Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's music lesson.

I'm Miss Mansell, and I'm gonna be your teacher for today.

Let's get started.

Today's lesson outcome is: I can create a piece of music for a short scene.

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

Cue: a precise moment in a scene where something happens, requiring the music to match it.

Timestamp: a specific moment in time in a composition.

For example, if you see 1:25, it's 1 minute and 25 seconds.

Musical transition: when two sections of music are linked in a coherent and musically satisfying way.

Today's lesson on scoring a film scene is in three parts.

Part one is creating a musical skeleton for a scene.

Part two is linking sections to create a seamless composition, and part three is making transitions musical.

Let's get started with part one, creating a musical skeleton for a scene.

To create music for a scene, composers start with cues.

They start by creating the main musical ideas for each cue, and matching them with the correct timestamps in a project.

When using a DAW, the time display helps to do this accurately, and you can see where that is here.

Based on this storyboard, at what timestamps should the different musical ideas begin? What do you think? Well done if you spotted it's the beginning of each timestamp.

Using those timestamps, we insert different musical ideas to create an incomplete skeleton of the music for the scene.

Watch the video to see how to do this.

<v Instructor>I'm gonna create a musical skeleton</v> for this scene.

In order to do that, first of all, I need to make sure that I've got time view enabled in my DAW, and it's the same in most DAWs.

There's a similar function to what I've got in Garage Band here, which is up near the top, on the dropdown menu, I can select time rather than beats.

And now you'll see that we have seconds and minutes along the top rather than beats and bars.

That's important so that I can really match up my musical changes with the exact timestamps of the cues from the scene.

Now in this project, I have my three versions of the ostinato.

I have my calm peaceful one here.

I have my building tension one here, and then I have my action sequence version as well, that I created previously.

So I put them all on the same project so I can use them together.

The first cue is at zero seconds, I need my calm, peaceful version to start.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna grab that, and make sure it starts at zero seconds right there.

Then my second cue is at 20 seconds, and here I want my tension building, my gradually becoming more fearful, exciting version, which is this one, to start at 20 seconds.

So what I'm actually gonna do is I'm gonna right click, click cut, and then I'm gonna drag the play-head to exactly 20 seconds, make sure it's set to the right tracks, and then click paste.

Now it's slightly easier doing it that way, because it enables you to get exactly on 20 seconds rather than slightly off.

It's quite hard when you're dragging it to actually get it precise.

So, I recommend doing it that way.

The third cue is at 40 seconds.

And here I want my action sequence music to start.

So I'm gonna do the same thing, cut, paste, make sure I'm selecting the right track.

I've dragged that play-head to 40 seconds, and then we're gonna paste.

And then my final cue is over here, at one minute, and that's where we want the calm, peaceful version again.

So I'm gonna copy and paste this version, the one minute, and it doesn't matter at the moment that there are gaps in between them.

We'll address that at a slightly later point.

So one minute, copy and paste.

Now if I zoom out, we'll see we've got that skeleton in place.

I've got that, at zero seconds cue, I've got my calm, peaceful version.

At the 20 second cue, I've got the one that builds a bit of tension.

At 40 second, we've got the chase music, the action sequence, and then at one minute we're back to the calm, peaceful version.

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

</v> Which piece of information do you need in order to accurately insert musical ideas at the correct timestamps? Is it A, beats and bars, B, tempo, C, minutes and seconds, or D time signature? Well done if you said C, minutes and seconds.

So let's have a go at task A.

We want you to create a musical skeleton for the scene by inserting each contrasting musical idea at the correct timestamp.

The success criteria for this is you have toggled to the time view for your project.

You have inserted the calm, peaceful version of your ostinato at zero.

You have inserted the version of your ostinato with building fear and tension at 20 seconds.

You have inserted the intense dramatic action version of your ostinato at 40 seconds, and you have inserted the calm, peaceful version of your ostinato at one minute.

Pause the lesson video now, and have a go at creating the musical skeleton for your scene.

I hope you got on well with that.

What does this composer need to do to ensure that all four sections match the correct timestamps? Remember, the timestamps are at zero, 20 seconds, 40 seconds, and one minute.

If you look closely, you can see, they need to make sure that the first section starts at zero and the third section starts at 40 seconds.

Let's move on to part two of our lesson: linking sections to create a seamless composition.

Film composers, and producers, carefully edit the film and music so that the music sounds seamless, and flows naturally, while still allowing for changes in mood at precise cues in the scene.

Using an ostinato makes this easier because the pattern can repeat to fill any gaps before cues.

In this example, the first section of music finishes a few seconds before the next cue.

The gap in the music makes it sound like two separate musical ideas rather than one seamless composition.

Have a listen to the example.

(gentle music playing) (tense music playing) As you can hear, this transition could be made more seamless.

The best method is to change the tempo to ensure that the 20 second section matches a neat number of bars.

In 4/4, you can calculate how many bars of ostinato you need to fill 20 seconds, by dividing your BPM, remember, that's beats per minute, by 12.

