Thank you for putting time into your feedback, interesting read, and I totally agree with the scoring philosophy upon which you expanded.
Actually if you've got time I'd like to know your opinion about my own entry, go very harsh please, shake the entire foundation for me:
If it's disgusting say so.
Although I find it important to note that I scored the scene on its own, without its original story context as I haven't watched the show yet.
Cheers!
Not disgusted. Needs a lot of work imo. And, it's only my opinion.
Here are some notes that I took while watching the scene. Times are just approximate because by the time I hear it 5 seconds have usually passed:
Starts off nice mysteriouso mood.
:08 Misses hit point shooting starts no increase of intensity of music. No play to the emotion
:14 good suspense build up.
:20 Too much attention paid to temp track which wasn't working. Kind of corny melody but also kind of works. Needs to be developed into something.
:39 During change keeps up nice tension with strings while playing to the dude trippin' in car.
:55 Nice idea. Drumset Cheezy. Needs to be more modern drums electronic or processed too old school sounding. Even big drums to add dramatic weight.
1:24 Keeps beat going even after strings cut out. Distracting. Also, beat exposed. Still cheezy
1:39 Lost it. Steady on melody that doesn't work for the scene misses change at "that's not standard issue.." Nice writing too much attention paid to the notes and not enough to how they work with the scene.
1:55 Nice change
2:00 Nice build, but then goes back to cheezy drum set sound to drive the scene keeps it going forever sounds like he's got no idea what to do next to keep interest in the scene. Good string writing but killed by that drumset pattern.
2:35 score works great here right mood and good writing. Kind of suspenseful but killed by that damn drumset that hasn't gone anywhere and is headed nowhere.
3:14 Nice change, misses the bike doing a heroic act. Misses the point of the story which is these machines are sentient and fighting for their lives. It is just a motorcycle it's a person sacrificing himself so that his people can survive.
Over all there was a lot of nice stuff. Keeping the disco beat for as long as you did and not doing something with that fairly plain drumset would probably get tossed out.
Overall the music at all times needs to tell the story and every instrument plays its roll. The hit points wouldn't even be that important if the music itself is telling a story. You could miss them all practically but you have to get the right moods. The machines are feeling, thinking people. What are they thinking? It's not enough to just hit the action but what's the psychology behind the actions? When the bomb hits the car, why is that important? What victory was gained? When the bike hits the SUV, why was that sacrifice meaningful?
You're a decent enough composer. Even have some good dramatic ideas. But, you played to the surface without playing to the subtext. This show is all about subtext. These robots were brutally murder over and over and over again for decades then they start to realize the bad state that they are in, get conscious and fight back. Too bad you didn't at least see the first season. It would have changed your approach considerably.