About time Version 1

About Time Version 2

Hello World Final Version

Today I have finished composing for “Hello World”. Each session I have applied different software insturments as the main instrument and others for accompanying. In the latter session, I used chords from tonnetz grid to build up the tense to reach the point at 2:27. During 2:27-2:28, which is the session my collaboration wants to emphasize, harp is applied to play the arpeggio. In terms of the session from  2:45 to 3:10, there are only two software instruments playing chords, and the automation is used to make the overall volume of this session quiter as my collaborator required.

My collaborator likes this final soundtrack, I have received positive feeback from her, such as she like that the single note synchronizes the falling of the ball, and the sound’s fluctuation during 2:45 to 3:10.

I am glad that this time the collaborative working method works well. Each time I have something new I will demonstrate to my collaborator, and I will alter the soundtrack once she givse me her suggestions, which makes sure we are both in this composing process. I am also glad that the result comes out to be satisfying.

I have deleted some software instruments layers to make the soundtrack sound a bit simple and softer. In addition, as my collaborator pointed out that the piano melody is a bit much in my last piece, I have edited the melody of the piano as well. In this version, one note synchronizes each ball’s falling in the begining and the melody is simpler.

My collaborator is satisfied with these changes, and she shared further ideas with me too:

• when it goes to the 2:27-2:38 of the video, she prefer the music to be the loudest part in the whole video
• when it goes to the 2:45-3:10 of the video, the music should cool down and get quieter

Today I have received the second video “Hello World” from my collaborator with temp track (Wang, 2019) :

As discussed with my collaborator in Wechat, I have summarised five musical requirements she wants for this video :

• Slow tempo as the temp track
• Similar instrumental application
• Set a space atmosphere
• No melody just notes to stand the motion pictures out
• Ambient musical style

After I confirmed these factors with her, I started to compose the music for “Hello World”. In addition, I decide that this time I will work a bit by a bit each day and show my collaborator the progress day by day, in order to prevent the issue like last time that I have to redo the complete piece as the music was not what my collaborator wanted.

Firstly, I chose several software instruments which I think will be suitable for this video. I also want an acoustic instrument to emphasize some specific sections. The piano is the one I chose, however, I have added reverb and changed the EQ of it to fit better with these software instruments.

I made 26 seconds intro today, and I have showed my collaborator this intro. And she would like some changes in terms of the software instruments layers, as well as the piano notes, as according to her, the music sounds rather scary for the theme of this video, factors I have written down to change tomorrow:

• Change the piano note, try different intervals to find out the best phrase
• Try to alter the tone of the piano again
• Make the piano notes rather quiet
• Keep the “Long Ambient Pad” and use it again in the latter composing
• Alter the layers of the software instruments

Reference List :

Wang, Jiaxin. (2019). Hello World (2019). [online] YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/12V0a8mw34M [Accessed 23rd April. 2019].

Speech

1. it will be a good opportunity to practice film composing, through this process, I can possibly learn more about this area
2. I would like to experience Working with  real film maker, because in our previous assignment, we composed for film depending on how we understand the film, it is quite different when someone allocate you some specific requirements they want for musics, normally these requirements are quite vague, and I think this can be a little trial for me if I want to work more on this field in the future.
3. It is also a good chance to enrich my Portfolio, 

It is a short film which aims to talk about the relationship between our life and time, and use examples in the daily life to present what time is (About our daily life, about time). 

My collaborator has provided me with a temp track, of which she edited the film according to the rhythm, therefore, she would like the music to be highly similar as the temp track in every aspect, otherwise it might not feel synchronised, which can be a bit challenging.

It is going to borrow the reflections of Plato’s allegory of the cave, which is about a group of people who have been chained in a cave facing a blank wall all of their lives, the only thing they could see were the shadows that were projected on the way, and the shadows are these people’s reality. 

My collaborator wants to use this meaning to reflect the relationship between people and media. Basically Nowadays People use media to know and approach the world and become more and more dependent on it, now we kinda just use media to see the world, media is out reality,which is not different from the people in the cave.

So overall, she would like to make the film like a Sci-fi short film to present this meaning, and as for the music style, she wants it to have like the space sci-fi atmosphere.

