50%. Try that for a while. Eventually we'll be at a nice 20% brown-haired white boys. That seems reasonable.

Diggs it

Groove to my neice's husband's Kickstarter for a dog crate.

Yeah.