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Short film scoring competition

Well, I overestimated my upload speed and didn't make it in time.
Not a big loss tho, it's really messy despite my efforts. (didn't have enough time for proper mixing, or fixing the improvised takes)
But yeah. Fun and learning. Thanks to Westwood for the opportunity and good job everyone!



As a total beginner, any piece of advice is welcome.
I worked on Reaper and mostly used BBC core, along Superior drummer 3, and a bit of Cineperc, Strezov's Freyja and Rhodope.
 
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What's interesting and particularly challenging with this and other recent scoring competitions, is that composers are being asked to take responsibility for a lot more of the decision-making process than typically occurs in many real world situations.

For example, with this clip, we were asked to create music that "elevated" the film's content, but it was left up to us to decide if the music should convey sadness, hopefulness, anger, frustration, etc... Those kinds of decisions are usually driven by the director and other creative stakeholders.

A spotting session between the composer and director, at the very least, would determine what emotions the music should reinforce, where those exact moments occur, and possibly even what kind of sounds should be used. It doesn't always happen this way, but it's a common way of working, and in terms of competitions, would provide a clearer basis for judging the entries.

I've heard so many excellent entries that have taken completely different emotional trajectories, I'm just glad I'm not a judge forced to make a decision. Considering we don't know what the director actually has in mind, how can for example, a beautiful hopeful score and an equally beautiful sad score be compared on the same footing? Which of those emotions is the director going for? What was the writer's intent? When does the music need to inform the audience how to feel? This is important information, since the primary purpose of a film score is to reinforce and elevate emotional content.

Just to be clear, I'm not complaining - all competitions have their quirks, and judging decisions are always going to have a large subjective component, and that's perfectly fine - it's simply the nature of the beast.

But for future competitions, it would be nice if at least a creative brief were provided up front so we know what the filmmaker is looking for, what criteria the judges will be using to evalute the entries, and in what direction our composing efforts should be foucsed. With this clip, for example, if we knew up front the director wanted the score to convey an overall feeling of sadness, we'd have an identifiable goal against which all scores can be equally compared.

Anyway, these competitions are always fun regardless, and I've been blown away by the level of quality and creativity in so many of the entries. I swear I've heard at least a dozen entries that are clear winners in my book. I don't envy the task before the judges :eek:
 
^^good points but also I feel that honestly the monologue tells more about the mood than a brief could, in this context at least. It starts one place, goes into obvious bits of frustrated nostalgia to content nostalgia to fear and hope and an inner will to live without fear. Etc.

To me the mood is slightly sorrowful, heavily contemplative, and ends with resolve.
 
Baronvonheadless said:
^^good points but also I feel that honestly the monologue tells more about the mood than a brief could, in this context at least. It starts one place, goes into obvious bits of frustrated nostalgia to content nostalgia to fear and hope and an inner will to live without fear. Etc.

To me the mood is slightly sorrowful, heavily contemplative, and ends with resolve.
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That's fair, but I've heard equally good entries that end on a hopeful note and those that end on a sad note, and they all take different paths through the scene to get there. All are equally valid. But ultimately what's going to matter, as it always does when working with film, is what the director has in mind - not the composer's interpretation of the scene.

A creative brief would put everyone on the same trajectory so judging can focus on the actual composing, without factoring the composer's ability to also guess what the director wanted.

Anyway, it's all good.
 
NekujaK said:
That's fair, but I've heard equally good entries that end on a hopeful note and those that end on a sad note, and they all take different paths through the scene to get there. All are equally valid. But ultimately what's going to matter, as it always does when working with film, is what the director has in mind - not the composer's interpretation of the scene.

A creative brief would put everyone on the same trajectory so judging can focus on the actual composing, without factoring the composer's ability to also guess what the director wanted.

Anyway, it's all good.
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True enough.
 
Here’s my humble entry for the Westwood competition with more of a jazz + chamber style approach.

Jazz was started in the United States in the early 20th century as American vernacular music. But I think it is the music of the African diaspora and jazz musicians always look for depth of their soul and their true identity regardless of their ethnicities.

