How to write for film

Hello to all who read this,

I just registered to this forum like 5 minutes ago, so bear with my newnessm I have a feeling my stay here is gonna be cool. But anyone in here have experience writing for film or for media. I was just wondering how do you time the cues of a scene to music and how to find an ideal tempo. Plus any tips on writing for film or book recommendations are greatly appreciated.

"newnessm" nice word, don't think it'll replace noobism though, sorry, can't say much on this topic but welcome to the forum!

Mark

Watch whatever passage you're thinking of accompanying a couple of times. Think of what's going on in the scene, what the characters are feeling, what important motifs and themes are showing up. Take your time, and write slowly. There are certain applications, one in Sibelius 4 comes to mind, that helps you with timestamps. You can load a video clip, play it through, and place timestamps in the film that show up in the score. It makes it easier to sync the music and film.

Welcome to the forum cain. I have a limited experience in writing for filim but I guess I can share with you what I know. You are asking for how to synchronize music to a film. Here's how I work: First I take a sequence from the film and decide how long I like the music to last. Then I watch the sequence and try to imagine a music in my head. Then I write down the exact times of the musical events that I want in SMPTE form (ex. 10:10:10:18) while watching the sequence. After this it's time to decide what tempo it should be. I take a metronome in my hand and after a few try it's not as hard as it sounds to find the right tempo. Anyway, frames are very sensitive and it's imposible to find the exact match (in my experinece) and you dont have to think about that for a while. You can always fix little synchronization errors later while editing. After that, the creative process can start ! write down some stuff, play around themes etc. Upon completing the first draft I write it on computer and see how it fits with the movie. Then it eventually takes shape by fixing this and that..

Hope this helps

Hey Dudes,

To both Micus and Nightfly, Thanks for your replies. Now I just need to practice synching the "hits" and such to music. Man film music is so demanding. Hey Nightfly, I visited your soundclick page, you have some pretty good stuff man. What did you use for playback. You have any tips on composing for film or just composing in general.

Yes, film music is very demanding indeed. Not that I have experience myself as professional but I know it is also extremely difficult and competitive to get inside the business.

As for your questions: I use GPO and sometimes Reason. I'm not well educated in this manner but lately I am hearing some good reviews about my use of samples. Hmmm... now I think they must not be that bad as I thought.

Well, for your second question the only tips I could think of is to listen alot of music and a huge variety of music. Don't just listen what you like. And when you listen try to learn something from it either good things or bad. Try to realize what made a certain music good or sound bad. Then expand your harmony knowledge, employ different and extended chords rather than triads.

Finally be a power user of most mainstream sound and notation based programs. I can't think about more right now. Hope this helps