Short Action Cue

Hi, I've just joined.

As it's the summer holidays and nobody seems to be willing to offer me a summer job, I've decided to try and write several short cues and develop my film score writing. I'm at the very beginning of this process so sorry if my efforts seem rather pathetic for now.

This is a cue for an imagined action sequence that's around a minute long. I've been listening to some of Danny Elfman's music recently (I'm a fan!) but I don't think he's influenced me on this piece much (although you can hear his Batman theme near the beginning).

I'd be really appreciative if somebody could reply and say whether they liked it or not and I'd be even more grateful if somebody could give me some detailed criticism.

SJ

Action.MUS

Action.MID

Welcome to YC!

This is a very energetic piece you have here. I don't know much about film music, but to me it sounded great. I would've varied up the percussion a bit, but then again, this is only a minute long and I know you were only going for one scene. I think I heard some glissando in the strings, it was a nice touch.

Very intense and flourishing piece my friend, it was a good way of introducing your style. :) Again, welcome to the forums.

Vince

It's sounds more like The Fort Battle from The Last of the Mohicans, but I can hear in it Danny Elfaman too. You should be proud of it because it's really far from pathetic. I hope you write some more and upload here.

oh and i just love those glissandos on trumpets - you can forget that it's midi.

Thanks guys. I've got a massive smile on my face right now. :D

I agree that the percussion does get slightly tedious towards the end. But I won't be changing anything I don't think. These are throw-away pieces that I hope to learn from by being practical and hands-on.

nice piece. none of mine ever have this kind of progression

This could definitely work in a film. I liked the string bursts you used over the woodblock (?) rhythm. The timpani+piano ostinato works well; consider adding a little variation.

I liked it because I felt like I wasn't overwhelmed with instruments/voices. Some people seem to think that an action score has to have 10,000 different things coming in and out, back and around to create interest. Your piece is effective, and efficient.

I don't really like the glissando effects - I don't think they make the point very well. Otherwise, this could definitely work. A heavy percussion beat like this could get really old (at least for my taste) after a short time, but as long as you keep it short, it should be okay. I liked how you inserted a melody into the middle section, but kept it out of other sections - this makes a nice effect as well.

I think you have some awesome ideas in this. There are some problems with in terms of orchestration. There are some impossible notes like flute and oboes are incapable of playing A below middle C.

Also the ranges for the instruments. You want to be aware what ranges are most affective in conveying the idea that you want on the instruments. A low flute passage can be sluggish if you meant for it to be fast, and it will probably be drowned out by the orchestra as it's very soft. Low oboe would be loud, thick, heavy and have this honk like sound.

Another thing is that French Horns can't actually glissando, if you have them do it it's usually going up. And if its' going down it's usually faked only really done because the rest of the orchestra is doing it. You could keep it as is but know it might not sound how you imagined it.

You should look into getting a book on orchestration. It'll be your best friend when you write stuff like this. Good work.