It’s a rubato (free tempo) piece, so there’s deliberately no quantization to hit the sync points with a more natural and organic jazz sound.

Thank you for creating the fabulous film and holding this competition.


 
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This was a challenging piece to write to, and my intial tendency was to get big and crescendo in some more instruments while our subject walks through the building while he was clearly frustrated both with himself and the world. Instead, I opted to write my track almost on the border of diagetic music that our character could hear playing in his head. Maybe he took piano lessons when he was younger, stopped and hasn't sat at a piano for ages -- but the memory of a song once practiced as a child was stuck in his head, and it came out beautifully when he sat down at the keyboard?

it's hard to know the motivations of the director, but I think there was plenty of opportunity to take this particular scoring opportunity in many different directions.

That might be overthinking things, but for me, that's where I took it.

I'm interested to hear from the judges on what they were looking for, and how they choose their finalists -- that's always fascinating to hear (when it's shared with the community of composers who have submitted). Definitely invaluable information to make the next opportunity that much better.
 
Found out about this one too late but wanted to give it a try at least because I love this video. Managed to make barely a sketch with Shipwreck Piano. The idea was to use only piano sounds like bowed and plucked piano instead of strings but it's too late now.
 
NekujaK said:
What's interesting and particularly challenging with this and other recent scoring competitions, is that composers are being asked to take responsibility for a lot more of the decision-making process than typically occurs in many real world situations.

For example, with this clip, we were asked to create music that "elevated" the film's content, but it was left up to us to decide if the music should convey sadness, hopefulness, anger, frustration, etc... Those kinds of decisions are usually driven by the director and other creative stakeholders.

A spotting session between the composer and director, at the very least, would determine what emotions the music should reinforce, where those exact moments occur, and possibly even what kind of sounds should be used. It doesn't always happen this way, but it's a common way of working, and in terms of competitions, would provide a clearer basis for judging the entries.

I've heard so many excellent entries that have taken completely different emotional trajectories, I'm just glad I'm not a judge forced to make a decision. Considering we don't know what the director actually has in mind, how can for example, a beautiful hopeful score and an equally beautiful sad score be compared on the same footing? Which of those emotions is the director going for? What was the writer's intent? When does the music need to inform the audience how to feel? This is important information, since the primary purpose of a film score is to reinforce and elevate emotional content.

Just to be clear, I'm not complaining - all competitions have their quirks, and judging decisions are always going to have a large subjective component, and that's perfectly fine - it's simply the nature of the beast.

But for future competitions, it would be nice if at least a creative brief were provided up front so we know what the filmmaker is looking for, what criteria the judges will be using to evalute the entries, and in what direction our composing efforts should be foucsed. With this clip, for example, if we knew up front the director wanted the score to convey an overall feeling of sadness, we'd have an identifiable goal against which all scores can be equally compared.

Anyway, these competitions are always fun regardless, and I've been blown away by the level of quality and creativity in so many of the entries. I swear I've heard at least a dozen entries that are clear winners in my book. I don't envy the task before the judges :eek:
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Really great feedback and thanks for taking the time to write such a great summary of these competitions! I think we've learnt so much from doing this one that we can take into the next one. It's clear that there have been dozens of approaches and that makes the all the entries really diverse and has made listening to all the entries so far really fun.

I love what you think about real-world scenarios and potentially that's what we'll aim to do with the next one. Make it as close to the real thing as possible with a spotting session included and notes on what beats and emotions should be hit.

Saying that, I love the idea that people can express themselves freely and take what they want from the script and be free to create whatever they like.

Potentially there could be one film with two different entry types and two different winners:

1. Director's notes - watch the spotting session and write what's in the director's head.
2. Free creative - Do what you like. The most creative and individual wins.

Would love to hear people's opinions on this . . .

Thanks,

Rob
 
Westwood said:
Potentially there could be one film with two different entry types and two different winners:

1. Director's notes - watch the spotting session and write what's in the director's head.
2. Free creative - Do what you like. The most creative and individual wins.

Would love to hear people's opinions on this . . .
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A full spotting session isn't necessarily required, but it would be definitely be cool. At a minimum, a simple creative brief that describes the emotional intent of the music, and some of the key hit points, should provide sufficient guidance.

I agree that a "free creative" approach is much more fun all around, but I imagine it also makes the judging more difficult... unless of course, you're judging on pure creativity, which is perfectly fine, too.

Ultimately, it's your competition, so you should structure it in a way that makes it the most fun and easy to judge! We appreciate the opportunity to participate no matter what :2thumbs:
 
Westwood said:
Potentially there could be one film with two different entry types and two different winners:

1. Director's notes - watch the spotting session and write what's in the director's head.
2. Free creative - Do what you like. The most creative and individual wins.

Would love to hear people's opinions on this . . .

Thanks,

Rob
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Thanks for putting on the contest! It has been fun. The short was really powerful and well done. I like the idea of two categories in the future. That way people can decide if they want to take a shot at "what they hear" or "what the director wants." But for the creative one, I would focus that more on the "oh I wasn't thinking that, but I really liked it!" approach to judging rather than "this was very creative." I'd make people hashtag their entry target as well... eg #directorsnotes or #roguecomposer (ha!)

Multiple paths to winning might make some people decide to enter twice though... so there is the possibility of watching more entries... :)
 
Westwood said:
Really great feedback and thanks for taking the time to write such a great summary of these competitions! I think we've learnt so much from doing this one that we can take into the next one. It's clear that there have been dozens of approaches and that makes the all the entries really diverse and has made listening to all the entries so far really fun.

I love what you think about real-world scenarios and potentially that's what we'll aim to do with the next one. Make it as close to the real thing as possible with a spotting session included and notes on what beats and emotions should be hit.

Saying that, I love the idea that people can express themselves freely and take what they want from the script and be free to create whatever they like.

Potentially there could be one film with two different entry types and two different winners:

1. Director's notes - watch the spotting session and write what's in the director's head.
2. Free creative - Do what you like. The most creative and individual wins.

Would love to hear people's opinions on this . . .

Thanks,

Rob
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I love how you are open to this discussion!

Personally, I'm all for directors notes or some form of guidance to what criteria it should adhere to. My interpretation can be completely the opposite of the directors, but I feel like it's their film, it's their vision we should be trying to portray.

Without any supporting notes, I'm using what I can comprehend from my understanding of filmmaking, not just a composer, and for those that have never explored creative film or dove into cinematic storytelling to understand it I think it's twice as hard. I think these sorts of challenges can be somewhat judged on two forms of criteria; a person's ability to guesstimate, to tell the story they think the director wishes to see through the film, whether it's an evolution of a emotion, pacing, intensity, and then a composers ability to execute it effectively when producing music.

I think, it also would make it easier for judging. The simple answer to questions such as "does the film adequately portray sadness, tension, happiness, morality, expedition, acceptance"...whatever it is at whatever point in the film, it will be easier to identify who did it better; does the track adhere to the notes?

I've only done a few short films, every time though I've had a conversation with director/producer/etc to really dig deep into what the films intent is. So yeah, I'd be all for it, and would wish others that run competitions too would do the same. It might not suit everyone, but I was the type of child to get a Lego set and then use the instructions to build it, unlike some other kids which just built whatever came to their head. ;)

Thank you for running the competition, it was a beautiful film.
 
tkmusic said:
Hello,
Here is my entry (mixing is not perfect)
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The reverse piano samples are really carrying forward the mood in your piece. Cello bends were really nice during the transition into the section where he thinks about his Mom. There's just a bit too much volume on the cello there. The vocals as you carried your piece to the end are awesome, and loved the ending! Congrats @tkmusic on a well executed piece.
 
pranic said:
The reverse piano samples are really carrying forward the mood in your piece. Cello bends were really nice during the transition into the section where he thinks about his Mom. There's just a bit too much volume on the cello there. The vocals as you carried your piece to the end are awesome, and loved the ending! Congrats @tkmusic on a well executed piece.
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Thank you a lot
 
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