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The reason I'm asking is because of the enormous number of composers and artists who have written at least one film score in their careers. One example is Elton John, writing an orchestral score for The Muse, another is Maurice Gibb from Bee Gees writing an electronic score for A Breed Apart, yet another is Neil Young scoring Dead Man with rock music.
Is writing film music considered "easy"? Like, put a main theme up front, a romantic theme there, some suspense there, some comedy music there. Sure, film music "fans" know how to distingush a good score from a bad one, but I guess the average movie goer will not hear the difference, they just hear some more or less serviceable background music.
There are a lot of artists who "dabble" in film music. Personally, I'm mostly positive towards this, and it's prretty interesting that so many artists feel that they can give a film what it needs musically.
I don't think I have heard any artist say "I would have no idea what to do if someone told me to write a film score!".
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Posted: |
Sep 7, 2014 - 12:07 PM
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By: |
JB Fan
(Member)
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For my opinion - it's both easy and difficult at same time.
I tried to do "music "for Agatha Christie's book.
From one point of view, it was easy, 'cause I love this book, I even didn't need to re-read it, so one day I finished my score. I mean if you love book/video, it's not burden you (remember cases when composer didn't like the film he scoring?). So in this point I have no problems.
But I also faced too much problems:
- no new video (and if I tried to watch another adaptations I always noticed that after that I begun to imitate ACTUAL score). So it means no timing, and it's only your imagination that can say - "this scene must be 2 min. 37 sec and this one must be 39 sec."
- it's not my usual job, I composed it during evening (1-2 hours per-day), so it's took about 1.5 years, till I finished this 40-45 min. "opus". It means that I doubt that I could finished it at all, if I had strong time limits.
- and final - inspiration! One day you had it, and after this day you had no ideas for 3-5-7 days! I think that real producer already fired such composer 
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Th elitists here will probably say "no" and say that people like Trent Reznor are not worthy of the title film composer.
Different films ask for different approaches, so yeah I think anybody who knows music can write a film score. Could Trent Reznor or Nick Cave write a score like Star Wars? Of course not. That doesn't mean that they don't know how to score a film. Not every score needs to be a big symphonic score. It's this diversity that makes me love film music.
I don't think I have heard any artist say "I would have no idea what to do if someone told me to write a film score!".
I asked Dave Navarro (guitarist from Jane's Addiction and former Red Hot Chili Peppers member) once if he'd be interested in writing a film score and he actually said that he'd probably have no idea how to do that.
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I have no musical training whatsoever and cannot play any instrument (although I have enjoyed the odd strum on guitar, tinkle on piano and toot on harmonica), and while I know I could not WRITE a Film Score to save my life, I imagine I could sit at a keyboard and create some themes and moods that would sound akin to some of the low-rent keyboard scores I've heard in countless bargain basement thrillers and skin flicks.
So yes, anyone can score a film, but that doesn't make them a film composer.
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This is from an old interview with Leonard Rosenman (from Irwin Bazelon's "Knowing the Score") -
Q: "Do you have to be a composer to write film music?"
A: "I feel the answer is no..., because first of all a little goes a long way in films. By that I mean that certain kinds of sounds are really quite as applicable as developed scores for certain kinds of scenes. I personally know many people who are called composers, who organize sounds and put them in films..... All you have to have is a sense of drama and a sense of sound..."
I agree with the great Leonard Rosenman there. I think that even I could write a film score with my Stylophone, and track it behind some of the German "killer-on-the-loose" TV Movies that my mother-in-law watches. But my "versatilty" would end there I imagine. So, yes, I'd say that "anyone" can write a film score, but that in itself doesn't make one an accomplished film composer - or even a good musician.
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I have no musical training and can't play any instruments, but I've scored a bunch of short films for myself and friends.
As to whether I'm any good at it, I'll let you decide: https://soundcloud.com/untamed-aggression
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Based on the number of interviews I've read with composers and orchestrators (and video interviews on places like Youtube; a nubmer of "old school" people), I'd say the answer is more complicated than a "Yes" or "No".
Can a novice who's mainly done drumming and some arrangements for a rock group write a score? Sure. Can he write a real score? No.
The complexities, naunces, structures; and knowledge on, for example, how to write for a bunch of instruments in their particular playing range or change parts of a cue litterally on the fly right there as the expensive orchestra waits, come with real studied composing. I remember, as an example, just reading an interview in the last few weeks where a composer noted he could tell a real composer by seeing their writing; whereas another composer said you could tell somebody was not a real composer by the way the measures are and the woodwinds usage (that such ways were from somebody who learned from making music on a computer).
