music production for film – Film Audio Project – SEM A

The story of the song on the radio in George’s ‘Bread and Butter’ scene is worthy of mention as it’s an audio device demonstrating use of diagetic to non-diagetic audio, an example of which exists in Hitchcock’s Rear Window, and which was developed over the course of post-production in a way which better served the story than the original plan for the scene.

This was one of the few music cues that was supplied by George’s original director, requesting the use of Fred Astaire and Ginger Roger’s ‘Cheek to Cheek’ as the trigger for one of the characters fits of weeping, which was initially included as a nod to the movie Green Mile. The song is potentially out of copyright because it was written over 70 years ago in 1935, but as it was written for the film Top Hat there was some question as to whether copyrights could still be active, though research rapidly uncovered that Irving Berlin retained the copyrights for the songs in the film rather than the commissioning employer assuming them, in something of a landmark case. We were in the process of trying to clear this matter up with PRS when the first director departed the project.

As such, and precisely because I didn’t want the production team getting too attached to the inclusion of Fred and Ginger’s Cheek to Cheek (and because our original temp music for this scene was the Star War’s Cantina Band theme), I subsituted a temp track – ‘One More Kiss Dear’ by Vangelis from the soundtrack to the film Blade Runner – in a scratch mix I supplied to the new, incoming director before Christmas. I’d selected this track because I felt the lyric supported the story of ‘George’, it being suggestive of a final seperation between lovers.

The new director became enamoured with it, saying she much preferred this piece or something very like it to replace the original music cue and so we found ourselves trying to license a piece of music which was definitely copyrighted for our film’s use.

Initially the soundtrack used 35 seconds of the piece for quite an important aspect of the film which is very much brought to the audience’s attention. We felt that we were unlikely to get license to use the original piece in that context (and PRS obliquely agreed) and as such the music supervisor felt that constructing a cover of the piece was the best way to go. She made this enquiry to PRS, and received the following –

Our music supervisor deconstructed the track to its piano component to create a guide, and we rerecorded the song’s other instrumentation seperately. I played the bass and we asked a local vocalist to sing the version for us before I recorded and mixed the minute or so of the piece we’d created, of which we ended up using 28 seconds, and which is available in this post. Furthermore, our use of the piece in the transition from diagetic to non-diagetic audio can be construed as a nod to the opening of Shawshank Redemption which uses a very similar device.

I learned three important things from this whole process:

“For many composers, working with a temp track is the creative equivalent of a straightjacket. After weeks or months of cutting the film to that amazing John Williams theme, the director has usually fallen in love with his or her temp score and nothing else will do.” – Trueherostudio.com

First, temporary music tracks are to be used sparingly. We were warned about this phenomenon in Lol Hammond’s guest lecture and this scene proved to be no exception to the rule, but in this case I think the result was worth the effort of recording an entirely new cover of the song and this was likely a simpler process than composing a new song in a similar vein which would then have needed recording anyway.

Secondly, I think it would have been more efficient to pick up the phone and call the PRS with our requests. We were dealing with this particular cue towards the end of a very short period of post production and, whilst fairly prompt, the combination of the email turnaround time and a couple of miscommunications as we tried to clarify the situation was inefficient.

The final thing I’ve taken away from this is that Star Wars Cantina Theme can brighten up ANY scene –

https://youtu.be/boPpfiaUNsw

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Key Points

Research and contact with PRS – Planning & Research

To expand my knowledge of the theory and audio techniques deployed in the films influencing ‘George’, and in drama as a genre more generally.
Examine and implement professional practices in their production work in relation to professional contexts, clearances, ownership, copyright and commissioning.
Comply with legal and ethical codes of conduct; health & safety regulations.

Involvement with production of cover version for the soundtrack – Application of skills and conduct in production

To contribute extensively to the practicalities of creating and recording music for, and of recording location sound for the piece.
To have a good degree of creative involvement in the conception and direction of the soundtrack for the piece.
Assess the technical requirements of a production to inform the selection of appropriate tools, techniques and processes

Reflection on the process – Individual reflection on learning and team role.

Critically reflect and evaluate individual learning outcomes

Picture lock for George was originally scheduled for 4^th of December and to be completed 12 days later ready for hand-in on December 16th. We have received the final cut of the picture on the 12th of January, leaving us 8 days to complete as much of the audio as possible in time for the film groups hand-in on the 20th, and with another 7 days in hand to polish up for our own hand-in on the 27th. Whilst this is, on the face of it, a reasonably similar timeframe for completion, it is complicated by the disruption to our workflow caused by the extension and the Christmas break, the fact that our advance facilities bookings assumed the earlier completion date which means it became more difficult to access the facility we have committed to technically, and the incoming pressure of organising our impending Semester B studies. This provision of multiple versions of the picture for different deadlines at different times was then further complicated by the unexpected request for a copy of the film with most of the key audio devices included and as much of the music completed as possible on the 16th, to enable the media production group to critique the film for their paperwork.

