Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's music lesson.

I'm Miss Meisel and I'm gonna be your teacher today.

Let's get started.

Today's lesson outcome is I can explain how film composers work and can create different versions of a melody to suit contrasting moods.

Let's have a look at some keywords for today.

Ostinato, that's a repeating pattern that forms the basis of a piece of music.

Development, the process of adapting an existing motif or musical idea, helping to create a balance of unity and variety in a composition.

Today's lesson on matching music to action using a storyboard has two parts.

Part one is the film composition process, and part two is creating contrasting moods.

Let's get started with part one, the film composition process.

A film composer's job isn't exactly like other composers.

Most composers can compose what they want to whatever timings they want.

However, film composers have to consider the music to carefully match the action, the mood, and the timings of the scenes.

Using a storyboard can help when planning music for film.

A storyboard represents the key moments in a scene with images.

This gives the composer a sense of the main moods and actions that the music needs to support and enhance.

Here are some examples.

So for example, the character is alone.

The character is threatened by pursuers.

There's a dramatic chase or action sequence, or the character escapes.

So here, you can see different images that go along with different actions.

A cue is a precise moment in a scene where something happens requiring the music to match it.

Examples might include a character appearing, a physical action.

For example, a jump, an emotional reveal, for example, a character says, "I love you." Cues have specific timings called timestamps, and here's an example of a timestamp.

So you can see 11:04, 11 minutes, and four seconds into the clip, the character runs.

The composer will compose the music to fit perfectly with the timing of these cues so that at the 11:04 timestamp, the music perfectly suits the change of mood.

In this case, the character starts running.

Using digital software makes the process of mapping music to specific timings and cues like this much easier.

The composer of this example, Danny Elfman, used a complex storyboard and series of cues to match his music perfectly to the action.

It is a fight scene where Batman battles off a number of enemies who are dressed as clowns and circus performers.

We hear Batman's leitmotif every time he does something significant.

What else happens in the music that might mirror the moments of action and help the music sound appropriate for an action scene? You need to find the example from the Batman score that we're listening to.

Go and do that and listen to I now.

The music mirrors the action through a very busy, thick texture, accents and crescendos, scalic runs, sudden bursts of short, fast, musical ideas, the use of lots of brass and percussion, dissonance and chromatic harmony.

Let's do a check for understanding.

What is a cue in film music? Is it A, when something happens in a scene? B, when something happens in a scene requiring a change in the music, or C, when the music changes in a scene, which of those is it? Well, dunno if you've got B.

A cue is when something happens in a scene requiring a change in the music.

Which of these are essential information about cues for a film composer? Select all the ones that apply.

Is it A, their exact timing.

B, what happens, or C, how the music should change.

What did you think? If you selected all of them, you were right.

A film composer needs to know the exact timing, what's happening and how the music should change for each cue.

Which of the following would suit an action scene? Again, select all that you think apply.

Is it A, soft dynamics.

B, sudden bursts of short musical ideas, C, brass and percussion instruments or D, thick texture.

Well-done if you selected B, C, and D, the only one of those that probably wouldn't suit an action scene is soft dynamics.

The rest all would.

Have a listen to this music from the film scene shown in the timeline.

You're going to need to find the clip from Danny Elfman's music for the "Corpse Bride." Explain how the composer changes the music at each cue to support the action.

Consider the tempo, dynamics, pitch, texture, instruments, articulation, harmony, and tonality in your answer.

So you can see we've got some timestamps there.

So at zero, he practices his wedding vows in the forest.

At 10 seconds, he places the ring on the branch and senses something strange happening.

And at 23 seconds, the corpse rises from the ground, terrifying the character.

So pause the lesson video now, go and find the music from the film scene and have a go at task A.

How did you get on? Let's have a look at some answers.

So at the beginning, the music is in a major key and feels hopeful, with an uplifting melody suiting the mood of a wedding.

The moderate tempo, smooth articulation, and pleasant melody sound unthreatening.

You might have then said something like a 10 seconds in the mood suddenly changes with very high-pitched sustained notes, creating suspense and the harmony becoming more dissonant and chromatic.

The sense of a pulse disappears, creating suspense, strange sound effects create a feeling of something unsettling.

The dynamics increase and the texture thickens creating a feeling of something building.

And then for the third cue, 23 seconds, you might have said something like, the music is suddenly loud and dramatic with accented notes and sudden chords in the choir and other instruments.

The harmony is chromatic and dissonant, creating a feeling of something strange or unpleasant.

The tempo and pulse return, creating a feeling of drama and action.

I hope you wrote something similar with your answers.

Let's move on to part two of our lesson, creating contrasting moods.

To compose music for this scene, we need to develop the ostinato to suit all of the different moods.

