Technology and Music for Film

Ooh...a sexy box of....software?


The onward march of technology continues with the new release of the Vienna Symphonic Library virtual instrument. One of the best sample libraries for orchestra, they've now made it easier to manage all the thousands of different articulations of each instrument by creating a software plug-in instrument. And it's only $11,000. Who needs an orchestra anymore? Well, not so fast.

For Independent Film, where budgets make an orchestra out of the question, this is wonderful.
Having this wonderful technology does enable a composer to work up excellent, final quality soundtracks.

However this does shift the time spent instead of composing to actually recording and producing these scores.

It's why a lot of the older generation of composers (before sequencers and computers and MIDI) have retained armies of orchestrators AND computer savvy tech guys who actually do the mock-ups before the final recording session with a real orchestra.

My process requires an upfront "creative, go in the cave time" where I spend time researching, wrestling with characters and concepts and strategies and then a demo period of writing quickly. The recording/production/mixing time gets very elongated the more complicated and bigger the sound palette as I have to play each part separately into the machine. However, having these excellent samples make it so much easier to convey to the director/producer what the intent is and whether it will work to picture.

And then we can either polish it for final or take it to the orchestra recording session.

Sound in the Picture - Actual Vs Commentary

The Greek word "Diegesis" means a recounted story. Oxford's English dictionary states "The narrative presented by a cinematographic film or literary work; the fictional time, place, characters, and events which constitute the universe of the narrative."

In other worlds, the world of your film. And in your world there are sounds of two types:

1. Diegetic
2. Non-Diegetic.

Diegetic is the sound that is meant to be from the actual scene happening on screen like character voices, elements in the picture (cars, traffic, birds, etc) and music from instruments played on screen or from a radio or television (also known as "source music"). This diegetic sound can be on or off screen though it is always meant to be actual sound. Of course, nowadays in post-production, most of this is either created entirely by a sound designer and or sweetened by the mixer.

Non-Diegetic is the sound of artistic license. It's the sounds of commentary, narration, sound effects and the music soundtrack. This is where many purists have claimed that the use of such non-diegetic sound is articifial and contrived. Danish filmmakers Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterburg's Dogma 95 states "The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot). " Of course Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark breaks these rules. Dogma 95 may be more of a publicity stunt like nailing your manifesto to the church doors. There is no question that music can heighten the mood, project emotions and stay ringing in your head as your leave the darkened theater to return to the reel, I mean real world. How effectively you use the music determines the level of "realism" and whether you even remember there was music in the scene.

What's a Cue Sheet?

Definition: Cue Sheet

A cue sheet is basically a list of all the music "cues" in a film along with their timings, their usage as in background, on-camera performance, etc and who are the creators and publishers and their affiliations with performing right organizations(PRO's). See here for more on PRO's.

Why is this so important?
This little piece of paper (or Excel document) basically ensures that the composer and publisher will get their share of royalties if the film is broadcast on television. In the US, it's mainly television. In other countries, composers and publishers do get paid for showings in cinemas as well.

Where does the money come from?
This money has been collected from all the broadcasters usually in the form of a blanket license.

It can be a very crucial income stream for your composer, so please do file these properly and timely if your project ever gets on air. Or ask your composer to do it for you - he or she will be happy to help.

More musicals on screen

Another musical has come to the screen by the hands of Chris Columbus, most known for Harry Potter 1 and 2 and Home Alone. I haven't seen RENT yet though am curious - especially since I hit the streets of New York City in the 80's as a young NYU student and Alphabet City was really scary then. Really! They filmed most of it in the Lower East Side though had to recreate one number in Oakland. Oakland as the East Village? Geez...

The soaring costs of music licensing

From yesterday's Hollywood Reporter.

"Fees for song usage range from $1,500-$15,000, with superstar tracks reaching up to $20,000-$25,000. That amount usually includes master rights for broadcast and most other media rights, with a time frame ranging from three years to perpetuity."

and

"Tracks by the Who and the O'Jays, used in the opening credits of CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and NBC's "The Apprentice," respectively, generate six-figure deals annually."

Musical Movies

I grew up in a house of music. My parents loved music - my mother opera and my father Broadway musicals. In the second grade I was the Artful Dodger in Oliver Twist. Having heard the soundtrack in the house since birth, I felt I knew the part already!

Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote 9 musicals together of which 5 have become classic smash hits. The songs and score of the Sound of Music are indelibly linked to my childhood and one of my earliest memories is singing "Do Re Mi" with my mother. I still have "tea" associated to "...a drink with jam and bread." Today is the release of the 40 anniversary DVD.

Baz Luhrmann's astonishing "Moulin Rouge" (2001) is probably the most interesting "musical" in years (and a music supervisor's nightmare!). They licensed 50 classic amazing tracks for $1.5 million.

I would love to work on a musical movie though it would have to be very very different. No bursting into song mid-sentence. It would have to be cool, dark and contemporary. MTV edits though without the tired rapdog yelling at the camera and crotch-grabbing. Any takers?

