# Film and TV scoring: tips and tricks



## Scott Cairns (Oct 11, 2004)

Hi all, I know that at least a few of our members here have had experience in scoring for short films, episodic TV etc.

I was thinking it would be great if you guys wouldnt mind talking about your experiences and more specifically, the techniques you use in getting the job done.

For example, if you were scoring a film, do you start a new project file in your sequencer for each cue, or do you load up a template, and have one large project file for the entire film?

Have you had the occasion to bring in live players?

Thanks in advance, I think this could be an interesting thread if you guys dont mind sharing.


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## Buckles (Oct 12, 2004)

Depending on the size of the film, I would either divide the film up into scenes or chunks of scenes, and then score them seperately...or just throw the whole thang into my sequencer and go for it.

Im scoring a independant feature (2 hours long), so Im diving up the scenes into how I see fit, depending on where I reckon the music should flow from one scene to the next.

Im probably gonna be using a live choir for this one...which is a bit daunting because Ive never used an ensemble recording for a film yet. So it would be good to hear other peoples experiences with this sorta thing...

Tips...hmm...Im fairly new to the game, so Im more open to recieve tips than give 

-s


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Nov 19, 2004)

Good topic! 

When I work on a tv series, I setup one template in Logic that I will use for each entire episode. There may be 20 or more cues, of varying styles. I have it setup quite a bit like a trad score, with strings, winds and brass, acoust/elec gtr and bass, piano/electric keys, synths, drum machines, orch percs, anywhere from 60 to 80 tracks (not simultaneous). Sometimes, I will feel a bit limited, especially in the groove dpt (I usually use 3 drum loops superimposed for richness), but since RMX has appeared, I can have at least 24 grooves with 3 instances. I also have 2 Space Designers called up, one with a hall setting, and the other studio, for more rock/pop stuff.

Once a given cue works, I lock the regions in place and bounce the audio. That way, I have a 'hard-copy' should anything go wrong with my MIDI regions/softsamplers/synths later, and I have a cue that I can save in a bank for later re-use, if applicable.

I record the dialogue from VHS which I place on one audio track, and the dialogue and temp music on another. That way, I don't have to always play the video to try stuff out.


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## Waywyn (Nov 25, 2004)

yay, cool topic.

i basically just did one major movie and the music was then mixed in another studio with all the surround sfx etc.

but i just used my basic orchestral setup (sure, it depends on which music is needed) and chopped the movie into smaller sections...

first i made the mistake by trying to do the music for the whole 90-100 min movie.
i was really angry about myself when i had the first two tunes started and all the edits came in:
this section is too fast, we added a slo-motion scene of 1 sec
we need a smoother blabla etc.

so when you insert measures or cut them out from another place, it is not good to have one big file, tho it is a short movie of around 1-10 minutes there is no problem doing one big session.

so i cut everything in little scenes where music is needed and start to work.
sometimes i start not with music but just a tempo which feels good for the scene and then i start to divide everything up into measuers and tempochanges. i really sometimes don't have a clue what i want to do, i just hear something in my head and don't care if the melody is the same later or the rhythm section.
i just work with the feeling which is transported from the movie and then, after i set up tempo changes, measures and whatever, i start to do the music ...

sometimes it is the other way round, but on ,for example, fighting scenes or generally scenes where you need an exact timing or even mickey mousing it is really cool to work like this.

hmm, thats all i can add, i am sure there are people here who can tell more and even more experienced stuff about creating music for a movie, tv-show or whatever


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## Simon Ravn (Nov 25, 2004)

I did my first feature film this summer and it turned out to be a humongous job of course, which kept me inside most of the summer (well we had a lousy, rainy summer here anyway so it wasn't too bad). The whole film was temp scored with stuff from Lord of the Rings, Thin Red Line and a couple of other films. So I basically knew where there was gonna be music and where not. I broke down the whole movie into cues, reel for reel. Ended up with something like 32 cues, some of them being "subcues" so I think I ended up actually composing maybe 25 cues. 