So here we are, we can see the cues for the different moods, so we want calm or peaceful.

The second cue is building fear or tension.

For the third, cue it tense and dramatic.

And then for the fourth queue, returning to calm, we already have the action sequence music for the third part of the storyboard, to create a calm, peaceful version for the opening.

Use smooth articulation, a soft timbre and dynamics.

Use slow, calm rhythms, and use a thin texture.

These features combined create calm, peaceful mood.

Watch an example of this here.

<v ->[Speaker With Clear Tone] I'm gonna try and create a calm,</v> peaceful version of my ostinato.

There's a few things I need to consider.

First is the timbre.

I've chosen here to use a flute, and that's because it creates a really calm and peaceful timbre.

If I was to use, for example, really punchy brass instruments, that wouldn't create the sense of calm and peace that I'm going for.

So carefully choose your timbre to find something that suits that atmosphere.

Secondly, I'm gonna think about my articulation and dynamics.

Now I want smooth articulation.

If I'm trying to create a sense of calm and peace, I'm gonna be playing legato, trying to play really smoothly between the different notes.

And I'm gonna be using some soft dynamics.

If I'm playing very loud and dramatically, that's gonna not create that calm and peaceful mood.

Now my ostinato at the moment is these four notes (soft music) and in the action sequence version of it that I created, it used driving rhythms and fast repetitive rhythms as well to create a real sense of energy.

Here, I want the opposite.

I want it to feel really calm and really peaceful.

So I'm gonna play it high pitch because that helps create this sense of calm and peace and I'm gonna play it smoothly.

And in terms of rhythm, I want to be using some slow rhythms. So rather than driving fast rhythms, I'm gonna be recording it using slow rhythms. Here we go.

(slow gentle music) So I've recorded in there playing minimums. As you can see, it's quite slow stain notes.

And that's the foundation, the groundwork for this calm version of the ostinato.

Now, in terms of texture, there's a couple of things I want to think about.

I don't want it to be so thin, a texture that is just this one fleet playing on its own, and I don't think that's gonna be as musically interesting.

So I do want to thicken the texture slightly.

However, I don't want to thicken it so much that it feels really busy and energetic like I did in my action sequence.

So I'm gonna add one or two other parts to slightly thicken the texture, add some musical interest, but not so much that it goes over the top and creates too energetic and dramatic feeling.

I'm gonna add another track and there's a few ways we can do our other parts.

The first one, I've decided that I'm gonna use a percussion instrument and I'm gonna play that ostinato, but fast and super high-pitched on this Glock and spiel here, I'm gonna do something like this, (soft music) just to add a little bit of color and interest.

So I'm still basing on those notes, but I'm gonna change the rhythm slightly so it's not the same as the flute.

And I'm gonna play it super high-pitched to add a bit of color.

So I'll record that in there.

(gentle music) So that's already adding some interest.

I think that's a nice little bit of color, but it still doesn't sound dramatic and energetic, which is a key point.

And then my third track, again, I could develop something using those notes of that ostinato, or I could try and use a simple chord part.

And for this, I've decided I'd like to use a piano.

That's 'cause a piano is often really evocative and instrument.

It creates a really interesting atmosphere and it's often used by film composers when they're trying to create emotional scenes or also sort of nostalgic scenes as well.

So I think this might work quite well here.

And I know at the moment that my ostinato is based on the notes of D-minor scale, so I could just use a D-minor chord and sustain it throughout to add a little bit of color that would sound like this.

(gentle piano music) So it's still calm and peaceful, but it's gonna add a little bit of interest to that texture.

So I'll record that in now.

(gentle piano music) So I've recorded that in, just gonna make sure that it starts exactly on beat one.

And then what I can do is I can just loop it so that the whole thing lasts for eight bars, so it should repeat four times.

Let's have a listen.

(gentle piano music) So I'm really happy with that.

I think it creates really calm and peaceful mood by using that ostinato and carefully think about timbre, dynamics, articulation and texture.

<v ->In the second part of the scene,</v> the character is threatened by pursuers, creating a fearful mood with building tension.

We can create this by using chromatic notes to create tension, using a pedal to create dissonance and tension, building in some faster rhythms to create urgency, using less calm articulation, dynamics, and timbre, those features combined create a tense mood.

And watch the video for an example of how to do this.

<v ->[Speaker With Clear Tone] Now I'm gonna create</v> a contrasting version of the ostinato that starts to build a bit more of a fearful and threatening mood where there's a little bit of tension going on as well.

Now I'm gonna start off by choosing some different timbres to use.

And here I want something that's less calm and less peaceful compared to the flute.

So I'm gonna be going for something a little bit different.

And I actually quite like this electric piano.

I think this might work quite well.