Monk Wisdom: Greater than the sum of it's parts

"Precision instruments are designed to achieve an idea, dimensional precision, where perfection is impossible. There is no perfectly shaped part of the motorcycle and never will be, but when you come as close as these instruments take you, remarkable things happen, and you go flying across the countryside under a power that would be called magic if it were not so completely rational in every way." – Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance

We're all spokes on the wheel of your film, Herr Direktor.

Party on the Cape

Just got word that our film Mrs. Worthington's Party( formerly titled Creche - which I thought was very cool and arty) will be having a sneak preview on Cape Cod the week of November 25 to December 3rd. If you're in the area, you can see our work before the world does. We'll also soon know whether we're in at Sundance. Keep your fingers crossed!

You can see/hear the opening scene in the work tape version here. Note these colors are not corrected and it's low resolution.

Congruence Vs. Dissonance

When putting music to picture, you can either be congruent or incongrous. The music can be either in agreement with the visual emotion or against the grain. The score is the carrier of emotional subtext and can make connections which were not evident by image alone. How much is communicated is based on taste and talent of the composer and director.

Merriam Webster defines congruous as: being in agreement, harmony, or correspondence.
I sometimes refer to "against the grainness" as dissonance:
lack of agreement; especially : inconsistency between the beliefs one holds or between one's actions and one's beliefs. Going further you can compare this with the term COGNITIVE DISSONANCE which means: psychological conflict resulting from incongruous beliefs and attitudes held simultaneously. This cognitive dissonance can be played to great effect in filmmaking.

In the Stanley Kubrick classic "A Clockwork Orange", horrible violence is accompanied by incredibly beautiful Beethoven music. This juxtaposition of gruesome visual with beautiful music creates a third space that is unique, memorable and scarily powerful. You truly enter the psyche of the thugs.

In the other direction, SONY's Bravia commercial exudes a warm, floating feeling with a visual of 250,000 superballs released on the streets of San Francisco. The use of the song "Heartbeats" by Jose Gonzalez is a great congruent choice. The pacing, intimacy and quiet texture of Gonzalez' voice and minimal guitar gives a great floating with motion quality to the piece.

Counting the Edit Points in a Film/Commercial

Ethan Bull posted an interesting idea to study filmmaking. Count the edit points in a commercial. It gives you a glimpse of how much decision-making, and thought (and caffeine!) goes on in making a film. I agree. Having scored a fair share of spots, a 30 second commercial can take several demos and weeks of revision to come up with that final. A feature film is exponentially more work.

However, if anyone has seen Rodrigo Garcia's film Nine Lives can attest, one long shot can be highly effective. Each of the nine vignettes in this film is filmed in a single continuous take. It's not meant to be flashy or show-off, and the story soon pulls you in, you forget about the gimmick. What it does allow for is live theater type performances yet with incredible intimacy that only the camera can capture. Truly impressive and awe-inspiring is the writing. The cast is stellar with notable performances by Robin Wright Penn and Jason Isaacs, Glenn Close and Dakota Fanning. It's so magically deliciously real it's no wonder that Rodrigo is the son of Nobel laureate for Literature Gabriel Garcia Marquez (viva Colombia!). The film premiered at the IFP Market in New York. If it's still playing by you - run and see this!

Filmmaker Allergies + Intense Dislikes

Here's something I discovered mainly through my experience as a Creative Director in advertising: Always ask the director/producer/powers that be, "do you have any intense dislikes or allergies?" It's the same question I ask whenever I invite anyone over for one of my home-cooked meals.

In advertising, I realized that the presentation of the work is often more important than the actual execution. We may have hit the ball out of the park and yet if the client can't get past his own personal dislike of say, the color chartreuse, then the whole idea may be canned.

It's the same thing with music. If you as director/producer of this film say to me I just can't stand "Hollywood strings," then I have a clue that this may be an item that kills anything I present. I would first need to understand what you mean by that term, which in this case was a director telling me he hated the sound of sustaining violins. Maybe it was the frequency that bugged him or maybe it was indelibly intertwined with some bad B movies of the 1940's, whatever it is, I had to tread carefully whenever I used any violins.

What I'm getting at here is clearing the lines of communication between creative departments visual and audio. If there's a sound or instrument or color that's interfering with "getting the picture" then it's an obstacle. Tell your Composer up front if you just can't stand to hear trumpets that "sound like mariachi." I'm sure he/she will not hold it against you.

Value of Genius dropping to half

When I was an actor (among many things) I had a great director Dianne Houston (first Academy Award for a black woman writer) who told us how it was. "You need to develop the person, to develop the artist to develop the writer/actor/sculptor, painter, whatever it is you are doing."

