"Infiltration" An Action/Adventure Piece

Hey Everyone

This composition is an action/spy/thriller piece meant to simulate a high tech infiltration into a heavily guarded enemy base. It's really the first "action" piece I've ever written, so keep that in mind.

Hope you enjoy it!

Jared

PS

Comments and critiques are welcome. :D

SoundClick artist: Jared Kraft - Film Score Music

I'll type as I go-

Nice development. It gets me the feeling of the situation building slowly but surely. You never DO hit a climax, which also helps the above notion.

I think you could use a little more diversity of instruments, however. I'm getting a lot of strings, flute and brass, but not much of anything else. I understand that only leaves woodwind and pitched percussion, but they could still be used for very interesting effects.

Overall it seems that that it doesn't want to go anywhere. But perhaps that is what you want. I personally wanted to hear more fortes, or simply more stronger and more forceful moments. I don't think you HAVE to change it- just consider me a poll result. ;)

Overall, good job! Your percussion effects definitely made the piece.

Hi Alan

I do see what you're saying about the buildup/development aspect of the piece. The reason for the constant build-up without payoff is that I wanted the piece to be tense. Like I said, an infiltration onto enemy turf (although the events after the actual infiltration never come into this piece.)

I respect your comments about orchestration... I tried to incorporate as much as I could. You are right, however, pitched percussion would have been a very interesting addition. As far as woodwinds, I don't know if it was clear in the piece but I actually have clarinet with the flute in portions, (I know woodwinds could have also been used to greater effect. Thanks for the idea!)

Thank you for your comments, critiques and complements!

Have a great day.

Jared

Any more comments?

This is extremely verby, which makes it come off as muddy and removes the effectiveness of some of your scoring, which is nice.

Otherwise, I don't have much to say considering it's almost a precise re-telling of Michael Giacchino's score for Lost. It's got a solid action feel to it, and it's definitely tense, so well done on that point.

Also, I'm not really getting a particularly high-tech feel from it, so you might want to add in some subtle synth effects or something. Just a thought.

Anyway, nice work, thanks for sharing! :)

Dear Johnwilliamsfan;

Your pieces impress me. But, then, I impress easily. The admitted truth is, any pieces which do not offend my personal tastes in music and are put together fairly well, will get a stamp of approval from me.

I suggest you title "Techno #1" Undercover: It's Going Down Now

"Techno #2" Look Behind You or Gotta Quit This Gig...Before It Kills Me

For me Techno sounds conjure up images of sunglasses, leather jackets, dangerous situations, nasty or illegal goings down, ect. About the only way I can think of to dispel such images would be to score a Techno piece to visual material which is anything different. Like it or not, most major Genres of music have a reputation and popular content/material applications which have become a part of their identity. I recognize this fact, but I refuse to be limited by it. Any type of sound can fit anything if it is done well.

Your "Star Trek Style Theme Song" did not strike me as "catchy" enough for its purpose. I think of Theme Songs as being powerful, unique or more distinct, if you can understand what I mean.

"Fleeing The Castle" seemed short. I expect it was a sort of experiment and you felt no need to draw it out.

"Mystery" "A Hero Is Born" "The Fight" and "Epic Theme" were all very good in my unauthoritative opinion, but I think all of them lack a boldness which seems their due, considering the nature of each piece. Perhaps that is best for "Mystery", but I felt that the latter three pieces should have reached out and grabbed me.

And I might caution you that laying out your imaginings and intent for your pieces probably effects the feedback you receive somewhat. I respectfully suggest that you perhaps hold back your own descriptions where practical and possible, so that you can get feedback on a piece and find out if your listeners envision anything like you desire. I really enjoyed fitting some sort of scene title to your Techno pieces.

I like everything of yours I have listened to, and loved most of it. I prefer music which easily conjures up mental imaginings and which play on my emotions.

Would you consider experimenting with short compositions for specific webcomics materials?

Hello Collaborn

Thank you for the feedback! I certainly sympathize with what you are saying about composer to listener mood translation. Giving others your specific vision is sometimes quieting their own creative instincts.

I am currently looking for all types of projects to score and write for... I'd definately be interested in trying my hand at a few web comic pieces.

Once again, thank you for the kind words!

Jared

PS

My music e-mail is scenethroughsound@yahoo.com

(To Marius)

Thanks for the comment! For some reason my computer speakers played the piece perfectly... Once I got into my car and played it, however, it was horribly muffled and boomy. I'll definately be taking steps to remedy that. As far synths, I actually have sort of a "re-mix" project going on right now. It's the exact same orchestration, just with added electronics here and there. As soon as I'm finished with it, I'll post it!

(To Songjun)

Any parallels drawn with Williams are extremely flattering. Thanks a ton! : )

(More comments are welcome!)

Sounds like General Grevious's theme a little bit O_o

Touch of John Williams in this piece I can most definantly see.

Reminds me of some scenes from KOTOR and/or Episiode 3 O_o

I like the way you made it sound suspenseful.

I got more of a military feeling from the piece fo r the first 10 -30 seconds for some reason though .

Thanks man. Once again, your observations are interestingly acute... I actually wrote this piece to the images of "Mission Impossible 3." If you've seen the film, it's the scene where Ethan is infiltrating enemy headquarters to rescue Agent Farris. It's a very militaristic scene.

Once again, thank you!

alright, I just finished listening to the last snippets and I think one little thing that SLIGHTLY bugs me is the end. to me, action-y, thrilling pieces don't need to show that they are ending and your composition kind of showed it was ending, which removed the whole "scary" essense to it. but that's just me. I just expected something chaotic and scary to come out in the end.

overall, I liked it a lot; it's a really good considering how it's your first "action" piece. I suggest adding more "fortes" because suspense isn't really horizontal, if you know what I mean. It's full of high points, and your piece just needed a little more of that.

keep up your good work!

Thanks for the feedback! I totally agree with you on the "suspense isn't horizontal" comment... In fact, that's a great way to think of it. This particular piece kind of gains more energy at 1:32 but yea, the rest of the time really is buildup. I really am enjoying all of the attention this piece is getting. Hopefully next time I post an "action" piece on "Young Composers" it will contain a few more flavors. : )