Requiem: Heart of Music

Hey all!

This is a theme I did for a friend's movie trailer project over winter. This was my first time actually being commissioned for this kind of work, so that in itself was exciting. I'm not exactly sure how trailer soundtracks usually go, but they were still in the middle of filming while I was composing, so all I had to go by was a script and a general time line of about 4 - 5 minutes long. Anyway, hope you all enjoy and, as always, feel most free to critique!

"Requiem: Heart of Music Promo Trailer Theme"

You can also see how it all fit together in the trailer

Thanks everyone!

Congratulations on getting some paid for work. The music fits the scenes well.

Ron

Alright, I liked it. But I must say...the acting could use some work. I don't mean to offend them!! But yeah, way too much smiling going on. Reduce smiling = make awesome video!

On the music end, very nice. I loved your use of all the instruments. I'm kind of jealous of your use of percussion, because it's good.

Stylistically with the video, I'd say you should have made the beginning (after the dialogue starts) a little more happy, you did a bit, but it seemed a little late. Especially with all that smiling!! At that point in the trailer, it seems like happy-go-lucky world with music dictating everything. And when the background music is like, "something might not be right, everything looks good..but...." it kind of changes what illusion you want the audience to feel.

The flute/piccolo (whatever instrument that is) at the beginning, could it have been coordinated with the "heart" playing? Either have the actor do less fingering, or do it all at the same time.

I'd also like a reaction in the music to "They are corrupt!" too, because that would be sick!

If the music got a little "darker" at the end, that would be awesome. It just seems kind of heroic for when it looks like the bad guys are kicking butt. Seems backwards. I would say that some lower register cello action would accomplish that. That would also add to the build up you set up for that part, it'll just be even more.

Overall, this music seems legit. I wouldn't have be suprised if I had heard that music in the theaters (suprised in a bad way). It fits very well, and it's awesome. Good job!

Oh, and tell your friends that the voice really needs to match the lip movement too. I mean, it really needs to match. I watched the trailer like 4 times through, and the timing was off by a hair at some parts, and the vowel shapes didn't match at other times, and it seems kind of amateur. Once again, I don't want to offend them, I don't know the resources, the pay, the experience, or anything! Just some things that really bugged me about it.

But really, good job!

rolifer: Thanks. I appreciate it!

theOmaster Thanks for listening and watching! I agree with you on pretty much everything. The trailer itself is pretty amateur and considering that none of the people acting in it are actual actors (that I know of), I can't help but expect that awkward smiles are going to dominate most of it. :P I certainly agree with what you say about the music syncing emotionally more with the scenes. Unfortunately I had almost no control over that because all I was given was a script for the trailer and a vague timeline. All I could do was try and express the script as best I could musically as I interpreted it. I know when I first watched the finished trailer, I thought more than a couple times "That's definitely not what I had in mind." But so be it I guess. Thanks a lot for the listen and the critique. I appreciate it a lot!

Yeah no problem, I'm glad I could hear it :)

Sounds very good! I haven't watched the trailer with your music, but you (at least to me) seem to have a very sci-fi mood about your piece, at least at the beginning! Sounds a bit like Blade Runner or perhaps Deus-Ex, especially with the bass drone.

When the theme kicks in at about 2 minutes or so, it's very well done. Has a real heart-warming hollywood epic feel to it. For future pieces it might be an idea to add some more harmonisation to your main melody, maybe some 6th/3rds with occassional 5ths or 4ths etc. You do this towards the end, but I feel you could have brought this out a little more.

I love the lone piccollo. I've heard this particular instrumentation used by many film composers and it very often sounds very "fake-Irishy" if that makes sense. But yours doesn't, which is a good thing since many people seem to fall so easily into this trap! I hope that last point makes sense to you?

After a few listens I'm able to sing along with the main theme at this point, which is good. You've written a memorable melody which will add a huge amount of intrigue to your piece, and will stay in the mind of the listener long after.

The military part at 3:07 is great. Really inspiring sound. To be honest I could have thought I was hearing this from a professional video game soundtrack. Sounds like it could be used in Metal Gear Solid or something similar!

My advice would be to work on your "tutti" sections where you bring out your theme. This is the only part that sounded a little off to me, something about the voicing of your harmonies. From my experience this is quite hard to get right by ear without really doing a bit of theory first, and you might want to just take a look at some simple harmonisation exercises (like harmonising Bach chorales) which hopefully - when you come to write a new piece - will make everything a lot easier.

It's really good! I did enjoy it alot. Hopefully you'll get some paid gigs in the future, good luck!

Oh and I'm watching the trailer now. Despite what I said about it sounding a bit "sci-fi" it actually fits incredibly well. It interprets the mood perfectly, especially when it suddenly switches to 'military mode'.

Excellent stuff, put this on your portfolio! If you don't have a portfolio this could be your first entry!

