MUSIC 246
Lecture 3
Thursday, January 19, 2012

Test
7pm
50 minutes
30 questions
Worth 25%

Watch: Robin Hood 1938

Technical Details, How It's Done:

Basic Timetable of Film Production
1. Preproduction:
- preparation phase
- script writing and editing
- financial backing
- hiring of director, casting actors
- location scouting
- various aspects of production design (costume and set design, etc) undertaken
- storyboarding, Pre-visualization (pre-vis)
	- indicate panning, any kind of action

Storyboard / Final Cut Comparison
The Birds (1963)

2. Production:
- finalization of script and production design
- principle photography

3. Postproduction
- assembling and editing the "takes"
- completion and addition of visual and audio effects
- composition and addition of music

- normally, an original film score is one of the final elements to be created and added to the film
- schedule for the composition and recording of a score: 5 to 8 weeks on average

Composer's involvement varies based on working style and specifes of a given project

Hiring:
- freelance or studio contract
- apprenticeship
- fgenre typecasting
- collaborative partnerships (Spielberg/Williams, Nolan Zimmer)

Scripts:
- can give composers a "head-start"
- research for "ethnic" or historical" influences (Hans Zimmer, The Last Samurai (2003))
- production of important source music sources is done at this point
- recent thought is that composing the score cannot be done on the basis of a script - why?
- scripts can change significantly
- only words, no clear timing or pace for just the composer to work with

Screenings
- several different opportunities to see the film
- rushes: film shot that day
- assembly cut: significantly longer than finished film
- rough: cut: closer to finished film, but still undergoing significant editing
- fine or locked cut: most if not all editing completed
- most composers begin serious work at the fine cut phase - why?
- concern that repeated viewings will alter the composer's reaction
- timing of scenes

Temp Tracks:
- "temporary" music added to film while still in production or early editing
- gives more "finished" feeling to work in progress
- often taken from other film stories, or "classical" music
Composer's are deeply divided on their view of temp tracks - why? Difficult think of context of film if they hear temp track already
- offer insight into director's thinking process
- BUT can influence the composer's initial response
- director's familiarity with tempt rack can be an obstacle

Spotting Session and Cue Sheets:
- director, composer, music editor (producer)
- discussion on placement of "cues"
- timings, approach, etc...
- music editor then prepares "Spotting notes" or cue sheet

Composing:
- 5 to 8 weeks until "delivery" of finished score
- short timeline due to fixed release date
- frequently exacerbated by production phase running overtime

- Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) Composer: Michael Kamen; 2 hours, 11 min of music / produced in 3.5 weeks
- orchestrators - help composer fill in details (because composer does not have time to work out level of detail)
- synth demonstrations

- copyist produce final parts for musicians
- music librarians organize parts for recording sessions
- studio musicians (good sight readers)
- recording sessions

- synchronization: punch and streamers / click tracks / SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers)
- mixing


THE SILENT ERA (1895-1927)

Early developments:
- The Zoopraxiscope - project several images to present the illusion of movement

Thomas Edison:
- The Kinetoscope (1891) Peephole viewer with a contionuous loop of film
- The Kinetophone (1895) A kinetoscope with a photograph installed in a box
- Problem with synchronization:

First Projected Films:
- The Lumiere Brothers, Paris Decemeber 28th, 1895. "The Arrival of a Train"
- Max Skladanowsky - November 1st, 1895. System was allegedly far less developed than the Lumiere's
- Both presentations were accompanied by music

Reasons for musical accompaninment:
1. Pragmatic: mechanical noise / mechanical problems
2. Psychoanalytic: Audience disturbed by ghost like images
3. Continuity of Tradition: Long history of musical accompaniment for visual presentation

The Shift To Narrative:
George Melies:
- early experimenter with camera effects
- A Trip to the Moon (1902)
- Not the first narrative, but over ten minutes in lnength, multiple scenes, sets, costume, etc. - early model for narrative film to come

Edwin Porter:
- The Great Train Robbery (1903)
- First narrative film to use discontinuous action - cross cutting

Patterns of Accompaniment
- Vaudville orchestra or theatre orchestra
- 1905 "Nickelodeons"
- 1907 - 3,000; 1910 - Over 10,000 Accompaniment provided by what every instruments were handy

1. Silence
2. Without music, but with sound effects, live dialog or narration
3. Continuous music provided mechanically (Phonograph or Player Piano) - Ballyhoo music
4. Single pianist
5. Small band, including singer for intermission entertainment

Music:
- source music
- improvisation
- popular song - title associations

Camille Saint-Saens: L'Assassinat du Duc de Guise (1908)
- composed for 12 instrument (small pit orchestra)
- further away from original theatre, the worse music got... better to put music within film
