Score to a short movie clip

Hey, I'm back in the Incidental forum again.

Just sharing the results of another university project. Our task was to write music to accompany a short film clip. I responded to this by attempting to emulate one of my mini heroes, Thomas Newman.

Comments are very welcome!

I'll probably be taking the clip down quite shortly as I'm not certain of the legal ramifications...so get it while it's hot!

For the first half of the clip I think what you've written is perfect. It feels calm and tranquil like what is seen on screen. But during the second half of the clip the music hardly changes style, there's a moment right at the end where the little boy sees something nd is obviously scared, but that doesn't come across in the music which is fading out at that point.

Sorry I can't go into more detail at the moment, if I get a chance later I might edit this. Good work though, especially on the first half.

Yeah, it's very minimalist, so the only tangible sign of transition between calm and tranquil (as you put it) and something more sinister is a move to the relative minor. I didn't want to read too many on-screen details into my interpretation - instead, I opted for a more fluid, overall interpretation. I actually thought the boy running into his father's (I assume) arms wasn't quite as dramatic a moment as it might have been, considering the almost sarcastic expression on the man's face.

Well, just thought I'd elucidate on the details of my interpretation. Thanks for commenting!

It does sound somewhat Newman-esque, but still has some of your personal touches.

I agree with the comment above, the first half really fitted, but I would have liked to see more movement from the static minimalism when they enter the city. I haven't seen the movie so I don't know the context this is in, but as stand alone I would have liked some change when they show the gate and car.

Otherwise I am a fan of Newman myself and this kind of minimalistic cinematic works. Good job.

I've gotta go now, but I'm writing a note to check this out and comment next time I'm online, I've yet to find any of your music I haven't loved

Loved it! The first few bars reminded me of the pleseant feelings created by the Besaid Island Theme from Final Fantasy X, dunno why, possibly that motif. I thought the cello worked excellently when it came in, and the change to minor was effective. One question, probably sounds a little stupid, but how do you sync things like this? Did you work out the tempo in BPM required from the time in seconds and number of bars you wanted, or write it then stretch the audio track to get it perfectly fitting? Or some other way?

Thoroughly enjoyable

I adore the theme to Besaid Island. Can't say it was an influence in this particular case, though.

As to how I synchronised it, the simple answer is that I didn't. I just composed on the fly and presumably adjusted a few things here and there to conform roughly to the on-screen action (it's hard to remember the exact process).

Thanks again to everyone for commenting! I'm going to take the video down now: if anyone else wants to view it, please contact me privately.