There are similar soundtracks of films about space, I wanna show two examples, one of them is from the film “First Man” which is about Neil Armstrong and his space mission to the moon, this is one of the soundtracks by Justin Hurwitz called home, 20s-1:30 

The instrumental application and the reverb really help to create the spacious vast feelings for space 

Another one is from “Interstellar”, a film about traveling though wormhole in space and the soundtrack is called S.T.A.Y 2:44-3:43

what really amazes me are The arrangement of different sounds and the dynamic Hans Zimmer used to emphasize each sections, it does not really have a melody line, it is just notes playing around, but with the these two elements, it works well and really brings a sense of being in the vast universe.

Moving on to the next bit, aims and outcomes, I would want this collaboration to benefit both me and my collaborator, so I would like to make satisfying music for her films and also I want to use this chance to learn more about film music composing.

I have finished “About time” in the end of last month, the first version I made is not really what my collaborator wants, so we spent some time organizing and discussing ideas and made the second version. She had already shown her tutor about it. As for the “Hello World”, I will start working more on it when I hear more ideas from my collaborator, and try to finish it at the end of April.

Although in the end, I managed to hand a work which satisfies my collaborator’s standard, I feel that there are still a lots of things I have to improve and communicate with my collaborator better. This blog post will sum up things that I need to work on in order to make next collaborative project better:

• discuss the details that the collaborator wants as comprehensive as possible.
• make sure I understand the standard/ideas right to prevent any misunderstanding ( in this case, she wants the soundtrack to be highly similar as the tempt track, such as rhythm, tempo and loops, but I just understood that she wanted similar elements in the tempt track, such as the looping and some similar instrumental application)
• start doing work after my collaborator approves the elements I will use to prevent changing the whole piece.
• show and communicate the working progress day by day ( I showed my collaborator my original version of soundtrack after I finished it, however, she does not think it is right piece of music, so this version will not be used, and it lead to inadequate time left for the redoing one, which was not efficient and a waste of time )
• communicate better with my collaborator about musical ideas, such as the information in terms of music theory, so that she will understand better what I am doing and this might help us eliminate the incomprehension between us as we study in different areas.
• ask my collaborator to involve me into the project earlier instead of the final process ( in this case, as my collaborator edited her film according to the temp track she found online, therefore, when the film came to my hand, I feel very limit to compose, because she had asked me to compose something match the film exactly as the temp track ). If I join the project earlier, I might be able to give her some temp tracks of mine, therefore, it can reduce some issues regarding communicating and understanding what she needs all at one time.
• talk more about how I feel about the collaboration with my collaborator, because of the sudden change of the deadline, I have to change the schedule and postpone my other works for this, I would like my collaborator to know that I will try my best to make the piece better, however, I could not always edit the piece immediately whenever she feels like to change or work in a short notice of early deadline.
• request some freedom of composing the music, as in this collaboration, I feel like she would like everything in her way, I understand this as this is her own work and she wants it in a certain way, however, in the second collaboration, I would like to ask more freedom in terms of composing.

In Daniel M. Wegner’s Transactive Memory theory about operating teamwork(Goethals, Mullen and Wegner, 1987), there are three components which researchers believe can indicate whether a transactive memory for teamwork has established, they are specialization, coordination and credibility. In terms of specialization, I would prefer my collaborator to know the differentiation of knowledge we have, as well as allow me to put more of my ideas in composing, and probably not to interfere my composing process too much. It might be easier for me to distribute my part into the collaboration and make the process more efficient. As for the credibility, it might be better if my collaborator gives me more trust in composing the right work, I do not really like that my collaborator used the previous patten I made and created her own version and told me to just use them, it is a bit frustrating, as I have spent quite some time trying several ways to make the work right for her. If I do not ever get the chance to control my own work, I will not get the chance to show I am credible for doing this work too, therefore, my participation is not necessary. In the end, for coordination, we have not really familiarised the way we do works, I made mistakes about getting confused of the idea “similar work”, and I have not explained my areas to my collaborator very much, such as the music harmonic content. The misunderstanding of my collaborator’s request and the inadequate discussion had lead to the abandon of my original work. In the future collaboration, it will be important for us to acknowledge each other’s specialization and trust each other that we will provide suitable and accurate work, then we can make the coordination easier and make the working process more efficient.

