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On Scoring
The subject I receive the most mail about”not solely from the population involved with the project, but from civilians, too”is my plans for the scoring of Artemis Eternal. A selection from the latest letter, for example:
“So many scores are awful or by one of the same three composers and they all sound the same. I don”t know what your plans are, but music is an integral part of film so I hope you”ll take it seriously.”
Seriously, serious fans are serious. And, greatly concerned! While it”s amusing that they”d tell me something that every professional filmmaker ought to know (and act upon), they”re absolutely right about the importance of music in a motion picture and the fact that studio scoring is often predictable while independent film scoring is sometimes sub par.
Thus, in harmony with those interests and concerns, I thought it wise to create a mix tape themed around the techniques found in modern film scoring and soundtrack.
The majority of these songs were on the playlist that I listened to while writing the screenplay for The Silver Legacy (the exceptions being those that were not yet released at the time of writing), as well as Artemis Eternal. Other compositions are points of study and frustration, or curiosities in cinematic trending that attracted my attention. Headphones on, if you please, and off we go!
Kothbiro by Ayub Ogada
This graceful, prayer-like traditional Kenyan song scored the audiences” exodus during the end credits of The Constant Gardner. Mr. Ogada is a Kenyan musician and his elegant, haunting voice has a cultural authenticity that matches the world of the film. Kothbiro caps the final moments of the picture with an eerie sense of warning.
Great filmmakers set the stage from beginning to end, including the end credits, which are the transitional moments the audience experiences as they leave the world of the theater and reenter reality, carrying the themes of the film into their own world.
Translations to Kothbiro are available online but, much like the fictional “Hopelandic” in Sigur Rós lyrics, this is a song that does not require translation in order to be meaningful. In fact, I suggest that deriving your own meaning is more meaningful than seeking the artist”s literal translation.
Speaking of Sigur Rós, those darlings of cinematic vision”for their music has been used fairly often, and even their music videos double as wonderful short films:
Untitled #4 by Sigur Rós
There was a tricky scene that, as I worked to capture it in written form, I stumbled throughout repeatedly; a scene that I needed to be gentle-hearted and intimate, yet innocent, with distant hints of timelessness and monomyth. Essentially I was crafting a brief respite in the hero”s road of trials. #4 accompanied me on loop for days as I steadily solved the delicate beats of that scene.
Roslin and Adama by Bear McCreary
How often in epic genre motion picture do we see a key romantic story between two protagonists over fifty? The Ronald D. Moore helmed re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica was full of delightful surprises and higher-minded dramatic craft usually not found on television, and the scoring reflected the best qualities of the series. Both youthful and playful, which I associate contextually with new love, and dignified, which I associate with the characters” life experience, this instrumental paces through a slower movement weighted with worry and burden and then lightly progresses, floating into a glimpse of hope, like winter melting into spring.
Beyond Mr. McCreary”s excellent militaristic work with drums, and perhaps in contrast with those tracks, this is my favorite of the series” score. Every listen brings back memories of moments between President Roslin and Admiral Adama wherein rank was set aside and they found themselves considering a simpler life.
Nara by E.S. Posthumus
In Nara we find quintessential popular, modern instrumental trailer music that has been licensed and deployed frequently by studios. Most major composers of Hollywood trailers have a knockoff of this song in their licensing library. What is widely appealing about now-familiar Nara is that, even in its most climactic movements, it is subtler than typical big trailer music and yet remains swooping and bombastic throughout. Watch how the score makes a rather unimportant event (a housewife having an affair) seem epic (i.e. as though the events between the characters are important to the fate of the larger world they inhabit).
Of course the effect is amplified when viewed in theater. Ah, listen”here it is again! And again it appears in the second movement of a trailer! Yes, those concerned fans are right to be concerned: When it doubt, Hollywood goes for familiar elements, template filmmaking and whatever”s easily bankable. Neither scoring nor marketing, nor scoring in marketing, is an exception. On that note,
Orchestral Choir Demo by X-Ray Dog
X-Ray Dog is a company that composes score that is consequently licensed for movie trailers and marketing. Their orchestral choral sampler, which is not available to the public for purchase, is used even more frequently than Nara. If you listen to this, then you will never look at movie trailers the same afterward: Every studio uses and reuses these trailer cues to the point that it”s become cliché to anyone who”s paying attention.
If you see a girl with long dark hair and her feet propped up in the back of the theater, rolling her eyes conspicuously and laughing uncontrollably at a bombastic movie trailer during an intense epic-styled montage, then you can assume that girl is me and the music is probably one of these overused “Choir Demo” tracks.
Example One | Example Two
Titled Here Comes The King, this specific X-Ray Dog cue is in extra-heavy rotation and, now that you”ve been alerted, you will notice it everywhere. I find the over-usage hilarious. On the other hand, it”s a fun bit of music to run and drive to. Just beware that it creates momentary delusions of immortality.
Since I mentioned The Other Boleyn Girl, guess which gentler bombastic cue was featured in the movie”s TV ads?
Lux Aeterna by Clint Mansell
Even if you haven”t experienced the film yet, you will very likely recognize the original thematic score from Requiem for a Dream. Mr. Mansell is my favorite composer. Here is a composition that draws together the themes and storylines in the film, and plays a strong part in unfolding the climax of the film. The original score to Requiem was an interesting and unpredictable choice (typically modern independent films use already produced songs as soundtrack), and it works so incredibly well due to a masterful collaboration between the filmmaker and composer.
