EXTENSION/ADVANCED PREP TASK: record or find some spoken word, perhaps reading news articles or headlines. Add them all to individual bandlab tracks. Move and arrange volumes so you can hear them individually to start with and then all joined up and difficult to hear.
To compose for suspense and horror scenes, you need to think carefully about what kind of feeling you want the audience to have. And how might you achieve that?
When Bernard Hermann first started writing the music for Psycho, Hitchcock requested a jazz score, with no music in the (now famous) shower scene. Hermann thought that an orchestral, dissonant score would be far more effective. Do you agree?
Another useful technique is cluster chords, or 'tone clusters'. This is the term for a collection of at least 3 neighbouring semitones being played at the same time i.e, D, C sharp and C or A, Bflat and B. Giorgy Ligeti pioneered this technique in his score for Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odessey.
In the film, it accompanies scenes of open space, suggesting fear, being lost and perhaps claustrophobia.
However, sometimes less is more in film music. The use of 'found sounds' and minimalist techniques have been widely used by composers such as John Cage, Basil Kerchin and Alfred Schnittke. Found Sounds, such as clanking, scraping, dragging, can be very abrasive and un-nerving. John cage does this especially well in his piece, 'The Root of an Unfocus' which was used in the sound track to Scorcese's 'Shutter Island'. It appears at the start of a nightmare scene.
Found sounds are non-musical sounds such as breaking glass, environmental sounds or running water that can be used in music. They can be used either as they are or you can process them by adding effects, cutting, looping or reversing.
LISTEN: Look around you and listen. What does your environment sound like? If you have access to the outside, go out and listen (or open a window).
PLAY: Do you have any interesting objects that you can make sounds out of?
CAPTURE: Record these sounds (as you did for Tom & Jerry) and create a sample kit of your sounds
CREATE: try using these sounds (environmental and found) to write a track
It can be frustrating if you don't have access to instruments at home but music is sound so you can create your own! The music that you create will be completely original - no one else will be using these sounds. The limitations can also actually become opportunities and help you creatively.
Music plays a huge part in our understanding of a scene in a film and how we react emotionally. There are different types of sound in film:
Score - specifically composed music for the film, often matching up with the onscreen action (ie Harry Potter)
Soundtrack - pre-existing music that is chosen to use in the film, accompanying scenes (ie Pulp Fiction)
TASK: Open two windows and go to YouTube in both. On the first window, find a clip from a film you really like. What is the music like? How does it affect the scene? Then find song in other window (or a movie scene with no dialogue). Mute the clip in the first window and what the scene now with the music playing from the second window. Find a few examples of this and post them on your blog. If you are stuck, here are some to get you started... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtRGeyznv7k - Clockwork Orange
When you are promoting a live event, the ultimate aim of this is to get people to come to the event. In order to do that there are some vital things to ensure you do properly. There are also things that can go horribly wrong if you get them wrong.
What are you promoting?
Will the act bring people in?
Is the venue a suitable size?
What about location?
How will you fund it?
Can you get help with advertising through sponsorship?
Do you need to put a deposit down at the venue?
Are you offering guarantees to the act or a door split?
Dealing with the band.
Do you have their tech spec and have to definitely sent it to the engineer?
Do they require unusually high ceiling clearance?
What is the line-up and do they know how much space there is on stage?
Is there somewhere for them to change/store gear?
Will you be providing them with a rider?
If there is more than one act, have you arranged sharing of backline with them to minimise changeover times?
Have you set aside enough time for soundcheck?
Promoting the event.
Have you crated a facebook event and encouraged the acts to spread the word?
Local listings?
Can you print posters/fliers and put them up in the venue before hand?
Have you planned a marketing strategy? i.e What info will you put out and how often?
A while ago, I did a show that was 'promoted' by possibly the worse promoter in the world. Disaster from start to finish. To begin with, he was very communicative by email, so we were quite confident that he was well organised. When we got there at 4pm to load in however, no one was at the venue and the bar staff didn't seem to know what was going on. When he finally showed up (6:30pm?) he didn't even introduce himself to us - I figured out that it was him from his photo on facebook and had to go over and make myself known to him. We waited around for the sound engineer but he wasn't booked to come in until 7pm. That meant we had to wait for 3 hours. Also, doors were at 7:30pm. It is completely impossible to soundcheck 4 bands in half and hour. The sound engineer hadn't been sent out specs and said he would have come in earlier if he'd been asked to. When I gave him our channel list he was quite panicked - the venue didn't have enough mics or channels and he'd have been able to get more in if he'd have known in advance! There was also no where for us to store our instruments. When I asked him about it, he actually asked me to ask at the bar!
After all this faffing about, we were pretty hungry as we'd been up since 5am and had driven a massive 8 hours from Glasgow to Norwich. The promoter had said he'd order us pizza in but didn't do this until 8pm, by which time, the first band had almost set up and, as the doors were open, we had to eat it outside in the freezing cold because it wasn't bought from the venue.
Everything was running late and there was a curfew of 11pm so we all had to change our sets to make them shorter at the last minute. The promoter seemed unable to work out timings either. When we finally did get to line check before our set, we couldn't actually fit on the stage properly because he hadn't realised how much space 8 people take up with so many instruments. Doh!
All of these things were easily avoidable. Ok, so he was obviously inexperienced but didn't even try to appear like he knew what he was doing. Shaking hands with him was like someone dangling a limp mackerel at you. We each made a point of 'bone crushing' him as we said goodbye!
Proof that Norwich is exactly as Alan Partridge portrays it, if ever there was.
Whilst some fo your classes will be online, we will be using Bandlab so that you can work from home if you don't have access to Logic. Your individual class teachers will give you links to access specific classes but it's worth having a look around in advance.
You lucky things, you. Your peri teachers are rather good. Meet The Dream Team!
Guitar & Bass - James Sedwards (Guapo, Chrome Hoof, Nought, various). Recently he has Joined members of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine to play with the Thurston Moore Band. They will be on tour for the first three weeks of the lessons so Alex Ward will be covering his classes. Alex plays with This Is Not This Heat as well as being one of the UKs foremost clarinet and guitar improvisers.
Drums - Ben Woollacott (Knifeworld, Medeival Baebes, Veils, various)
Piano - Bill Drake (Cardiacs and many amazing projects)
Vocals - Chantal Brown (Do Me Bad Things, Vodun, Chrome Hoof, Invasion, session work all over the place)
See her video section on her website for further sound and video section of her website.