Sounds great! What sample library(s) are you using?

almacg: Thanks! Glad you liked it! Saying that you remember the melody after only a couple listens is, in my opinion, one of the best compliments I could hope for, so thank you! I agree that my tutti sections need more work. I've always struggled a bit with them, so I'll definitely have to do some research when I can find the time. Thanks again for the listen and the feedback! Much appreciated.

aeschiff:Thanks for listening and glad you liked it! I usually use the East West Symphonic Orchestra library. Sometimes I'll use Garritan Personal Orchestra if I'm lazy and don't want to struggle through rendering out a whole orchestra with SO (depending on the instrumentation, I'll have to record sections of a piece bit by bit just because my computer can't handle all the instruments at once). This piece in particular was all EWQLSO though.

No problem! Just had another listen and I can still sing along with it! Good job and best of luck for future compositions.

Like many indie films, the soundtrack outstrips the acting and script by miles. I wish the project luck--been in your position myself--but you've got what i takes if you want to pursue this career, imo.

This is great, man. I love the intensity in the second half. Would really dig to see this implemented in the video!

My first paid job was also a trailer (for a horror film). It was difficult, i won't lie in regards to syncing tempo, etc to cuts (as i was scoring to an already edited trailer)...i now ask for video editors to work with a metronome when possible...i know you shouldn't really need that as a composer but i find it makes things look a lot tighter and slicker.

I digress--i like this a lot, good job.

This is great, man. I love the intensity in the second half. Would really dig to see this implemented in the video!

My first paid job was also a trailer (for a horror film). It was difficult, i won't lie in regards to syncing tempo, etc to cuts (as i was scoring to an already edited trailer)...i now ask for video editors to work with a metronome when possible...i know you shouldn't really need that as a composer but i find it makes things look a lot tighter and slicker.

I digress--i like this a lot, good job.

Sorry, i found the video...suits it fantastically!

Like many indie films, the soundtrack outstrips the acting and script by miles. I wish the project luck--been in your position myself--but you've got what i takes if you want to pursue this career, imo.

Haha. Well thank you for the kind words, Jazzooo! I'll say it was definitely an interesting experience when I finally saw the completed video. :P I haven't heard anything new about the whole project, but I'm just happy knowing I did the best I could and that people (musicians and non-musicians alike) are reacting to the music. Thanks!

Duncan11: Glad you enjoyed it! I'll be honest, in some ways it was a blessing that I didn't have a cut trailer to write to. I'm such an amateur at the actual process of this stuff that I wouldn't have even known where to begin, let alone how to sync it with the action! Hopefully once I get some down time I'll be able to jump into a book I bought that discusses all that. Anyway, thanks for the listen and the feedback! :)

Duncan11: Glad you enjoyed it! I'll be honest, in some ways it was a blessing that I didn't have a cut trailer to write to. I'm such an amateur at the actual process of this stuff that I wouldn't have even known where to begin, let alone how to sync it with the action! Hopefully once I get some down time I'll be able to jump into a book I bought that discusses all that. Anyway, thanks for the listen and the feedback! :)

Yeah sync is brutal trial and error for me, i swear i could lose my mind the amount of times i've repetitively played stuff in loops. If there was some method to it i'd be interested. What's the book called if you don't mind?

Hi Murr! :)

Under the circumstances I think you did an absolutely fantastic job with this. Having to score a trailer without the footage seems like a pretty silly concept, to be honest...the whole point of trailers is that the interplay between music and video is key. The editor did an okay job considering, but I would have liked to see what would have happened if they had just given you the final cut and left you to your talents.

In any event, I have very few critiques. The production was solid, with only occasional moments where I felt that the sequencing could have used a bit more tweaking to squeeze more realism out of the sampled performance, and the mixing seemed a bit flat perhaps...did you tweak any of the panning and EQ and reverb levels or did you just leave it as is for the mix?

I know where you're coming from with the whole sync thing, but honestly it turns out better when you have the final cut to score to rather than this method of just having a vague idea of what's going on. The issue is that what the director interprets in his description and what the mood actually IS in the video can turn out radically different as you've encountered.

I'm also definitely in agreement with the folks who've commented on the...uh, "quality" of the acting and production. Having just finished scoring an independent film this past week that suffered the same issues, you have my complete sympathy and understanding.

Anyhow, congrats on the commission and on doing a great job with what you had, and I hope it leads to more work for you! :)

Yeah sync is brutal trial and error for me, i swear i could lose my mind the amount of times i've repetitively played stuff in loops. If there was some method to it i'd be interested. What's the book called if you don't mind?

The book is called "Complete Guide to Film Scoring" by Richard Davis. I bought it on Amazon a couple months ago and it looks really useful, but I just haven't had the time to read it. :P

Marius: Hey! Thanks for listening and giving feedback! I could definitely use some help as far as production goes. I've been attempting to figure a lot of this stuff out on my own, but for the most part, I still don't really know what I'm doing when it come to post production (mastering, etc.). One of the biggest issues I have is volume vs dynamic range, i.e. trying make the final mix louder without blowing out my ff sections way over the top. I usually do tweak EQ and some panning, but for the most part I leave as is. I tend to find that the more I tweak, the "flatter" the sound gets. If you've got any advice on the subject, I'd greatly appreciate it!