I have a pretty locked template of sounds which I used as a basis, changing a few sounds for some cues if necessary. So each time when I started a new cue I simply set Logic's SMPTE to match the timecode of the movie where I want the cue to begin and then began composing

The only real "instruments" I used were solo vocals and a choir. I did a mockup of the singing either with myself singing or a choir from VOTA, for the soloist to follow. Then recorded that stuff in a couple of different studios, went back and mixed it in with the rest of the stuff. I think the whole mixing process took at least two weeks. But I had calculated with that so I made it more or less on schedule


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## Scott Cairns (Dec 7, 2004)

Thanks a lot for your replies guys. Very interesting.

Keep em comin' !!


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## Craig Sharmat (Dec 7, 2004)

It really depends on the project. On a movie i divide the sections. so if the first reel has 10 cues it may look likw 1M 10and i can deal with the individual cues. I try to keep a basic template but leave enough room to change things up. On TV shows it depends on the time frame given. I have had to do so many rush jobs that I get a template and just bash away at 6 minutes of music...look up at the clock 10 hrs later and get ready to deliver. In those cases I usually find the tempos I want beforehand hand...map them out ...depending on the type of show, with a quick rythym track so i don't forget my feels and fill in the blanks. then I pass out and hope i don't get sick from exhaustion. These days I have a relaxed schedule but i have worked myself into a good case of Bells Palsy in the past.


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## Sid_Barnhoorn (Dec 7, 2004)

*Craig Sharmat*


> but i have worked myself into a good case of Bells Palsy in the past.



Hehehe, that doesn't sound too good, Craig. What's the accual definition of the phrase btw? 

Anyway, I've scored a few short films now and each has another angle to it in the sence of working and composing. I did a short film called Temble Tumble which is viewable on me site and this isn't a large score it's about +_3min so that was very good for practising but I still encountered agitating moments where the score was done and at the last moment they say that they've changes the length of a few scenes and if I could alter the score abit so it'll fit... ah well, comes with the business at times I suppose.

The way I work is unfortunately not with a basis-template because I still have just one workstation and I'd rather have about 3/4 which give a better basis for a template. I still make a new performace film each time but I don't really mind.

First of all I check out the film and discuss what the filmmaker(s) want and then determin in the style chosen what I want. Mostly I begin with laying out a map, a timeindex with all the keypoints mapped out. This way I don't have to watch the movie all the time and just get on with scoring and sync the music with the film later to see if it works and if I need to sync the music a little at some points. For the smaller films I just make one cue but I'm also doing a film which is about +_15min which I chunk up in cues. And maybe I want to score 5/6min of scenes in that movie than I'll chunk that up in cues as well and add them together at the end when their done.

Determining the style and mood of the film is very important. Discussing/communicating with the filmmaker/director too. For Temple Tumble I made a pretty large/ epic score apart from my latest score which is about +_5min and which has only about 5 solo instruments but still works great for the film. So keep that in mind, whatkind of score you want to compose and what works for the film.

I bet I could go on and on but I've to run so cya laterzzzz...

Take care,
-Sid.


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## mderrico (Jan 24, 2005)

I've scored a fair number of indie feature-length movies and shorts and here's my process:

The first thing I do is watch the movie from an audience's point of view. This is to get a feel for the movie, the pacing, the mood, etc... Then I go through the movie making notes on where music should be and what the style of music should be for each cue.

Then I go over the cues and styles with the director to make sure we're on the same page.

The next step is to create a theme and general soundscape/mood for the whole score. I use this theme/sound throughout the movie, but I change it around a little. This gives the movie continuity, but changing it a little avoids monotony.

Then I load the movie into Vegas Video and convert it into a 320x240 MOV file. Once each cue is done, I load that cue (WAV file) into Vegas. I use Vegas to watch the movie with the score to make sure I didn't miss a cue, the music flows and makes sense, and so on.

For each cue, here's what I do:

I start a new project in Cubase SX2 and load the whole movie MOV file into the Cubase project. I don't render a separate MOV file for each cue. I just load the whole movie into each Cubase project. Scoring the entire movie is one project would result in a huge amount of MIDI tracks. And you'd probably need 40GB of RAM! lol!

Then I score that cue in this project. So, for a cue that starts at 00:45:17;00, the MIDI and audio tracks also start at 00:45:17;00 in the Cubase project.

