Film Composer Blog - John Piscitello

Holy Cow The World's Largest Digging Machine is Huge

2008-08-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a little music to go with it...

Temp Music vs. Finished Music

2008-08-10T12:12:00.000-07:00

I came across a short doc 34x25x26 in the YouTube screening room about female mannequins and how this company creates a beauty idea. It's got over a million hits (it's creepy watching men in a factory create female mannequin bodies). The filmmaker Jessie Epstein also posted a version using the temp music by Loscil (which is very experimental electronic-ambient music).

There is a lot of similarity in tone, and they both work, but I think one of them works a lot better than the other:

The temp version:

The final version:

Film Composers: Tarantino doesn't like your music, and neither did Kubrick!

2008-08-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

Kubrick:

Exclude a pop music score from what I am about to say. However good our best film composers may be, they are not a Beethoven, a Mozart or a Brahms. Why use music which is less good when there is such a multitude of great orchestral music available from the past and from our own time?

Tarantino:

Music is so important. The idea of paying a guy and showing him your movie at the end. Who the f*** is this guy [who's] going to s**t on my movie?

The problem is, film music is nearly always done in a rush, from the top of the industry to the bottom. It's hard to deliver 60-90 minutes of great music in 6 weeks. Even Debussy had unfinished operas that he worked on for years. Bands typically spend a year recording and mixing a 50-minute album.

Start earlier, maybe pay extra for extra time, be willing to be different, and you can get better music.

Even with all that, it's still hard to beat a moment like this:

Great Moments in Composer Firings, Vol. I: 2001 A Space Odyssey

2008-08-02T22:42:00.000-07:00

When you pick music for your scene, taking a moment to ask "what is the point of view?" can make the difference.

Stanley Kubrick commissioned Alex North to create a score for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Midway through Kubrick cut North loose and decided to use temp tracks selected from classical music.

And Richard Strauss' Thus Sprach Zarathusra fanfare became really, really famous.

Comparing the two versions of the scene shows how point of view of the music can make (or destroy) a scene.

Strauss' fanfare was called "Sunrise" and was just the opening of a suite inspired by Nietzsche's writings. The music is shooting for the eternal and and omnipotent, and those pounding tympanis lend the scene more than a dash of violence (music starts about 0:20):

North's music, wonderful as it is, now sounds dated and a little bit naive. It's bouncy and enthusiastic, and occasional strings and woodwind colors lend a shrieking human quality. The human element diminishes the scene - something far bigger than us is at work here:

One could ague that Strauss' music is simply better (Kubrick himself said so). The fundamental problem is the point of view. North's music looks up at the scene as if audience is feeling awestruck.

Strauss' fanfare, not written for the film, looks down on the moment, as if omnipotent forces, as inevitable as the sunrise, are in control.

The Drum Solo You've Heard thousands of Times

2008-08-02T12:29:00.000-07:00

YouTube - Video explains the world's most important 6-sec drum loop

This is a classic, a detailed and engaging history of the "Amen Beak", which is a short drum solo from a 1969 B-side that got first sampled and placed in an NWA track in since 1990. Since then you have most likely heard it thousands of times in hundreds of different songs.

Start about 1 minute into the video - the break is first heard at 1:18. Then he'll explain how it got used and reused over and over in tracks after that, with additional samples:

It's like the "Wilhelm Scream" of pop music!

Music Goofs in Soundtracks - Lost, Season 4 Finale Part I

2008-05-19T10:55:00.000-07:00

Blooper pages rarely mention music goofs. But they're a constant danger, because producers sometimes have to live with imperfections to stay on budget.

Last month I visited a recording session for a network show, and 20 minutes in, I noticed persistent audio distortion in the monitors. As a visitor, I had the sense to stay out of the way of folks working. Soon enough, the sound editor noticed the problem, and the group discovered the distortion was going to tape.

One very stressful hour later, the problem was solved (by replacing the wireless headphones in the percussion section). Everything was re-recorded and sounded great, but the session went overtime.

They very nearly could have decided to let the distortion stay. It wasn't that bad, and the audience wouldn't really notice.

So how often do real-world glitches happen?

Consider part I of the Lost season 4 series finale - I think I can hear a wrong note in the trombones...can you?

Click on the Lost season 4 finale episode and cue the playback to exactly 41:00 (you will have to wait for a pre-roll ad). The cue starts when Ben says "I always have a plan". It's majestic and sweeping (great stuff as usual from Michael Giacchino). Listen to the trombones playing whole notes. The video shows the different groups converging on the Orchid station. Right at 42:02, there is a shot from behind Ben (his hands are up). This is where you will hear 2 trombones disagreeing on a note:

I thought for a moment this was intentional, like the situation was going to go all dissonant and creepy, but it quickly recovers to a half-cadence, so my theory is it's a blip.