Taking the audio for a 16 minute film from 50% complete to around 85% complete in 4 days with limited access to facilities is obviously nigh-on impossible to achieve to any reasonable standard, especially given that the length of titles and credits (requiring hefty alterations to music compositions) were not made available until the day of delivery of picture lock. Due to the client-employee relationship of this particular project there was no disincentive for the director to begin requesting mixdowns earlier and earlier as soon as the edits were complete, all of which further interrupted our workflow and took the priorities on the project out of our hands. We managed to provide what was requested largely on time, and I was prompted to consider this situation as it would pan out in the real-world and the possibility of some kind of contractual stipulation on clients for recompense or renegotiation in the case of overrun’s of this type, as the complications here have impacted our planning for Semester B work and a similarly protracted project would likely cause problems for a schedule of work. I ran the question of whether such a thing is ever formalised past Grant Bridgeman by email for the benefit of his experience…He pointed out that this situation comes to pass on ‘almost every job’, and that he deals with it on a case by case basis judged on existing relationships with the client. For me, that’s about as succinct a description of the way creative freelancing works in practice as any I’ve seen.

For Grant, the malleability of deadlines as in the case of George is inevitable and it’s all about how you deal with it, and the relationship with the client. Practically, realistic projections of the amount of work that can be accomplished in the timeframe should be furnished to the client, which brings the whole point here back to communication. I was confident in our ability to deliver the bulk of the work even for the close deadline when communicating with our client, but should perhaps have been more cautious in my appraisal of specifically what we were able to deliver by certain dates.

As per my role within the production, I’ve tried very hard throughout to keep communication with the client about their audio requirements to a maximum, and I see this as a useful and successful aspect of the project from my own perspective, given the fact that the film has effectively had two directors (from our perspective that is, the film was co-directed by all four people in the group, but I requested a single point of contact with the team from the outset to minimise potential for confusion). The second director altered a number of the first director’s artistic decisions as far as the sound and music of the film is concerned, which meant essentially rerunning the process of the earlier spotting sessions with the second director to see if requirements were to change. I could have foreseen this likelihood earlier and discussed her requirements immediately when she agreed to be point of contact for us upon the departure of the first director as it’s critical to remind the creative lead for the picture they are also the creative lead for the audio team, to my mind.

More specifically on communication, I realised it is vital when (even basic) audio tracklaying work has begun in parallel with picture editing (an imperfect situation at best, but unavoidable given the circumstances of this production), to hammer home the critical nature of good edit logging with an editor who is working on the piece – The third cut of the film we received had no accompanying information on alterations to the footage we’d begun work on, which roughly doubled the time it took us to resync our audio. We did mention to the editor previously that we needed this information but didn’t receive it, so this must be communicated with more force in the future. Again, this situation is apparently fairly standard in film work and it tallies with the view of John Purcell,

‘It’s much more common to run into postlock changes than to work on a movie whose structure is set in stone,’ (Purcell, 2008, 239)

The use of temp music tracks is also worthy of note as the receipt of them by our director represents a classic example of something we were warned about in Lol Hammond’s guest lecture. The 2nd director had had little time to think about the music for the piece, was clearly surprised at the impact even basic composition can have on the picture, and rapidly became accustomed to the temp tracks we provided despite our admonishments not to do so as these were for suggestion only. This was fortuitous in a sense as she asked for the songs to be kept simple (like the skeletal temp tracks), which saved us a certain amount of production time, but unfortunate in that we had to back away from our plans for more complex original compositions for the piece. This is something to be very wary of in the future, as it could just as easily have worked in the opposite direction and caused us further complications.

– 1000 Words

Key Points –

Reflection on post production interaction with director, and delivery requests – Process Management, Individual reflection on learning and team role.

To manage the delivery of the soundtrack at various stages of the production along with relevant paperwork, to the director and producer.
Application of skills and conduct in production

Reflection on post production interaction with editor – Process Management, Individual reflection on learning and team role.

To successfully manage the audio team’s interaction with film’s director, editor and producer on a practical and creative level, and ensure the audio team’s work is delivered on time and to a good standard.
Application of skills and conduct in production

Reflection on use of temporary music cues – Process Management, Individual reflection on learning.

To contribute extensively to the practicalities of creating and recording music for, and of recording location sound for the piece.

Tag: music production for film

AUDIO CONSTRUCTION – The ‘Bread + Butter’ Song

ROLE DIARY – Reflection on Picture Lock and Delivery