Let's have a look at some examples.

So at 144 BPM, 12 bars of ostinato fill 20 seconds.

That's because 144 developed by 12 is 12.

At 96 BPM, eight bars of your ostinato with fill it.

So there we've done 96 divided by 12 equals eight.

And at 120 BPM, 10 bars of your ostinato will fill the gap.

And there the calculation is 120 divided by 12 equals 10.

Watch the video to see how you can adapt the tempo to make the clip fill to seconds with complete bars.

<v Instructor>I'm gonna get rid of those gaps</v> by adjusting the tempo to create a seamless composition.

The way we do this is by working at a tempo that allows us to have a complete number of bars, or full bars, filling the cue, rather than having to use little bits of bars to fill the gaps.

Now, there's some tempo that are particularly useful, and that's because they divide by 12 to give a whole number.

One example would be 96 BPM.

If I adjust my tempo, to make it 96 BPM, it should now be the case that eight bars of music fills 20 seconds of the cue.

If I put my timing view on, I can see that those eight bars of that first example ostinato there finish at 20 seconds.

So that's the perfect length for those 20 seconds.

And then it'll be the same for eight bars of my other variations as well.

So what I can now do is move these.

So they're all eight bars long.

And there's no gaps in between them.

And because I've adjusted that tempo, that now means that each of those will start at the correct timestamp, 20 seconds, 40 seconds, and a minute, but with no gaps between them.

I don't have to use 96 BPM.

If I wanted it to feel slightly faster, or slower, I could use another BPM that also divides by 12 to give a whole number.

So an example could be, for example, 120 BPM.

I want it to feel that bit faster.

However, now what I need to do is, instead of eight bars of music, I need 10 bars for each cue.

So I need to adjust the length to make them 10 bars long, and I need to do that for each one.

So I need to move them around, adjust the length, adding two bars to each example, and then what I can do, once I've done that to each one, is check with the timings that they still correspond to the correct cues.

So let's look, if I click times now, got 20 seconds for those first 10 bars, 40 seconds after the second one, a minute after the third one, then 1:20 after the fourth one.

So that's worked absolutely fine, but I've had to adjust the number of bars to make sure that the full number of bars fills the 20 seconds.

<v ->The result of this process is a seamless composition</v> with the four precise cues matched by the musical changes.

Have a watch of this video and see how that's done.

(soft music playing) (fast tense music playing) (upbeat techno music playing) (soft music playing) Changing the tempo can also change the mood, and character, of the music.

Instead, you might want to keep the original tempo, but use a partial bar to fill the gap.

To keep your music at 150 BPM, for example, we could calculate that this would require 12 and a half bars, so 150 divided by 12 is 12 and a half.

Let's do a check for understanding.

At 60 BPM, beats per minute, in 4/4, how many bars of music would be required to fill a 20 second part of a scene? Is it A, 15, B, five, C, three, or D, 60? Well done if you said B, five.

At 54 BPM in 4/4, how many bars of music would be required to fill a 20 second part of a scene? Is it A, four and a half, B, five, C, four, or D, five and a half? Well done if you've got A, four and a half bars.

So let's have a go at task B.

We want you to adjust your clips so that they perfectly fill each 20 second part of the scene.

Do this by adjusting the tempo, so that an exact number of bars fits in 20 seconds.

The success criteria for this is that each 20 second section of the music is filled perfectly either by complete bars of music or with use of a half bar.

You have calculated the number of bars, by dividing the BPM by 12 to get a whole number.

You have moved your different ostinato variations around, to ensure they start, and finish, at the correct timestamps.

So pause your lesson video now and have a go at task B.

Let's have a look at this question.

An example is 118 beats per minute.

What is the nearest tempo that would allow 20 seconds to be filled by complete bars? Here's a bit of a hint.

What is the nearest BPM to 118 that divides by 12 to give us a whole number? Have a think.

So, 120 BPM.

That's 120 divided by 12 equals 10.

Let's move on to part three of our lesson: making transitions musical.

Film music sometimes requires sudden changes between moods.

For example, when a sudden action happens on screen.

The musical elements can be used to create a smooth musical transition between moods.

Compare these two transitions between the same two moods.

How does the second clip make the link more seamless? Have a listen to the first one.

(gentle music playing) (tense fast music playing) And then have a listen to the second.

(gentle music playing) (tense music building) (dramatic fast music playing) Two common techniques for making musical transitions are introducing a timbre, rhythm, or melodic idea from the second section at the end of the first section.

Watch a video about that.

<v Instructor>Sometimes film composers will want</v> sudden musical changes to match sudden changes in the action on screen.

However, there are other times when they want to make those transitions between different musical sections much more seamless and less obvious.

And there are a few ways we can do that.

First is by introducing a timbre, a rhythm, or melodic idea, from the second section, at the end of the first section.

So we're overlapping some of the ideas that are gonna come in the second section, but still during first section.

