Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film or a television program. The score consists of a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film to enhance the dramatic narrative and emotional impact of scenes. Scores are written by one or more composers under the guidance of or in collaboration with the film's director or producer and are then most often performed by an ensemble of musicians – usually including an orchestra or band, instrumental soloists, and choir or vocalists – known as playback singers – and recorded by a sound engineer. The term is less frequently applied to music written for media such as live theatre, television and radio programs, and video games, and that music is typically referred to as either the soundtrack or incidental music.
Film scores encompass an enormous variety of styles of music depending on the nature of the films they accompany. While the majority of scores are orchestral works rooted in Western classical music, many scores are also influenced by jazz, rock, pop, blues, new-age and ambient music, and a wide range of ethnic and world music styles. Since the 1950s, a growing number of scores have also included electronic elements, and many scores written today feature a hybrid of orchestral and electronic instruments.
Since the invention of digital technology and audio sampling, many modern films have been able to rely on digital samples to imitate the sound of acoustic instruments, and some scores are created and performed wholly by the composers themselves, by using music composition software, synthesizers, samplers, and MIDI controllers.
Songs such as pop songs and rock songs are usually not considered part of the film's score, though songs do also form part of the film's soundtrack. Though some songs, especially in musicals, are based on thematic ideas from the score, scores usually do not have lyrics, except when sung by choirs or soloists as part of a cue. Similarly, pop songs that are dropped into a specific scene in a film for emphasis or as diegetic music are not considered part of the score, though the score's composer occasionally writes an original pop song based on their themes, such as James Horner's "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic, written for Celine Dion.
Terminology
A film score is also called a background score, background music, film soundtrack, film music, screen composition, screen music, or incidental music.Process of creation
Spotting
The composer usually enters the creative process towards the end of filming at around the same time as the film is being edited, though on some occasions the composer is on hand during the entire film shoot, especially when actors are required to perform with or be aware of original diegetic music. The composer is shown an unpolished "rough cut" of the film before the editing is completed and talks to the director or producer about what sort of music is required for the film in terms of style and tone. The director and composer watch the entire film, noting which scenes require original music. During this process, composers take precise timing notes so that they know how long each cue must be, where it begins, where it ends, and of particular moments during a scene that music may need to coincide with in a specific way. This process is known as spotting.Occasionally, a filmmaker actually edits their film to fit the flow of music, rather than have the composer edit their score to the final cut. Director Godfrey Reggio edited his films Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi based on composer Philip Glass's music. Similarly, the relationship between director Sergio Leone and composer Ennio Morricone was such that the finale of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and the films Once Upon a Time in the West and Once Upon a Time in America were edited to Morricone's score as the composer had prepared it months before the film's production ended.
In another example, the finale of Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was edited to match the music of his long-time collaborator John Williams: as recounted in a companion documentary on the DVD, Spielberg gave Williams complete freedom with the music and asked him to record the cue without pictures; Spielberg then re-edited the scene later to match the music.
In some circumstances, a composer writes music based on their impressions of the script or storyboards without seeing the film itself, and has more freedom to create music without the need to adhere to specific cue lengths or mirror the emotional arc of a particular scene. This approach is usually taken by a director who does not wish to have the music comment specifically on a particular scene or nuance of a film and which can instead be inserted into the film at any point the director wishes during the post-production process. Composer Hans Zimmer was asked to write music in this way in 2010 for director Christopher Nolan's film Inception; composer Gustavo Santaolalla did the same thing when he wrote his Oscar-winning score for Brokeback Mountain.
Syncing
When writing music for film, one goal is to sync dramatic events happening on screen with musical events in the score. There are many different methods for syncing music to picture. These include using sequencing software to calculate timings, using mathematic formulas and free timing with reference timings. Composers work using SMPTE timecode for syncing purposes.When syncing music to picture, generally a leeway of 3–4 frames late or early is sufficiently accurate. Using a technique called free timing, a conductor uses either a stopwatch, studio size stop clock, or watches the film on a screen while conducting the musicians to predetermined timings. These are represented visually by vertical lines and bursts of light called punches. These are put on the film by the Music Editor at points specified by the composer. In both instances, timings on the clock or lines scribed on the film have corresponding timings that are also at specific points in the composer/conductor score.
Written click track
A written click track is a method of writing bars of music in consistent time values to establish a constant tempo in lieu of a metronome value in beats per minute. A composer uses a written click if planning to conduct live performers. When using other methods such as a metronome, the conductor has a perfectly spaced audible click playing. This can yield stiff and lifeless performances in slower more expressive cues. A standard BPM value can be converted to a written click where X represents the number of beats per bar and W represents time in seconds by using the following equation:Written clicks are expressed using second increments, so the next step is to round the decimal to either 0,, or of a second. The following is an example for 88 BPM:
2.72 rounds to 2.66, so the written click is 4 beats in : seconds.
Once the composer identifies the location in the film to sync with musically, they must determine the musical beat this event occurs on. To find this, conductors use the following equation, where BPM is beats per minute, sp is the sync point in real-time, and B is the beat number in increments.
Writing
Once the spotting session has been completed and the precise timings of each cue determined, the composer starts writing the score. The methods of writing the score vary from composer to composer. Some composers prefer to work with a traditional pencil and paper, writing notes by hand on a staff and performing works-in-progress for the director on a piano, while other composers write on computers using sophisticated music composition software such as Digital Performer, Logic Pro, Finale, Cubase, or Pro Tools. Working with software allows composers to create MIDI-based demos of cues, called MIDI mockups, for review by the filmmaker prior to the final orchestral recording.The length of time a composer has to write the score varies from project to project; depending on the post-production schedule, a composer may have as little as two weeks or as much as three months to write the score. In normal circumstances, the actual writing process usually lasts around six weeks from beginning to end.
The actual material of the score depends on several different variables that factor into how a composer may write - for instance, the emotion the composer is trying to convey, the nature of the character on screen, the scenery and geography of the set, along with multiple more different variables. A composition could consist of different instrumentations, varying genres, and different influential styles.
Each composer their own inspirations and pragmatic impressions that create unique and compelling sounds that can help to make a scene memorable. One example of this is in the "Lord of The Rings" score where Howard Shore uses a specific melodic idea to refer to The Shire by employing a tin flute to evoke a Celtic feeling. Shore does this throughout the three films of the trilogy to underscore a character's feeling of nostalgic reminiscence.
Other scores include not only original orchestrations but also popular music that represents the era and or the character being portrayed. Many films do this, such as Guardians of the Galaxy or Back to the Future. Alan Silvestri at times orchestrates compositions that are accompanied by tracks such as "The Power of Love" and "Back in Time", both by Huey Lewis and The News. This creates a sense of lightness that deviates from the fanfare-like main theme..
Many scores often try to draw from worldly influence to create sound that cements itself into popular culture. An example of this is the score from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. In this score, composer Ennio Morricone uses a culmination of post-tonal music theory, Celtic song, gregorian chant, and mariachi trumpets to create the sound of the spaghetti western, one that is often associated with the wild west.