ProAudio Review - October 2008 - (Page 44) By Heather Johnson n a study on the effects of film music, psychomusicologists Claudia Bullerjahn and Markus Guldenring concluded that “film music polarizes the emotional atmosphere and influences the understanding of the plot.” Without question, a moviegoer ’s emotional experience is enhanced by what they hear in those THX-certified theatres. But aside from emotional impact, filmmakers link their stories with music for a number of practical reasons. In the early days, they wanted to drown out the drone of the film projector. In silent films, music helped move the plot forward where dialog could not. Now, music is used to serve as background filler, to reinforce a character’s thoughts and motives, to create a sense of tension and release and to maintain continuity throughout the film. “Watching a movie should be an experience,” said composer Paul Haslinger in an interview with Electronic Musician. “The music’s most important role is to enhance, and in some cases even establish, that experience. To do that, a composer needs to understand the history and craft of storytelling and its application in film.” While the goal remains essentially the same, the process of marrying music with movies has evolved dramatically, from the live pianist or orchestra playing along in the movie house to a composer delivering 5.1 stems created in his own studio on a digital platform loaded with virtual instruments and music libraries. Over the past few years, the quality of these digital composing and recording mediums has improved to such an extent that directors often opt for a “hybrid” score that blends live orchestral cues with pieces culled from symphonic music libraries and other samples. Thus, a scoring a film requires proficiency in music theory, as well as the technical know-how to navigate (and own) a wide variety of software. EXECUTION AND DELIVERY The execution of the score may happen CINEMA continues on page 46 ® after a film has been edited (although scenes may be re-edited to fit a particularly powerful piece of music), but the composer’s job usually begins much sooner. He or she initially meets with the director and music editor for a spotting session, which gives the composer scene-by-scene parameters from which to work. “I like to get started as early as physically and logistically possible,” says composer MOTU MachFive sampler Marco d’Ambrosio, whose credits include Blink, Vampire Hunter and the documentaries The Rape of Europa and Paper or Plastic? “I’ll work in broad scopes, and then once the picture is locked I will start putting in details. That’s where a lot of the magic can happen: developing those nuances that can really turn a scene or help support it in the right way.” No matter how many ideas the director and composer discuss, like any creative endeavor, the composer begins with a blank page. The palette varies with each individual, from a piano or MIDI keyboard, to a 44 | ProAudio Review | October 2008 www.proaudioreview.com http://www.proaudioreview.com
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