Requiem for a Tower by Corner Stone Cues
I include this short trailer composition in the interest of understanding trends in scoring film and film marketing, and in the interest of comparing and contrasting higher caliber score with the more bombastic and overproduced take on motion picture music. Lux Aeterna was remixed by a trailer composer and licensed for the Return of the King adverts as well as the theatrical trailer and, among other appearances, has since been heard in the trailer for Sunshine.
Death is the Road to Awe by Clint Mansell
Promontory by Randy Edelman & Trevor Jones
As with Requiem for a Dream”s Lux Aeterna, these songs are found at the climaxes of their films (The Fountain and The Last of the Mohicans, respectively). When next you watch these movies notice: What”s joining all storylines together and carrying them through to the thematic climax? Dialogue? No: It”s music! Fabulous, epic music crafted just for the particular picture!
In the wake of both films, these compositions are licensed repeatedly in film marketing. Interestingly, I recently discovered that the key musical theme found in Promontory was arranged based on a Scottish composition titled The Gael. That music came from a Scottish musician much like Kothbiro came from an Kenyan musician. Although The Gael was rearranged to be appropriate for The Last of the Mohicans, the authenticity is not lost.
Rolling Sea by Eliza McCarthy
Johnny Depp and the director for Pirates of the Caribbean were inspired to produce an album titled Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys. When I actually heard the album, on which this song appears, my jaw dropped. “Holy shit, you studio assholes, I WANT TO SEE THAT MOVIE!”, I shouted at my computer screen. Imagine: A more authentic, less-Jerry-Bruckheimer-esque pirate movie worthy of this music!
These are the choices that the studios are making for you, because you can”t really watch or listen to what you don”t know about, or what isn”t produced. After all, there”s McDonald”s, and then there”s a gourmet steak dinner, just like there are McMovies, and then there are Films. An interesting thing about cinema is that, no matter the quality, all movies cost you the same. Of course the caliber of the score is usually reflective of the picture. In context of what could have been, Ms. McCarthy”s Rolling Sea reminds me of the “quality over quantity” argument in terms of “bigger is not always better,” nor is broader and generic more flavorful or filling. The entire album serves as yet another reminder of why I”m working independent of the studio system.
Nothing Else Matters from S&M(Live With the SFSO) by Metallica
Modern rock-metal arranged with an orchestra? It works. Here is one way to cinematically bridge genres in an epic way and create a score to modern life. I immediately think of my audience and our work together when I hear Nothing Else Matters, especially the Metallica version supported by orchestra, which lends to my fondness of that particular incarnation of the song. I find this performance suggestive of something interesting and cinematic that”s not being explored in soundtrack and scoring.
Of note, Finnish band Apocalyptica recorded an earthier, cello version of this song, which has a period-style feel.
Sunday Bloody Sunday by The Vitamin String Quartet
As with the Apocalyptica cover of Metallica, here is another example of how a popular song (in this case a work by U2) can be adapted in order to fit the context of a film and the world it encompasses.
Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin
Classic rock is a filmic treasure trove: There are dozens upon dozens of rad songs that have an epic quality. The musicianship is textured, layered and shines through. By now you have likely noticed that I gravitate toward music that suggests cinematic sequences, drama and story. Stairway stirs little modern fantasy-epic movies in my head, and I will always associate this song with the time I spent concepting the expanded world of Artemis Eternal.
Wunderkind by Alanis Morissette and Harry Gregson-Williams
Horse and I by Bat for Lashes
These two songs shall serve as my modern pop nod to the female hero and her discovery of The Quest. Wunderkind was crafted specifically for the first Narnia film soundtrack and is a better example of what can result from the practice of engineering a pop title track for a big genre movie. I was surprised to find that I liked it, mostly thanks to Ms. Morissette”s confident and lovely lyrical wordplay and heroic imagery, which bridges myth and the modern world. Her voice is also an interesting choice and grounds the song somewhat.
Horse and I feels more authentic and independent, and thankfully less overproduced. Here we have similar modern fantasy themes, yet these two songs belong in wholly different films. As a note to the producers and directors who hire composers and music supervisors, and greenlight a film”s musical decisions, if I can move your McScore onto any other McMovie, or McMovie trailer, then I”m far less likely to enjoy or patronize your work.
This Book is So Awesome by Harry and the Potters
Let”s end with an absurd, weird choice that cracks me up. Two brothers from Massachusetts dress up like Harry Potter(s) and play indie rock songs about books, rocking libraries coast to coast.
As a fan of the Harry Potter books (not the movies, unfortunately), This Book is So Awesome reminds me in general of how lovely it is to be caught up in a great story and, as a scifi/fantasy filmmaker, I heart that it demonstrates the potential that exists for fans to be caught up in my own work and the worlds I create. I like to imagine JK Rowling listening to this as she wrote the latter books in the Potter series. Here we find an example of the cool, wacky creativity that can rush forth after a story captures imaginations.
Truly, great stories do live forever. They inspire, and they deserve inspired scoring well-suited to the picture and authentic to the world of the characters therein. Whether minimalist, quirky and independent, or epic and orchestral, great soundtracks are fabulous on their own, and they bring a well-loved film rushing back to the listener. I can”t wait to share the scoring portion of Artemis Eternal with our audience. Of course I can already tell that they too are looking forward to that leg of production. Thank you to all of the concerned e-mailers who inadvertently prompted the theme for this mix. Happy listening!
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