So...can you hear it? Or does it sound fine to you? Does it even matter? And have you ever noticed any other musical glitches?

"Oops I Did it Again" Written as a Fugue for Piano

2007-12-17T15:50:00.000-08:00

This video actually contains a detailed analysis of writing a fugue, but I find it gets a little academic and hard to follow...but the fugue itself (starts about 2/3rds of the way through) is actually kind of nice, I'd like to hear it performed on a large organ, though:

Jumping the Shark, Scoring the Jump

2007-12-07T15:44:00.000-08:00

If you attend a talk by an experienced Hollywood composer sometime, you might hear an opinion that film scoring is currently in a "cool" period.

In film after film, the basic rule seems to be that composers avoid displaying any trace of enthusiasm in their music. A certain detachment from the material is essential.

Take a 70s TV scene, such as Fonzie jumping the shark, and you hear the difference right away (notice, by the way, the cute homage to John William's famous 2-note motive from "Jaws", in the lower brass):

Audiences today have been so overexposed to media that they're hyper-sensitized to storytelling conventions. So if you make the mistake of saying too much in the music, you're insulting them, so they just think you're corny.

That's not a bad thing by any means...I myself feel distracted by hyperactivity in old film scores, even ones where the music is clearly a masterpiece.

(Ironically, the music from Jaws, also from the 70s, doesn't sound the least bit dated at all...)

Is it Sesame Street or Transformers?

2007-12-06T22:23:00.000-08:00

"The Geometry of Circles" is an old Phillip Glass-scored Sesame Street cartoon that folks seem to have loved as kids. It spooks the heck out of me (as minimalist music always seems to) . If I'd seen it at the age of 3 I would have had nightmares.

Still, it's brilliant, check out the first 30 seconds, especially the 2-note repetitions, to get the idea:

Watching Transformers, the Decepticons music reminded me of it. Getting past the movie's booming percussion, dark tones and gigantic reverb, it shares the same minimalist techniques - repetitive rhythms and stark arpeggios. And in particular, a 2-note motive.

I sort of wondered - maybe this choice was the composer's way of keeping the story kid-like? Transformers are toys, after all, and I related to it like one of my childhood fantasies. Why not use minimalism to suggest the absolute clarity of good guys vs. bad guys?

Can you hear the similarity? Listen to the vocals starting about 1:30 into this remix:

So is this theory right? Here's what the composer Steve Jablonsky has to say about it:

The Decepticon theme was an experiment. I had no idea if it would work, but as soon as I heard the choir sing the first few bars, I was happy. It's not really a theme that you can whistle. It's more of an evil chant. I wanted it to feel somewhat ancient, and I had a lot of fun with it.

OK, Sesame Street isn't much of a source of ancient evil chants. So there goes that theory.

Still, I'd say he hit the mark.

"Enchanted" song composer Alan Menken on BlogTalkRadio Dec 4th, 1pm

2007-12-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

On the podcast he'll talk about the songs for "Enchanted" and other Disney movies he's done.

Great Moments in Film Scoring, Part III: You've Never Heard a Jingle Like This Before

2007-11-14T14:23:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it pays to avoid being too trendy.

The year is 1983.

You're the ad agency creative director on a commercial for the new Corvette.

You tell the composer:

- Take one part Queen's theme from Flash Gordon.

- Add one part Survivor's theme from Rocky III.

- Add synthesizers to highlight the "high tech" features of the car.

Voila!

(Pardon the iFilm embed, this has been booted from YouTube, I promise its worth it...)

Via Amazon's car blog:

The Making of Steinway L1037

2007-11-07T21:52:00.000-08:00

Film composers rely on a lot of sample libraries, with good reason. But you can't really create the sound of a real piano with samples (it gets about as close as Diet Coke gets to Coke).

Then there's the piano itself, and many will say there is no comparison to a Steinway.

The Steinway company has had some ups and downs lately. Despite the cute stock symbol, there have been some union strikes, and they're competing against cheaper overseas products. Most of all it's just plain hard to find a growth market in $100,000 pianos. Steinway sales are down 7% this year, and they're just barely making up the shortfall with their cheaper Essex pianos.

Maybe this "Making of Steinway L1037" documentary will turn things around. I've always heard that Steinway has an amazing, complicated production process, this film documents it.

While I'm sure it will show up on the Discovery Channel someday, if you live in New York you can catch it November 20th.

Reviews appear to be quite good....

From Locutus of Borg to Family Guy

2007-11-03T20:51:00.000-07:00

Ron Jones seems to have avoided typecasting - he was well-known to Trek fans during the glory days of Star Trek: The Next Generation, when he scored the Best of Both Worlds cliffhanger where Picard was turned into a Borg. Damn that was good stuff.