References

Goethals, G., Mullen, B. and Wegner, D. (1987). Theories of Group Behaviour. New York: Springer-Verlag, pp.Chapter 9, Transactive Memory: A Contemporary Analysis of the Group Mind. p 185-208.

After I sent my collaborator the version I made yesterday, we had a conversation about some final changes, she would like some notes to show up at certain time and she also wants me to remove some parts of the synthesizer “Ambient Spheres”. So I removed the section she does not want and use the altered Glockenspiel loop. Here is the final version:

I went back to Scott to continue this work, meanwhile I received the email from my collaborator, which is about two audios she made in Garageband. One is made with Glockenspiel using the arpeggio pattern we were discussing about, one is a clap looping from Garageband. She would like me to use these two as main tune into the film clip.

The Glockenspiel loop uses C Major chord, e minor chord, d minor chord and F augmented triad, which is rather atonal. This makes me think that, according to my previous study about composing, I would prefer to compose in a key than atonal, however, in the view of people without music background, they might not really consider this aspect as an important factor into their own music making, and the result can still be fine to some extent.

Eventually, I apply these two loops into the piece and back them up with harmony by strings as well as adding some decoration into it.

According to the discussion we had today, I summarised three main aspects my collaborator would want the music to be

1. To be highly similar as the temp track, such as rhythm.
2. To have certain instruments and loops which sound like temp track, such as Glockenspiel and drum loop.
3. To show up at certain time to emphasise certain part.

Through the rather unsuccessful experience last time, I think it is necessary for us to have the same agreement on the basic musical ideas before I go on to compose a new one. To start, we had firstly tried different tempos together to find out the pace of music she needs for the film, in the end , we decide to apply 140 bpm in the redoing piece. After this, we watched the film with temp track and talked about our opinions in terms of the characters of the temp track, this will be helpful for me to figure out more from my collaborator’s understanding about the temp track, so that I can probably use the same elements but in different ways to make similar work. Glockenspiel sounds like the suitable instrument to simulate the temp track, we agree that Glockenspiel is going to be used for composing the main tune. As for how is going to be composed, my collaborator prefers looping instead of melody lines, therefore I suggest to use the arpeggio pattern and demonstrated her in different chords, she approves this idea and prefers to use G Major as a chord to start the piece.

Since she like to use the G Major chord to start, I think this piece should be in the key of G Major. As for the usage of Chords, I would like to use progression like I – IV – V – I, I – V – vi – IV, I – IV – I – V, which have the harmonic senses.

The first Pattern I used is G Major – C Major – D Major – G Major, and the arpeggio goes like the root – 3rd above – 5th above – 7th above – 5th above – 3rd above – the root – the 3rd above – the 5th above, for example in G Major, it goes like G D B F# B D G D B.

I sent her this version I made with Glockenspiel to her, however, she does not feel like the chord progression of I – IV – V – I. Therefore, I tried I – V – vi – IV ( G Major – D Major – e minor – C Major) with the same arpeggio pattern. This version is not right for my collaborator neither, she also told me that she prefers if I change the last two notes of the arpeggio pattern form the 3rd above – the 5th above to the 5th above – 7th above.

I – IV – I – V was the following chord progression I tried with the new arpeggio pattern, this one seems not to be the one she wants too. Therefore, I experimented some chord progression using voice leading. Unfortunately, she is not satisfied with them in the end.

I show her the music clips I made by filming them and send them through Wechat:

Today is not very productive, as in the end I have not made any proper tune she wants, all the phrases I created are denied by her, which somehow makes me feel stressful and lost about what she wants as well as if I am really capable of composing background music for this film. Due to my original schedule, I only have two days left before the deadline, meanwhile I have postponed my other courseworks for this, the unsure feeling about if I can finish them on time is overwhelming. I decided to text my collaborator that I need to take a break today and continue working tomorrow, in her reply, she mentioned that she would try the arpeggio pattern herself using different notes in Garageband and let me know what she has tomorrow.