Once the music for that cue is done, I render the cue as a WAV file, convert it it an MP3 file and put the MP3 file on my website for the director to hear. That way, the director can hear the score as I write it, so to speak.

So once all the music is done, I'll end up with typically 25 Cubase projects - one for each cue. This method is REALLY helpful when a cue starts at 00:10:00;00 and then the director changes his mind and wants the cue to start at 00:09:45;00. All you have to do is write music at the beginning of the MIDI/audio tracks for the Cubase project.

Once all the music is written and the director is happy with everything, I render each MIDI track in each cue as WAV files (I'll combine some MIDI tracks like the brass tracks into one WAV file - aka "stems"). Then I mix these WAV files together for each cue to create a final WAV file for that cue. I do it this way so I can apply separate EQ, reverb, fx to each WAV file/instrument/sound effect.

So, by the time the movie is done, I'll have 2 Cubaase projects for each cue. One is the MIDI/audio project and the other is the mixdown project containing the WAV files from the MIDI project.

Typically for a full-length movie, I'll end up with 50 Cubase projects and 8-10 GB of WAV files. Of course, each cue is in it's own directory, so it's all really easy to manage. Then I archive it all on DVD. Then I wait for the paycheck....and wait...and wait..and wait lol!

Hope this helps someone out there!


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## Frederick Russ (Mar 22, 2005)

Hey Mark - don't know how I missed this one. 

I live kind of close to your neck of the woods - well Castle Rock - so its cool that you're hanging about the forum. Welcome to VI!


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## Scott Cairns (Mar 23, 2005)

I missed it to. Great post Mark, thanks for the info.

If you are still lurking around and see this (I know you posted almost two months ago to the day!)

What do you do if a portion of the film gets chopped or re-edited? Doesnt this mess with the timecode points for the rest of your cues?

Just curious.

Thanks again,

Scott.


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## mderrico (Mar 23, 2005)

Hey Frederick

Nice to meet you  Imagine that, another musician in Colorado! lol! I swear to god, if you meet someone in Boulder who ISN'T a musician, then they're just visiting from Wyoming.

Scott:

The problem you described happens all the time. One of the projects I'm working on right now is a movie called "The Dork of the Rings" ( http://dorkoftherings.com ). I was given a rough cut to the movie to score. Then I'll be given the final cut sometime in June to tweak the music so it works with the final edited version.

The solution is simple: for the cues that need editing, I load the new copy of the movie into the project and just drag all the tracks forward or backward in time so it lines up with the video again. Obviously, the start time of the cue will be different than the original version' start time, but that's no big deal.

Here's an image of one of the cues from the movie I'm working on. You can see how easy it would be to just select all the data and move everything forward or backward.







Hope that helps


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## Scott Cairns (Mar 23, 2005)

Hi Mark, thanks for replying. I guess I was thinking about a carefully planned cue sheet with in and out points, I was thinking that it would throw all the timings out when you give it to the editor...

I understand that you can move your music around easily enough to line up with the movie, just wasnt sure if you then had to recalculate all the entry and exit points for the editor later?

Thanks again,

Scott.


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## mderrico (Mar 23, 2005)

> Hi Mark, thanks for replying. I guess I was thinking about a carefully planned cue sheet with in and out points, I was thinking that it would throw all the timings out when you give it to the editor...



The way I've worked on a lot movies is that I score the rough cut of the movie and send the director/editor MP3 files as I complete each cue. The editor puts my MP3 files in the version that he/she is currently editing.

Once the rough score is done, the final cut of the movie is done and the director has given me his notes for the changes in the music, they send me the final cut, I adjust the position of each cue, make the changes and send the final music back to the editor as MP3 files. I also include a text file indicating the final SMPTE start time for each cue. I also name each MP3 file as such:

03-00_34_23_04.MP3 (cue #-hh_mm_ss_ff.mp3) That way, I can be sure the editor places the MP3 file at the right place.

So the original cue sheets end up being wrong at the end of the scoring process, but by naming the files the way I do, I haven't had any problems so far.

Of course, I only work on micro-budget movies, so things aren't as formal as low and mid-budget movies.


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## Scott Cairns (Mar 23, 2005)

Thanks Mark, its good to hear everyone's methodologies.


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