Writing for Film

There are three types of music in a film...

1. Score

2. Needle Drops/Songs

3. Source

Score

Score is the composer's responsibility. It's the music under action and dialogue that's compose specifically for a movie. It is a very powerful tool to create a mood. Joy, fear, drama, can be enhanced by the properly chosen melody or orchestration. Usually this is the responsibility of one composer. Could be orchestral like John Williams' Star Wars or band-like like Lyle Workman's funky Superbad soundtrack. Or anywhere in between. No Country for Old Men, with the exception of the closing credits, had no score and it really added to the intensity of the film.

I've worked on many scores for TV and film. In this case I'm hired by a composer to play one or more of the many instruments that are in my closet. Sometimes I'm playing with a band or an orchestra, but usually I'm added after everything else has been recorded. As an overdub. I've done everything from a solo classical guitar, every note written out to a session of just making noises on a Fender bass with bottles and slides and random pieces of metal.

Needle Drops

Many movies are practically wall to wall needle drops like your typical Adam Sandler movie. Think the film "The Waterboy" - "Born on the Bayou" - John Fogerty, "Let's Groove" - Earth, Wind and Fire, etc. Famous songs can be quite expensive. Ten well known songs can cost a small fortune. But it's a great vehicle to take the audience to an era or decade. 

I'm currently working in an unofficial capacity as a music supervisor on an animated film. They don't have a budget to fill the half a dozen or so slots in the film with major songs so I was asked if I could help them find songs with lyrics that fit the scenes. That's basically the job of a music supervisor. 

I'm using this opportunity to work with some other songwriters and write some songs for placement in the film. And submit works of friends. I've gone through a lot of music and only submitted songs that are quality and also fit the spirit of the scene and the whole film. A time consuming job. Though I can often rule out a song in the first two bars. The ultimate decision falls on the director and/or the producer of the production.

For every Adam Sandler film with a $10 million budget for song placement there are fifty low budget films that have small or no budgets that afford opportunities for unknown artists and songwriters to get a song in a film. The reward? Maybe a token sync fee, some exposure and if the film airs on TV or cable some nice royalties. And a little encouragement to stay in the game.

Source

Source is the music heard in clubs or bars or coffee shops, on radios or elevators or TV's that's like score in that it's usually under action and dialogue, and like needle drops in that it can help to transport you to a time or place. It's often added in post production. Like foley. It adds realism to a scene if there is a radio in the room to have music coming from it. 

I've gotten many songs in films or made-for-TV movies in this capacity. One as a country instrumental tune in a car radio. One as a background visual when I replaced a song that a band was playing in the background of the scene, but it wasn't quite right. One a Hawaiian song emanating from a cassette deck. To name but a few. Usually there is a sync fee plus royalties on the back end for these placements.

Star Wars - John Williams

Superbad - Lyle Workman

Some other cool soundtracks - 

Oceans Eleven - David Holmes

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Jon Brion

The Green Mile - Thomas Newman

21 Grams - Gustavo Santaolalla

Reading in the Studio

Below is a fairly simple melody. The tempo was 85 bpm. I was asked to play it on acoustic guitar and lap steel, but with not too much sliding. There was no other music just click. The other elements would be dropped in and around it later. So the challenge is to make it musical or "play it with feeling", while playing alone.

When writing for guitar one should transpose up an octave to get the desired pitch. In other words if you want the guitarist to play middle C write the C on the second space from the top as in the first note of the second line in the chart below. But often composers forget to do that so I ask. In this case the writer indeed did want it up an octave.

Also the first note in fourth bar, second line, is a D. I kept thinking Db because normally one would write C# for the note before it.

It was simple but concentration was a must as it was easy to drop into some presupposed timing. Don't predict, just read. Again it was helpful to memorize the melody for the slide part so I could look at my slide for pitches. Enjoy!

Reading in the Studio

Just last week I got called for a quick session for a short film (10 minutes). Quick is my specialty. Between lower budgets and greater numbers of wannabe directors makes for many opportunities for the musician who can get things done in a timely manner.