In this age where we so readily celebrate the achievements of this week's genius, we need to step back and realize this is a life-long process. There is no difference between the great artists of any medium - whether it be film, music, painting, writing or (insert your favorite here). At a recent film symposium, directors were complaining about the quality of films being entered as being "stories about what they've seen in everyone else's movies." How can you go make a masterwork when you haven't ever had a valid passport? As Salman Rushdie once said.."he had pre-travelled eyes." Or something like that.

Trailers

Every film needs a trailer and what's a trailer without music? Well did you know that most of the time, trailers do not feature any music from the film. Why's that? Well, in this world of corporate quarterly earnings results being micromanaged, the marketing machines require the trailer while the director is still in post-production- sometimes even in the midst of the shoot. And since most Composers aren't even hired until post-production starts, where does the music come from?

Well there's a bunch of music houses that specialize only in trailers. And after a while they all start sounding alike. What's the difference between The Mummy and Batman Begins? There's still going to be some flash frames and some brooding menacing sequence and...

Well it doesn't have to be this way. If you think of the audio as an essential identity piece for your film in the same way that logos and color palettes and graphic treatments are, then you can vastly improve the marketing and branding of your film. By including your Composer way early in the process, (how about in the pre-production phase?) and then let him/her start working parallel to the shoot, you stand a great chance of having some excellent material for your film AND the marketing materials.

I don't know the entire story behind Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but I do know that Tan Dun had already completed parts of the score whilst the post-production computer graphics folks were creating certain shots of the Forbidden City. They had the luxury of working to the music score. Pretty inspiring.

Oh and check out the new King Kong trailer. Howard Shore was replaced as Composer by James Newton Howard. They're still in post-production. Did it change the trailer? Not at all.

The Music Budget

You, the director, have decided on the Composer you want to write the great timeless score to your great timeless film. And now the big question: How much will it cost?

There are no standard union rates for Composers as there are with editors, DPs, actors, set designers or just about anyone else. Somewhere I’ve seen a range of 5 to 10 percent of the overall budget(For a $250,000 film, this is $12,000 to $25,000). Of course, if this film requires a soundtrack of epic proportions with the London Symphonic Orchestra, this won’t even cover the orchestra salaries, let alone the recording sessions and Composer’s fee. Or if this film was made for $5000, this may not work. On most independent films, the budgets are barely enough to cover a Composer’s fee and live musicians (besides the Composer) are a luxury.

What usually happens is a combination of cash and a structure for back-end payments should the film actually make some money. This could be structured on a sliding (“step”) scale where as certain levels of success occur, the rates of payments change accordingly.

Your agreement should make clear whether the Composer is doing a “package deal,” where all costs for creating the soundtrack are covered by the Composer, or whether you are paying a fee for just Composing and then additional for musicians, recording, copyists, union fees, etc. Package deals are quite the norm in low budget films and television. On larger projects, the studio often has relationships and the clout to command better rates and access on recording studios, with orchestras, etc.

On major studio productions, the Composer will be hired on a “work for hire” basis which means the studio will own all of the work. Major studio budgets are usually pretty large and the marketing push given these films means Composers will do just fine on the money end. Composers still retain their writer’s share of their copyright, but the publishing portion is owned and controlled by the studio. Example: If John Williams wants to perform or record some of his classic movie scores, he needs to ask for permission from the studio who controls it.

On independent films, the Composer will usually retain all publishing and rights to release the music independently. This allows for an income stream to make up for lower fees.

The Film Music Network publishes an annual salary survey of Composers that makes for interesting reading. It provides general ranges based on interviews with working Composers. For more information also, check out the excellent Film Budgeting group on Yahoo.

Musician Unions

Unions seem to be an antiquated notion in the information age. What started out as protecting drones on the factory line has become a bureaucratic mess for "knowledge workers." But they have achieved amazing standards for many including actors, film crew and auto workers. Musicians never seem to get much out of them except on Broadway.

Radio City seems to be winning this one.

The Death of Original Film Music?

Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown (which I haven't seen) is the latest film to declare the death of original film music. Crowe is a former music journalist with an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music. He's been highly praised not for this film, but for the soundtrack which features an eclectic mix of old and new singer songwriters and pop artists.

The matching of the right song to film is undeniably powerful. Martin Scorsese has done it numerous times utilizing songs from the period of his films that capture a moment. Saturday Night Fever hit it out of the park. However, with any popular song, the filmmaker runs the risk of pulling the viewer out of the picture to the associated memories already existing around that song. Instead of following the plot line, you start to think of where you were and what you were doing when you first experienced that song. Or you start to say I really like that song and want to buy that album - again pullling you out of the picture.

I've been asked to replace songs in score many times. Recently, Jeff Buckley's rendition of the Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah" was slated for a film. The song definitely added a lot of the right emotional tones and haunting quality to the film, AND it also became so foreground and present that it was distracting and overpowering to the picture.

So, there are times for songs and times for score and I feel there will always be a place for the two

NPR's Morning Edition ran an excellent overview last week on The Evolution of the Movie Soundtrack..