(light intense piano music) It's not super dramatic and super intense, but it's a little bit more intense than the flute.

So I'm gonna record in my ostinato using that.

And here, I'm gonna try and build in a couple of other factors as well.

Firstly, I'm gonna use faster rhythms than I did originally.

So in my flute, I was using minimums. Now I'm gonna up the ante a bit and I might record using crotchets instead.

And secondly, I'm gonna try and use some slightly less calm articulation and dynamic.

So rather than just doing all the notes very smooth and gently, I might try and create a little bit more energy and tension by doing it slightly differently.

Here we go.

(light intense piano music) I recorded it twice but only need to record it once and I can just make sure that those are all perfectly in time.

So that's the first thing.

And then I'm gonna think about how else I can start to build this tension in this texture here as well.

Now, something that's really effective up building dissonance and tension is the use of a pedal.

So for this, I'm gonna use a pedal and I'm gonna find a bass instrument to record in a really low-note right down the bottom of my instrument.

See what this one sounds like.

(intense music) That sounds quite good.

It's a nice punchy bass that one.

I'm, because we're in D-minor, I'm gonna be recording the note D, super low-down to create a pedal.

Here we go.

(intense music) And I've recorded next one just at the end there to add a little bit of rhythmic interest.

Again, I can loop it, so make sure that starts right at start of beat one.

So these are my two parts together now.

(intense music) That's what I've got so far.

Now another really effective way of creating tension is using some chromatic harmony.

This creates dissonance and it creates a little bit of harmonic tension.

So I'm gonna create a thorough track now.

And for this, I'm just gonna experiment using some chromatic notes to add a little bit of harmonic interest.

I'm gonna go for a contrasting time where I might go for an acoustic guitar and I'm gonna experiment with playing some patterns based around the note D because we know we're in the key D-minor, but adding in some block notes to see if I can create some interesting tension.

And when I'm doing this, I can just put those other tracks on the loop as I experiment with different ideas.

(intense music) I like that idea actually, it's just starting on D and then moving chromatically to C-sharp (light gentle music) and see, it creates a little bit of harmonic tension and clashes with the other parts of touch.

So I quite like that.

I'm gonna record that in.

And you'll notice I was also trying playing in octaves (gentle music) just to add a little bit of interest there as well.

So I might do that too.

(intense music) Again, I can loop it, just make sure they start right on B one.

And then finally, I wanna add a little bit more rhythmic interest.

So I'm gonna add some percussion, not too much, just a little bit to add a little bit of rhythmic energy because this section is where fear, the tension's starting to build.

So the energy levels are raising a little bit.

They're growing up, so I'm gonna find a percussion instrument.

I'm just gonna add something that adds a little bit of rhythmic interest, what we've got here, (soft music) maybe those clicks, that's quite interesting sound, so I could use that.

(intense music) Let's play some quavers there.

There's no right or wrong way to do this, but I think I just add to touch a rhythm.

And now let's loop it.

We'll loop all four tracks.

So they'll ask for eight bars and let's see what they sound like.

(intense music) So that's now starting to feel more tense, more intense, and it start to build the energy as appropriate for the second part of the scene.

<v ->Let's do a quick check for understanding.

</v> List three features that help to create a calm, peaceful mood with the character alone.

List three features.

You could have said, smooth articulation, soft timbre, soft dynamics, slow, calm rhythms, thin texture.

Did you get three of those? Now, list three features that help to create a feeling of building fear and tension.

How have we got on? Did you get three? You could have said chromatic notes, a pedal, faster rhythms, less calm articulation, louder, or building dynamics.

A more intense timbre, how did you get on? Did you get three? Let's go onto task B.

We want you to develop your ostinato to create two contrasting moods.

So mood one is the character is alone with a calm and peaceful mood.

So you should use some or all of the following, smooth articulation, a soft timbre and dynamics, slow, calm rhythms, and a thin texture.

For mood two, the character feels threatened with rising fear and tension, so you should use some or all of the following.

Chromatic notes, a pedal, faster rhythms, less calm articulation, louder or building dynamics, and a more intense timbre.

Pause the lesson video now and have a go at developing your ostinato to create those two contrasting moods.

I hope you enjoyed that.

How could this ostinato be made to better suit a calm, peaceful section of a scene? Have a listen.

(intense music) What did you think? You could use slower rhythms with longer note values.

Use gentler timbres and dynamics.

Use smoother articulation.

Take out the pedal because it creates some tension.

Let's summarize today's lesson.

Writing film music requires composers to precisely match their music to the timings of action.

They use storyboards to represent the main action of a scene and use cues to help them fit their music to exact moments in the scene.

They then create the music to match each mood by developing musical ideas in different ways.

We have developed an ostinato to create different moods.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson.