So You Wanna Score Nightmare on Elm Street?

My name is Andrew K. Smith. I'm a 21 yr old with ... well half of a BA in Music. I began working on my BA but took a break from school for a while after 2 years and decided to join the Army (i know - what a radical change of plans). However, I still plan on finishing my degree and continue my education towards a Masters. I hope to one day be able to make a living by doing what I love - composing.

I wanted to share something i just recently finished with you guys. It's nothing spectacular and isn't my best work by far. But it is the first time I ever synced a piece to a video clip.

This is my entry to a composition contest. The rules were to write your own score to this clip from Nightmare on Elm Street. I decided to take the clip and upload it to You Tube with my score as the audio track. I thought it would get maximum effectiveness this way.

Original Clip:

YouTube - A Nightmare On Elm Street - Freddy Kills Glenn

My Video:

YouTube - So You Wanna Score Nightmare on Elm Street?

comments are appreciated.

I hate to bump the thread but I was really hoping to get some feeback from some of you guys with this piece. Being it's my first time actually scoring for a prerecorded video I wanted to see if you thought I captured the scene well with my music. What do you like the piece and what would you do to improve?

Also, I'd like to share some of my own thoughts with you for just a second:

After years and years of study I've found that music theory is just the building blocks of music. Once a composer/musician grasps the "rules" of music they are then allowed to break them - and then who is to say they are right or wrong in what they write? I think it's mostly about the way an artist/composer hears something and wishes to portray it. So who says he can't have a piece made up entirely of parallel 5ths or end the song on a V chord? But anyway, this is a subject for another discussion - the point I am trying to make is this: In music composition, no one can really say "you're wrong" but it's still nice to share our ideas and works with other artists and maybe get a little insight on how they see things and/or think. Receiving feedback is always positive - even if it's negative. The person might comment on your piece such as "I don't like the way you did this ... i would have done it that way." (at least this is the "correct" way to give negative feedback or contructive criticism in my opinion) and EVEN if you don't agree with what that person says it gives you a look at how other people view things. You may not realize it at the time, but you learned something from their comment ... always take others comments into consideration - and then make your decision on what to do. That's the way I see things.

ANYWAY - all of that said - I just want to make sure this thread doesn't go unnoticed and wanted to see if i could possibly get a little feedback. Thanks.

hi there

overall, i thought it was pretty good. you started off nice with the theme and it did set the mood right. the dim chord when he licked her face was nice, as well as the accel. starting the scene with johnny depp. the only things i didnt like were the fact that it reminded me of clint mansell in requiem for a dream in some spots...not that thats a bad thing, im just sick of hearing his music from that movie ( hes got much better :D ). i also thought the violin by itself was kind of an annoyance, maybe itd be better with other strings? meh, these are just minor things that definatly do not hinder your work...like i said, overall you did a good job to a fantastic thriller. cheers!

vince

Hi,

as a standpoint of a filmcomposer i can say it was not bad, but also it was not good, the music made the video good looking but the music for itself was not really creepy, i wished something more in bad taste some mysterious things as glen gets killed it could be much louder and bigger at the time. Also on Nancy with the Phonemouth its not really effektive and reminds on early film or even on the original music, there could be more trouble in the music.

But hey, don't take it the wrong i did enjoy it! keep writing!

Hi, Drew

I also think you've set up the mood well; you've managed to create tension, the repetition gives sense of inescapable situation and worrying thoughts. The acceleration is very good choice. Although not very scary, this is your view and in many points I agree.

As freaky as the video was, I would've liked to hear something more freaky! ;) Something creepier, something that moves and rustles about underneath the creepiness we're watching. What you have is decent, I just don't think you pushed it far enough, or at all. It's very safe as it is - held chords, static key areas, etc. I think you could use some more time really thinking about the scene.

As freaky as the video was, I would've liked to hear something more freaky! ;) Something creepier, something that moves and rustles about underneath the creepiness we're watching. What you have is decent, I just don't think you pushed it far enough, or at all. It's very safe as it is - held chords, static key areas, etc. I think you could use some more time really thinking about the scene.

I agree. I didn't give this piece all I have - by a long shot. But as I mentioned it was for a contest and I was under a time constraint. I didn't have a lot of time to work on it ... so I kind of rushed through it and played it "safe" and conservative ... I could've done a better job though. You're right. Thanks for the feedback!

I'm not sure. Scary movie scores are supposed to sound goofy.

Hmm. I really enjoyed the piano/strings/percussion sections. I didn't really care for the blurred chord when the phone licked the girl... I have to admit though, I don't care for films like "Nightmare on Elm Street" at all (in fact, I think their truly stupid.) To me a beautiful and haunting scary film was "The Sixth Sense" and it sounds to me that you would do a lot better scoring a clip from that. On a side note, the first time I watched the original clip I hated it... Imagine my relief when I heard how much better your music was than the actual score. Keep it up though dude. I'm always scoring clips (although I hadn't yet had the idea to put them on you tube.)

Keep up the good work.

Jared (Johnwilliamsfan)

A very intersting concept- rescoring a clip like that. I like your opening theme- but I thought there were parts where it seemed like the action wasnt being refelcted in the music. Like the first time she answers the phone- there wasnt any change in the music.

There are three things I always keep in mind when writing scary music: maybe they'll be usefull to you. 1. Anticipation/silence: people are afraid of the dark, and people are affraid of silence. For a cheap trick you can always throw in a subito FFFFFF to make people pee themselves. 2. Disorientation: Just my way of saying that wierd tonality throws people off base, and makes them naturaly uncomfortable. A friend of mine swear by 12-tone as a means of evoking fear. 3. The unknown: it's a well known fact is that this is at the basis of most fears- the same applies to music. I always try to throw in wierd instrumental techniques that people wont know what they are- not to mention extra-musical sounds. Think about things like that wierd creaking sound in chain-saw masacre, or freddie's claw scraping noise- that scares you because your not really sure what it is in the begining, and your mind is saying, "wtf is that, and what's it going to do to me?"