As we are near completing this project it has reached the point of which the music is finished and in it’s final place of the film. Therefore I thought it would be good to evaluate the music as a whole. What I have learnt about the role of music supervisor/composer during my research is that both have a strong relationship with the director. Due to the way this project has turned out it has been difficult to create that. However I have attempted to achieve this through periodic meetings about the music; within these meeting I would show the director(s) the progress of the music, ask for there opinions, discuss further ideas with the music and make sure they were happy and agreed with all my decisions. Unfortunately I wasn’t given a lot of guidance with the music apart from the second director preferring the music to be more simplistic and liking the lone piano. However this did give me free rein to do as I wished. The main challenge was keeping it “simplistic” whilst trying to add extra layers to it. The reason I wanted to add extra layers to the piano was because I felt the piece’s were rather empty without and didn’t give the film a lot of progression with the piano alone.
So as stated previously the film music splits up into five different categories. The first of which is the title sequence music. This lays down the key and feel of the rest of the music through out the film. It introduces the main themes which are the two piano chords (to symbolise George) and the arpeggios, which appear at the beginning and end of the film, as a main theme tune. The piano is combined with a xylophone sound to add a counter melody. This gives the piece more texture and makes the melodies stand out more. There is also another layer which is a bass synth. This attempts to give the piece more body and pad it out. This is partly because I thought the music was still lacking something, but it also acts as an underlying sound which appears to signify Georges regrets in the conclusion piece of music. Both are meant to be very subtle as I didn’t want to take away from the piano or the melodies the piano is creating. You may also notice that in the film the music is layered with some echoed sounds of children; this is meant to hint at George’s son Sam who is a key focus to the film. These children sounds are layered throughout the film and are meant to be a subtle signifier of George’s pain when it comes to his relationship with his son.
The second piece is the ‘Travel song’, this was a piece of music I created to go along to some still shots of scenery or when George is travelling. Originally this piece was meant to be longer however because of the way the shots turned out it is fairly short. However I still think it fits nicely as a transition piece. This piece contain just a constant rhythm whilst a new melody comes over the top.
The third is the radio song which we recorded a cover of ‘One more Kiss, Dear’ by Vangelis. The direction given from the director was that she wanted an older sounding song to symbolise Georges love for his wife. For this we had to have discussions with PRS and pull our own resources to create a cover that was as close to the original as possible. We chose this specific song as we felt the lyrics were particularly relevant to the storyline which is progressing in the film. This scene is meant to signify George’s past relationship with his wife who is now dead – which evokes George to being upset. We intensified this by automating the EQ with the change in shots to try and show the song taking over George’s emotion.
The fourth pieces of music are only short pieces which occur in the dreams. These are mainly there to give the effect that George is dreaming. They are the simple piano notes which are washed in reverb and delay to make them sound different to the other music. This is an attempt to make sure the viewer realises that George is in a dream and also to intensify it and blend with the other sounds in the dream scenes.
The fifth and final piece is about 4 minutes long and continues through to the end of the credits. This is meant to show the change of emotions George is going through and then reverts back to the original arpeggio that is in the introduction piece. This is similar to the introduction in that it has the two additional layers of MIDI. These are added to attempt to give the music more of a dynamic range – to rise and fall with the film itself. It then proceeds into the end credits which have element of all the piece of music as well as a new melody to symbolise a sort of closure to the film.
We weren’t told that there was a production Logo until the final cut of the visual. For this Rory created a sting that appears at the beginning and end of the film. This was something we were given no guidance on. I think what Rory created fitted the visual perfectly and really enhanced the Logo itself.
I did find it difficult to start composing for the film until I saw the rough edits of the visuals. It then became clear where I wanted to go with it. I feel like I have learnt a lot about my preferred methods to composing music and it would be really interesting in having the role of music supervisor in a different film. Some of the main difficulties I came across during this process is that I wasn’t told how long the title scene or the end credit’s would be until I got the final cut of the visuals. This meant I had a short amount of time to finish of the already existing music and then add to the composition where needed (which with the end credits was 1 minute and a half extra music and a day to do it in). However because we had a little longer to do our final mix I was able to complete all the layers to the music I wanted. Another issue I came across was adding the extra layers of MIDI. At first I struggled to come up with ideas and had a significant mental block. However I have now learnt when that happens it is best to leave it and come back to it in after a couple of hours/day, this meant I was being much more productive. Overall I am happy with how the music has turned out. I feel that I played close attention to any comments the clients had and really tried to get them interested and discuss what they wanted from the music. I felt I created a score which hinted at who George was at a character and also made the audience feel something for him at the end of the piece.