After I sent my version of soundtrack to my collaborator Lydia, we set a time to meet in university, which is today to discuss further about the soundtrack.
Unfortunately, my version of soundtrack is not exactly what my collaborator wants. Firstly, she would want the music to be highly similar to the temp track, especially the rhythm, as she edited the film to the rhythm of temp track. She mentioned that whether I am able to make the music exactly the same as the temp track, however, it is not appropriate for the copyright reason, and it is not proper to simulate other people’s piece, it has no point to compose a very similar one just for the sake for being original, too. Secondly, the instrumental use of my soundtrack is not what she wants, she would prefer the main tune to be more like synthesizer sound than acoustic sound like piano, which is mainly my fault, as I should ask her opinion first before starting composing myself. Thirdly, she would want music to show up at certain time for some scenes and picture in order to emphasize them, however, this is not really the part we have spent enough time discussed about in the previous talk.
This is not a positive situation, as there are just a few days left to the deadline date, and we clearly have quite a lot of aspects to talk through before I move on to redo a new one, and because we study in different subjects, there are some inevitable issues about communicating ours ideas to each other, her description of music she wants is rather vague to me, and it does not really make sense to her as well if I talk what I am doing in my soundtrack in terms of the harmony or music terminology, figuring out the best way to communicate and finding out what to do best for the soundtrack my collaborator wants will be the urgent task in the following few days.
After composing the main melody, my task is to decorate the main tune with other instruments.
Singing bowls, strings and Mallets Layers are applied to feature the opening title “what is time”, the strings also accompanies the piano main tune in the beginning so that the music proceeds and sounds more smooth. Furthermore, Mallets Layer and Glistening Bells are used as loop with the main tune, as in the temp track, looping part acts as main tune, I suppose applying looping might provide the suitable atmosphere my collaborator wants. Celesta, Harp and Dyno Simulation are separately employed in different section as decorations.
The Final Version:
After finishing this step, I sent my collaborator this final clip.
After having the idea about certain kind of instruments I want to use. I move on to decide the structure of the music according to the picture.
From my point of view, the video is about the narrator telling a story about what time means to him supporting by the examples he chose in our daily life, through these examples, he categorises time into fast and slow. From 0:00-0:41 of film, he talks these examples indicating time can be fast and after 0:41 he mentions other examples to make the point that time can sometimes go slow. I want to make a music structure which contains two segments due to these two ideas, “fast time” segment and the “slow time” segment.
I decide to compose the piece in the key of F Major, “fast time” segment will be featured a main piano and pad melody line with a moderate tempo, not too fast as I would also like the music to be a bit gentle to highlight the daily life examples the film maker selected, so that audience can empathize with these daily example as this is what happens in their daily life too, in this way, they can understand better why time passes fast in these selected examples.
There are two sections in ‘fast time’ part, I composed four phrases for the piano line in section one (A), phrase one is in F Major chord , phrase two is in Bb Major chord then shortly changes to g minor Chord, phrase three is in a minor chord then shifts to d minor, and the final phrase is set in C Major chord, the harmony goes like I-IV-ii-iii-vi-V. As for section two (A’), it is a variation form of section A, this section starts with F Major chord as phrase one, phrase two is in g minor chord , phrase three is in the a minor chord , phrase four is in d minor chord , and the extended phrase five is in the g minor chord , the harmony goes like I-ii-iii-vi-ii.
The “slow time” segment’s harmony continues after the second section of the ‘fast time’ segment, it goes to V, which is the C Major chord , the C Major chord plays four times with longer duration in order to slow down the atmosphere for this segment. After this, it returns to F Major chord with the same duration, it then follows by Bb Major chord and C Major chord, finally resolve to F Major. The harmony of this segment goes like V-I-IV-V-I.
My collaborator Lydia informed me that she would need the music for “about time” before 28th February, which is a sudden notice. Unfortunately I have some scheduled plans on 27th February, therefore I have to give her the music she wants on 26th February, the time left is about one and a half week, I decided to focus on composing this one for the rest of days.
My task today is to find some instruments which might be suitable for this video. Firstly of all, I watched the video with the tempt track she provided me twice (Wang, L. 2017) to get the general ideas about the atmosphere she wants. However, I avoided to watch for many times to prevent remembering the tempt track pattern.
In general, I think the atmosphere of tempt track is quite gentle, the melody is simple and sounds like music box, it has quite a lot of repetitions which do not stand out the picture and fit in the picture quite good , the music is gentle for this kind of film clip which will ideally does good job in backing up the audience’s viewing experience. Hence, I think I might use these elements (chill atmosphere, simple and repetitive melody, gentle music, application of synthersizer) as guide to compose the music.
Secondly, I watched the video which only has the dialogue and sound effect for several times, in order to better select the instruments for the suitable atmosphere. After around five times, I decide to apply piano to play the main melody of the tune, and perhaps some loop and synthesisers to add the modern sound. After trying different instruments in Logic, I decide to use these instruments to compose as a draft.
Reference list
Wang, L. (2017). About time (2017). [online] YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/WDYzVn8w4mA [Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].
I went to have a conversation about how to improve my film music composition skills with Dave, who is the module leader of Sound and Vision. Through my previous work, he suggests me to work more on harmony, and discover how different chords can bring different atmosphere and moods into the film. He also advises that applying modes into composition can be a good way to start and create tension for films.
I have also asked his advice about composing for the short film “about time”(Wang, 2017), and he suggests that the music for this video should ideally be gentle and not get too much, furthermore, in order to match the clock ticking, I was suggested to use the higher range of the piano to create the ticking sound/music box sound, in addition, wood instrument and percussion can also be employed with electronic synthesizers to make it sound modern.
There are two books Dave suggests to read, one is Twentieth-Century Harmony by Vincent Persichetti (Persichetti, 2008), which contains one chapter about modes that details the information I need about different modes. Luckily I have found this book in the library. Another one is First year harmony: complete by William Lovelock (LOVELOCK, 2018), I have not started reading this book yet, instead, I intended to look back to some materials, that I had in second year’s module Music Aesthetics and Analysis as well as online tutorials about chord progression to review this part of theory information.
Tuesday 12th February
My collaborator Lydia and I had another meeting on Tuesday, as she has some more ideas about the script of her second video “Hello World”(Wang, 2019)
we have talked some insights about the meaning she tries to create in this film, that is related to the allegory of the cave by Plato. She also mentioned that sound effect and dubbing will be needed in this film, these two areas will be new for me to work on.
Wednesday 13th February
Lydia sent me her presentation about the making of “about time”, which provides me with more understanding of this film.
The presentation of the making of “About Time” (Wang, 2019)
I had a sound effect session with Todd in Rolle 11, he mentioned several aspects:
Recording Equipments:
condenser microphones
wind shield for outside recording
pre-amp
cable
Methods:
record at least 3 times than your need to pick up the best one
use layers to slowly make the sound get thick in order to sound real
plan and organize everything you need to record in terms of the environment, weather, and physical stuffs.
pitch down
do not reuse the sound effect that already exists
pay attention to background layers to make it sound like reality
Editing:
application of reverb
leave space for next sound
EQ to cut out range you do not need
pay attention to details
Friday 15th February – Monday 18th February
I spent some time in reading the chapter about modes in Twentieth-Century Harmony, and reviewing the music theory about harmonic progression through the materials from the second year module Music Aesthetics and Analysis and online tutorials.
Brellochs, C. (2016). Dr. B Music Theory Lesson 15 (Harmonic Progression). [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv0sp-zxax0 [Accessed 17 Feb. 2019].
LOVELOCK, W. (2018). FIRST YEAR HARMONY – COMPLETE. [Place of publication not identified]: LULU COM.
Persichetti, V. (2008). Twentieth-century harmony. New York: W.W. Norton, pp.31-41.
Wang, J. (2019). Jiaxin Lydia Wang | Plymouth | Filmmaker. [online] Jiaxin Lydia Wang | Plymouth | Filmmaker. Available at: https://jiaxinlydiawang.wixsite.com/lydia [Accessed 6 Feb. 2019].
Wang, L. (2017). About time (2017). [online] YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/WDYzVn8w4mA [Accessed 6 Feb. 2019].
A student from Media contacted me about composing for two film clips of hers. At this point, she already has one film ready for music and she is working on another film.
The ready one “About Time” has a temp track that she received inspiration from, which she would like me to compose something similar. The concept about composing a similar piece like the temp track might raise some confusion for me, as it is not enough and clear information here, is the musical genres of the temp track she wants? is the instrumental application she prefers, or is it general atmosphere she enjoys about the temp track that suits the film? This will need further discussion. Furthermore, this video received a high mark, which makes me a bit worried and stressed about composing a piece of new music, whether it will be as proper as the original one or the new music I compose will match her basic standard or not.
However, it is good that she already has the film clip so I can start working and researching on it to provide her example and draft. It will also leave us more time to discuss about it and edit the music.
About Time (Wang, 2017)
The second film clip is still under discussion, my collaborator Lydia has a basic plan about it, it will be a short art clip which discusses the relationship between media and human being and interprets the modern world through this relationship.
Here is a draft post about this film clip:
(Wang, 2017)
So far, I have a basic idea about what the film clips will be like and the plan is to further discuss about the music she wants and start to composing as soon as possible.
Reference list
Wang, J. (2017). Jiaxin Lydia Wang | Plymouth | Filmmaker. [online] Jiaxin Lydia Wang | Plymouth | Filmmaker. Available at: https://jiaxinlydiawang.wixsite.com/lydia [Accessed 6 Feb. 2019].
Wang, L. (2017). About time (2017). [online] YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/WDYzVn8w4mA [Accessed 6 Feb. 2019].
On the 8th January, Lee from PUPOS took some of students, including me, to meet the film makers in Plymouth College of Art in order to have some collaborative composition projects. In my opinion, it would be a great chance to set up plans for my Collaborative and Contextual Practice module and also to develop my portfolio and get more experience in film music composing area.
Four students had talked with me about their ideas:
Jess (JHUNT4@PCA.AC.UK)
Jess will produce either an environmental or fast-fashion documentary about 4-12 minutes/
The desired music would be like fairytale music
James (JMIDDLE1@PCA.AC.UK)
James will make Sci-fi kind of film
The desired music will be less melodic music and leave more space
Temp track such as Nightstop-streetwalker, Outlands-kalax, etc.
Sam (SCONSTABLE@PCA.AC.UK)
Sam will make a fairytale film
The desired style of music will be orchestral music, like the soundtrack from The Lord of the Ring, more aggressive way.
Liv (OLENG1@PCA.AC.UK)
Liv will produce a short film about a mother regaining her life after her child left for college.
The desired music will be more sentimental, gentle and convincing
Example soundtrack will be the soundtrack of Lady Bird.
Based on these informations, I had contacted them via email to make further collaboration, unfortunately only Liv replied, and yet she has not sorted out her film plan and had no further musical plan for the film, and their deadline will be in May, it will possibly not fit into my module schedule. Therefore, I am thinking of alternative collaboration other than this.
Collaborative and Contextual Practice Blog 