Film Scoring - Part 1 - Techniques For The Modern Composer

Identify the emotional response for each cue by watching the scene, work with the director to capture the right feel, and apply music theory to map chords to mood.

Choose genre and instruments quickly to suit a scene, applying jazz era 7th, 9th, and 13th chords and tonic progressions, with modes shaping emotion.

Explore how motives and light motifs recur throughout a film, and how modes like Phrygian can unify the score as a theme, illustrated by klezmer-inspired passages.

Identify the film's message and punctuate it with music to reinforce the director's intent in key moments, such as a bar shootout, without altering the scene.

Explore how an intense avant-garde piece, serenity for the victims of Hiroshima by Penderecki, over a Care Bears clip demonstrates how music can darken a children's program.

Replace temp cues by crafting original cues that capture the director's intent while navigating rights issues, balancing the blessing and curse of temp cues in film scoring.

Join a spotting session with the director to watch the film, note cue timing and emotion, and build trust to determine where music should or shouldn't appear.

Plan film music budgets by assessing total allocations, including credits and track purchases, musician fees, studio time, and sheet music, while negotiating pay structure and clarifying who pays for musicians.

Explore diegetic and non-diegetic music, distinguishing source music from score, with examples of radios and bars, and learn how composers blend or transition between them.

Explore how score and source music create perspective shifts in a Jaws clip, moving from on-screen sounds to audience-only score as the shark enters.

Explore source music elements in film scoring through a scene where a character turns up the volume. Identify how source music differs from score and where it originates.

Explore the blend of score and source, where music shifts from score to source or vice versa. Use dovetailing to glue scenes by continuing music across cuts.

analyze how Battlestar Galactica uses Metamorphosis One by Philip Glass as source music that transitions into scoring, accompanying a homecoming scene of two starfighter pilots.

Explore ostinato as a core film music technique through opening title sequences, using Captain America as a case study to show two riffs, static harmony, and orchestral textures.

an analysis of requiem for a dream's string quartet score highlights the persistent ostinato bell motif that grounds the soundtrack and supports a simple repeating harmonic progression.

Discover the ostinato: a short repeating melody or riff acting as the canvas of a film score, layered with harmony, melody, and percussion to speed up scoring.

Choose an old silent film from public domain, download it from archive.org, and score it in a sequencer like Ableton Live, replacing the music and building your portfolio.

Set up a fresh film scoring session in the sequencer, build a piano and orchestra template, import the film, mute the opening credits, and compose with Ableton and notation.

Learn to craft a creepy ostinato for film scoring by laying out a looping motif, adjusting tempo, and layering tremolo strings with a minimal chord progression in C minor.

Explore expanding ostinatos by layering piano and legato strings, varying octaves, and syncing hits to beats with tempo adjustments to create dramatic, cinematic moments.

Learn to mark hits with locators on beats, labeling events like enter, exit, cop, and transitions, and align hits to quarter notes while adjusting tempo or meter as needed.

Craft a dynamic opening score by layering tremolo strings, winds, and legato ostinatos in C minor, then refine with piano, tempo changes, and fades for a smooth transition.

The lecture analyzes an ostinato in C minor, outlining a four-chord progression and how the melody fits the C minor scale.

Explore working with a notation editor to export MIDI, analyze ostinato patterns and riffs, and view sheet music using free tools like MuseScore.

Discover how motive and light motif create memorable film music by repeating melodies, linking scenes, and signaling characters, using examples like a familiar piano riff.

Analyze how Star Wars uses light motifs to signal characters and ideas, from the force theme to the rebel and imperial cues.

Explore Wagner's ring cycle and its light motifs, showing how evolving themes, especially the sword motif, tell the story across operas, with an expanded brass section and the vogner tuba.

Locate leitmotifs by scanning scenes for the judge and marking cue points, then develop a light motif using an ostinato as the judge's theme.

Learn to compose a judge’s leitmotif by developing and adapting a motive, layering woodwinds, legato strings, and tremolo with a piano color, and crafting a melodic contour for scene pacing.

Add rhythm and tension to a piano riff by creating a low ostinato, arpeggios, and varied rhythms on half notes to drive scenes and reinforce the score's mood.

Analyze a long film cue within the story context, refining a recurring light motif and its ostinato to support the judge's storyline.

Identify the film's point of view by examining the camera's focus and scene, then craft music that matches that perspective, whether that of the dying character or the killer.

Explores point of view and fourth wall by analyzing a scene where the camera becomes the unseen observer, shifting between cop and suspect perspectives with a bold, low pulse score.

Create a dynamic pov scene score by layering string legato and tremolo textures, staccato sections, arpeggiated chords, and rhythmic ostinato using C minor and G minor foundations.

Analyze a POV scene's mood through a tight mix and a two-chord progression in C minor moving to E-flat major, with arpeggiated voicings and bass placement.

The instructor splits this film scoring course into two parts to fully cover all topics without skimping on content. Part two is available now for wrap-up content with affordable pricing.

Discover part two of film scoring: crafting atmosphere, string harmony, scoring fight and chase scenes, building tension and foreshadowing, and launching a film music career with portfolios and industry connections.

Learn film scoring techniques for the modern composer in part 1 by writing and sharing scores for films, exploring archives and ableton live, with previews of part two.