Below is the lone chart for the session. A very simple melody in 3/4. But here's the rub: there was no click, it was suppose to be played free but in a call and response to a sparse vocal. So 120bpm was just a rough guide tempo. The composer wanted this melody on slide. And wanted options to pepper throughout the movie. First on acoustic with a slide, then on dobro with a slide and lastly on mandolin with a slide (that was my idea).

The first thing I did was memorize the melody. It's kind of difficult to play slide while staring at a chart. I like to lock in my pitches visually, as well as with the aid of a clip on tuner  - Intellitouch Tuner

The acoustic was in standard tuning, EADGBE. The dobro however was in open G, DGDGBD. And the Mandolin was in standard tuning, standard for a mandolin, GDAE. So the melody laid differently on each instrument. The composer wanted everything with lots of feeling and slide noise. Then we did passes on each instrument of just making random noises. All done in less than an hour so we had time to go to In-N-Out for lunch!

So get out your slide and read though this one!

Reading in the Studio

Here's a quick one...

Looks easy right?

Here were the instructions...

"I'd love (on steel string) a few different tempos, from moderately slow to moderately fast (ie, not crazy slow, nor crazy fast) of each. And ideally in the octave written and octave below. The tune (#2) can't be transposed an octave down because the D is outta range. Rather than de-tune, substitute the D for B (major 3rd above starting pitch). So that way it's G>A>B(down 4th)>F#, etc"


Got it? OK, here we go... 1, 2, 3, 4...


Reading Studies for Guitar

Reading in the Studio

This was a session for a film. 

"Fender sound, finger picked, gentle, ambient" I kind of approached the way Mark Knoffler might.

The composer wanted as many of these notes to ring out as possible. The chords were just guides, what he wanted was just the notes. Notice my note, a natural sign, in bar 378, probably there because I had played an Ab running through it thinking the A natural and the F7 were typos. They weren't.

The reason the bar numbers were so high is because when composers get a film it's usually a single mpg file and they drop it into ProTools or Logic or Digital Performer and then they write to that one long file. By the end of the film you could be tracking on bar 1000 or higher.

Notice the slides in bars 379 and 380. It would be difficult without a capo to let those notes ring. So I probably reached for my capo and punched in. Or I could've played the whole take with the capo on the first fret.

Reading in the Studio

Here's an interesting one.

Note the tempo, 82.9077.  Tempos like these are not uncommon when scoring to picture.

The composer is wanting me to play the first 6 notes randomly throughout the cue, where the slashes are, except for a few different spots where he wanted specific notes. Given the meters (6/4, 4/4, 5/4, 2/4, 3/4, 7/4), it would've have been a difficult chart to track had not the composer very thoughtfully added four rims shots (where the x's are) before every specific note he wanted.  Counting odd meters and being random with a given set of notes can be very difficult as you are using two different sides of your brain.  The rim shots allowed me to concentrate on the randomness.

Pretty sure I just voiced on the top four strings... E on the D-string, Bb on the G-string, open B-string, and the E and F# on the E-string.

This was tracked with massive doses of reverb on my end so it had to be done in one pass.  After a couple of run-throughs it was.

Transposing Tip (Baritone Edition)

Baritone strings -
D'Addario XL157 Baritone Guitar Strings, Medium

Some transposing tools...
Transposing Charts - Transpose Music For All Instruments Including Band Instruments (Instructional)
Theory and Transposing Guide Laminated Cards

Like my shirt?  Get it here!

Reinventing the Guitar #1

 A story of intrigue and peril.  No actually it's a story about playing a grouping of five sixteenth notes over a 7/4 meter, plus a little more.

Here's the actual movie...
Revolution Os - might be of interest of you techies out there

My strings of choice -
Elixir Strings Acoustic Guitar Strings, 12-String, Light NANOWEB Coating

My 12-string -
Taylor Guitars 655-CE Jumbo 12 String Acoustic Electric Guitar

Cool Tools - Mandolin and Dulcimer

A couple of links to check out...

Applecreek PKACD150K Hourglass Shaped Dulcimer with Case

Fender FM-53S Mandolin, Sunburst

Introduction

D35 Acoustic Guitar