That makes the transition a little bit less sudden.

Here's a couple ways we could do that.

Now, the first way is just by copying, or starting, one of the instruments, or rhythms, or melodic ideas from the second section, at the end of the first section.

So I might take this percussion track, which sounds like this.

(clicker clicking) And I might introduce that partway through the first section instead.

So I could introduce it at bar seven, or I could introduce it at bar five.

So we start hearing that rhythmic idea before the first section is over.

The other thing I could do, let's introduce some timbre from the second section at the end of the first section.

Now my second section has this very distinct classic electric piano timbre.

I'll let you hear what that sounds like.

(tense keyboard music playing) And that really contrasts with the flute that's playing the main ostinato in the first section.

(gentle flute music playing) So what I could do is I could introduce this electric piano timbre earlier, but I could have it playing what the flute is playing here.

So we're hearing the sound in the timbre, but it's not playing the faster rhythm and different articulation that we hear in the second section.

So the way I'm gonna do that is I'm gonna copy and paste that flute part into the classic electric piano part, and I'm just gonna shorten it down here first.

So it is now playing that flute part, but on the classic electric piano, a little bit before the end of the first section.

And what I could also do is I could change the octave to make it more distinct.

At the moment is playing a high octave.

(gentle flute music playing) But if I put it down in octave there, it would sound a little bit more distinct, and more obvious that we've got (flute tooting) that new timbre joining in.

So I'm just gonna drag it down a whole octave.

(keyboard dinging) And now you should be able to hear that classic electric piano a little bit more obviously.

(gentle music playing) (dramatic fast music playing) So let's hear that transition then from the first section to the second section now.

(gentle flute music playing) (tense music building) (dramatic fast music playing) So, as you can hear, that transition is much more seamless than it was, and there's no necessarily right or wrong way of doing this.

So I could have introduced one of these ideas instead, or instead of using the electric piano timbre for this, I could have tried it on one of the other instruments.

So experiment around, taking some things from your second section, and introducing them a little bit earlier at the end of the first section <v ->And overlapping at timbre rhythm, or melodic idea,</v> from the first section into the start of the second section.

You can watch a video about that.

<v Instructor>The other way</v> we can make that transition more seamless is by overlapping some ideas from the first section into the start of the second section.

So it's not such a sudden finish to those ideas from our first section.

So one thing I think I could do here is, if we listen to my first section, we'll hear we've got these piano chords playing every two bars.

(gentle music playing) So what I could do is just extend that piano track so that that chord also plays at the start of the second section, and then that'll mean the piano carries on briefly to introduce this second section, and make that transition a little bit more seamless.

Let's hear what that would sound like.

(gentle music playing) (tense music building) (dramatic fast music playing) So you can hear the change isn't quite as sudden there.

And I could also do the same with the flute.

It's playing these long notes, this version of the ostinato based on these long sustained notes.

So I could just extend it so that the first note, the two beat note, also plays at the start of the second section there as well.

Listen out for the flute this time in the transition.

(gentle music playing) (tense music building) (dramatic fast music playing) So you can hear that both the flute and the piano are carrying on slightly into that second section, which makes that transition, that sudden change, a bit less sudden and a bit more seamless.

So by combining those two with the features earlier, that I took from the second section and introduced early, we've taken what was a very sudden change, musically, and made it much more natural, much more musical, and much less obvious to the listener.

<v ->Which transition, in this example,</v> would best suit being seamless and not sudden? Have a think.

This transition best suits being seamless because there isn't a sudden change in action here.

In the later transitions, the chase begins and ends suddenly, so it suits a more sudden shift of mood.

Why might a composer choose not to make a transition seamless? Is it A, to match a sudden change in the scene, B, to speed up the composition process, or C, to not reveal the new musical ideas too early? Which do you think? Well done if you said A, to match a sudden change in the scene.

Let's move on to task C.

We want you to create a musical transition between the first two sections to make the change more seamless.

The success criteria is that the transition at 20 seconds sounds seamless and not sudden, and that you've achieved this through introducing a timbre rhythm, or melodic idea, from the second section, at the end of the first section, and, or, overlapping a timbre, rhythm, or melodic idea from the first section into the start of the second section.

So, pause the lesson video and have a go at task C.

Let's have a listen to this clip.

How could this transition be made more seamless? (dramatic fast music playing) (upbeat techno music playing) You might have said the composer could use a timbre, rhythm, or melodic idea, from the second section at the end of the first section.

You could have also said the composer could overlap a timbre, rhythm, or melodic idea from the first section into the start of the second section.

Let's summarize today's lesson on scoring a film scene.

Film composers have to carefully match musical changes to precise cues and timestamps.

Manipulating the tempo is one method that helps to fit sections of music to specific timings.

Sometimes, transitions between sections are deliberately sudden to match sudden changes in the action.

At other times, composers choose to make more musical transitions, by blending features of the two sections to create a seamless change.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson.