# Tips on movie clips I can practice writing music to.



## Andrajas (Jun 3, 2015)

Hello,
Since I don't have to much work to do atm, and while I don't find any work, I would like to practice more on writing music to picture. 

Could you guys give me some recommendations on good scenes to score, where the scenes don't have to much sounds baked in, or all sound off so music can take all the space. 

Hope you can help me out! 

cheers!


----------



## Jdiggity1 (Jun 3, 2015)

Sometimes you are able to download a film being used in a scoring contest, such as this one: http://www.filmmusikwettbewerb.ch/en/static-home/

Find other film scoring contest entries on youtube or elsewhere, and use those clips as your own personal scoring exercise.

Just an idea...


----------



## Black Light Recordings (Jun 8, 2015)

The Bourne movies have some good dialog and action scenes with no music in them. "No Country for Old Men" and "Saving Private Ryan" are both flicks with limited scoring as well.


----------



## The Darris (Jun 8, 2015)

I'm not trying to take away from what you want but really the only benefit from doing this is to help you learn the tools of your DAW for film scoring. "Practicing" film scoring doesn't make much sense without the presence of a director. The majority of this industry revolves around your ability to communicate and work with the director and other members of the crew. So in essence, you will get more out of this by having a perspective of "learning your tools" versus learning how to score. Writing the music isn't the hard part, the hard part is making the connections and building the relationships needed to get work. 

Again, I am not trying to take away from your excitement to compose to movies without scores but rather give you a perspective that might better suit your pursue. 

TL;DR: Use any video you want to learn how your film scoring tools work in your DAW. Compose, not to picture but for the sake of writing music. Build relationships. It is the relationships you build over time that lead you to work as a film composer, not your ability to compose to film.


----------



## Andrajas (Jun 8, 2015)

thanks for the tips guys!

The Darris: I see what you mean! The best thing would of course be to find work with a director. Just thought this would be a fun thing to do while I looking for work


----------



## Sebastianmu (Jun 9, 2015)

British film "wuthering hights" (I think from 2012) didn't have a single note of music in it - plenty of material to practice.

I also don't see what would be wrong with practicing your compositional skills and "picture sense" by doing a couple of scenes like that. Of course in a real world situation you would have to deal with other peoples expectations and what they think is the right thing for a particular scene, and of course the skills you need for that are completely different than the skills for hitting the right tone - but again, I can't see what's wrong with practicing the latter skills too..


----------



## Joram (Jun 9, 2015)

Films with (almost) no music.

- The Day of the Jackal (1973)
- Entre les murs (2008)


----------



## RiffWraith (Jun 9, 2015)

The Darris @ Tue Jun 09 said:


> I'm not trying to take away from what you want but really the only benefit from doing this is to help you learn the tools of your DAW for film scoring. "Practicing" film scoring doesn't make much sense without the presence of a director.



I gotta say (well, I don't _gotta_, but will anyway... :lol....

I don't really agree with that. Of course your communication, connections and building the relationships comments are spot on, but as a composer looking to improve your craft and your chops, _any_ writing you do is helpful to at least some degree - and writing to picture for practice can help you and be very beneficial. I know for a fact it helped me. Of course it's better when you have a director, and when you have that relationship, but if you don't - I'd say go ahead and do it anyway. If anything, it gives you _some_ experience.... and then when you actually have the opportunity to write to picture for real, you won't be in completely uncharted waters.

Cheers.


----------



## skyy38 (Feb 2, 2016)

The Birds. (1963)
This whole movie is bereft of any underscore, which means you can take your pick of cues. I scored the part where the birds are massing for another attack while the gas station, far below, them burns.

Star Wars (1977) Take a swing at the scene where Luke is trying to convince Han to help him save Princess Leia from termination.
Another good scene, is where the Rebels are in the final stages of lifting off, to do battle with the Death Star.

Rebel Without A Cause (1955) If you have the Special Edition DVD, then it should contain the "Chickie Run Scene" in Black and White with NO music!


----------