And then there's a weird gray area for people who throw together music with a drum machine and a few live players, or a group of people doing a jam session to create a score. The results aren't exactly going to impress the LSO, mind you, but sometimes it can be interesting to listen to.
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It's easy to compose a score like Sorcerer or Halloween or Man Of Steel, where the composer leans heavily on keyboard loops and repetitive patterns and long, sustained chords to create a general "atmosphere".
It is enormously difficult to write a score like Spartacus or Superman, which is written-out with a pencil, contains copious, extensively-developed themes, intricate counterpoint, is scored for large orchestra and filled with moment-specific dramatic nuances.
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Posted: |
Sep 7, 2014 - 10:57 PM
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By: |
SchiffyM
(Member)
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I think Saul nailed it. Anybody who has ever sat in an editing room knows that music pretty much always helps. Editing and mixing techniques have become very sophisticated these days, and we accept a certain unchallenging co-mingling of imagery with sound. Can "anyone" can do this? That's probably an overstatement. But I wouldn't say it requires a towering talent or a true original.
Can just anyone write a film score with a real dramatic shape, that elevates the film's emotional resonance, brings meanings to scenes not otherwise there, achieves more than simply accompanying image with sound on a moment-by-moment basis? My answer to that one is "no," very few are skilled enough to pull this off.
But those who can come from a wide range of disciplines. I've known more than a few musicians in my life, and they're typically more sophisticated musically, and have a wider breadth of musical knowledge, than most of us generally assume. Two rock musicians I've spoken with (from legitimate bands with hit songs) referenced Alex North to me as an influence. A classical violist who's a friend of mine once performed at a private party for the Rolling Stones, and each of them had specific requests for the string quartet he was playing with. And a french horn player I met once has an extremely extensive collection of heavy metal CDs (his wife was complaining about it!). My point is, we're very quick to pigeonhole artists, but I try not to judge them based on how they've managed to make a living to this point. Often, that's far from the sum total of their ambition.
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Posted: |
Sep 7, 2014 - 11:22 PM
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By: |
.
(Member)
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The film music I am most attracted to was written to create an illusion of a live orchestra being present in the auditorium. This was what film music was all about for the Golden era. With massive cinemas designed to replicate the atmosphere and presentation of theatre and opera houses, even with boxes to the sides and multi-tiers, the only thing missing was an actual orchestra in the pit, but the recorded music was the way for the masses to enjoy that aspect in all their cinemas. After all, people went to the cinema for a theatrical experience, light years beyond what a TV could offer back then.
Today, with home theaters and mini cinemas, all pretense of a live auditorium has long disappeared. What counts now is surround effects and multi-channels of audio design. It's about immersive droning and atmospheric rumblings, often with a trite heroic anthem or simplistic tune thrown in to try to distinguish it from all the others that are churned out in the same anonymous style. Orchestral presentation usually means nothing in today's scores. Listeners used to worry about whether certain instruments were placed properly, left or right, in the presentation, but today they're more impressed if the sounds (orchestral or synthetic) come from behind, high to the left, low to the right, or all sides at once. I doubt that the vast majority of the composers of current scores could produce anything for a traditional orchestra that is remotely as refined and lastingly significant as the masters of yesteryear.
Today, I think the answer to "Can anyone can write a film score" is yes. But thankfully it wasn't always like this.
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"Can 'anyone' write a film score?"
Yes. Just not necessarily a *good* one....
That's the correct answer, of course.
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Lots of "old school" people here.
I guess I should have known...
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Posted: |
Sep 8, 2014 - 12:35 PM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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Well, there needs to be some parameters in play. First of all, you need to know MUSIC. What type of music you've specialized in isn't that important. But you need to know your stuff. Just because you have the equipment in your basement, doesn't make you a good composer or musician. Second, you need to have some sort of dramatic insight, i.e. how music can communicate drama and interact with images. Third -- and related to the previous point -- you need to know something about films, narrative structuing and filmmaking.
If you have that, you have a good opportunity to do a good film score. It's no guarantee, but it's a great starting point.
Obviously, the proof is ultimately in the pudding, but I've grown tired of seeing attitudes wherein only one particular music style or type of music knowledge is deemed "worthy". Good film composers can come from everywhere.
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