Scoring process...

I've started work on the new film score #1.  "The Feed."  Currently, my focus is on spotting, or the process of basically figuring out where the music is going to go in the film.  It's kind of like tracing the route you're going to take on a road map and plotting all the stops along the way, before setting out.

The first step is to meet with the director and get their ideas about where they think music should go and what important plot points there are.  This is where I start to draw the map.  Then, the next step is to go home and essentially write out what is essentially a travel itinerary.  The spotting notes.  I get specific and write what has to happen at each time code and what emotions the characters are experiencing and how important the music is at each hit point.   This could be the equivalent of deciding what to do at each of the stops on my itinerary.

Now that I've done all this, my next step is to start writing out some musical ideas and start working with timbres and textures.  Since I composed a short piece already for the director to give him an idea of what I might write for him, I have some stuff to mine from.  He liked the ideas that I put forth so I'm going to tap into a lot of that.  This score is going to incorporate a lot of sound design type stuff, background noise, white noise and FM synthesis.  Also some guitar effects (nothing that will be recognizable as guitar) and perhaps some acoustic instruments like piano and cello or violin.  It will be mostly atonal but I plan on having a few relatively tonal melodies break through at certain points.

The film itself is only about 13 minutes long but there is a great deal of character development.   All the characters in this dystopian future when the film is set have a computer linked to their brain and are experiencing a constant stream of information.  We talked about having a theme for when the Feed is connected and one for when it is not.  I'm considering themes for certain characters too.  But I'm not quite there yet.  That's for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'm liking this road map metaphor.   I'll see how far I can extend it though.   Tomorrow I get to decide once and for all which instruments I'm going to use, as I actually sit down and start working melodies and themes.  Kind of like deciding which model of car I'm going to rent for the drive.  Wish me luck.