Now he's sharing composing duties on Family Guy. From the New York Times:

Since its debut in 1999 �Family Guy� has developed a comedic voice as recognizable for its rapid-fire references to pop-culture detritus as for Mr. Murphy�s and Mr. Jones�s lavish arrangements of satirical show tunes. For the premiere of the series�s second season Mr. Jones composed an elaborate parody of �I Think I�m Gonna Like It Here� from the musical �Annie� for a scene in which the protagonist Peter Griffin learns that he�s inherited a mansion from a dead relative. The song (whose vaguely obscene title cannot be printed here) was nominated for an Emmy in 2000.

Animation seems to have the best music on TV these days - The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy all feature orchestral arrangements, plus their fair share of schmaltzy musical numbers.

The music for the comedies always plays it straight. The more authentic the music, the better the setup for the jokes (especially the dirty ones).

Many composers lament the timidity and low budgets of TV scores these days. But there are diamonds in the rough, especially that unnamed musical number mentioned above, which was called "This House is Freaking Sweet". (By the way, how is that too dirty to print? Who's the editor of that column anyway?)

This song is freakin' sweet - brings me right back to playing string bass in the orchestra pit of many a Cole Porter musical:

Variety's Bee Movie Review - How about that score?

2007-11-02T00:52:00.000-07:00

Lest any emerging film composers overestimate their importance on a film, see the final 7 words of this 650-word review of Bee Movie in Variety:

"Voicings by an array of top talent are fun, and musical backing provides some bounce."

It ain't like being a pop star...George Michael, however, provides some bounce to the trailer:

Is It "Game Over" for Classical Music?

2007-10-26T13:22:00.001-07:00

A review of 3 books on the subject in The New Republic laments at length. Here's an excerpt:

The discourse supporting classical music so reeks of historical blindness and sanctimonious self-regard as to render the object of its ministrations practically indefensible. Belief in its indispensability, or in its cultural superiority, is by now unrecoverable, and those who mount such arguments on its behalf morally indict themselves. Which is not to say that classical music, or any music, is morally reprehensible. Only people, not music, can be that. What is reprehensible is to see its cause as right against some wrong.

The article is an energetic analysis of classical music's position in American culture in the 20th century. The upshot seems to be is that classical music's defenders see any attempt to cater to the audience as dumbing-down, and therefore bad. This attitude alienates potential new fans.

It's too bad. But it's easy to see why audiences aren't attracted to the classical music product.

Visiting the web site of an NYP, BSO, or SFS, you'll find white bow ties, wine-tasting events, and invitations to "experience the lush, romantic virtuosity of Rachmaninoff". It's all so very, very...refined.

Compare this to the raucous delight of the audience at Video Games Live, an upstart series of concerts featuring video game music:

Sure, a big part of the fun is the pop-culture irony. But these concerts also feature music from more recent games that takes itself quite seriously. And the audience does as well.

The attraction is obvious. It's the gentle childhood memories of Frogger and Donkey Kong. Or the immersive fantasy worlds of Halo and Zelda. People have spent a lot of time with this music and internalized it with fond memories.

It's much harder for the audience to develop a connection to that lush, romantic virtuosity of Rachmaninoff.

If this trend plays out like blogging vs. the MSM, we might see upstart orchestras like VGL compete rather seriously against the "MSS" (mainstream symphonies). Not only stealing away the audience, but also the performers. Now that could get rather interesting.

How John Williams Connected with George Lucas

2007-09-21T18:29:00.000-07:00

John Williams has been doing some concerts around the country, conducting orchestras playing a suite of his film music. He did an interview for a Columbus Ohio arts paper ("The Other Paper") and the interview has some interesting nuggets.

On being introduced to George Lucas:

How did your partnership with Steven Spielberg begin?

I�d been working at Universal Studios for about six or seven years in the television department. An executive rang me up and said, �I�d like you to have lunch with this kid. We think he�s very talented. He�s got a picture called The Sugarland Express that he did with Goldie Hawn, and we think it�s brilliant�brilliantly edited, in particular. Would you like to meet him?�

So I met him. He was really a youngster at that time, only about 23 years old. But he invited me to do that film, which I did, and we�ve been together 35 years now.

After The Sugarland Express, did he say that he wanted you to be his composer for life? When did that arrangement become clear to the both of you?

It still hasn�t. (Laughs.)

Many successful film composers basically rose together with successful directors. Young directors should be on the lookout for a composer to become part of the "team", a big part of the success is the ability the work together and trust each other.

For more about what movies John Williams likes, and progress on the new Indiana Jones score, read the whole thing.

Great Moments in Film Scoring, Part II - 70s TV Logos

2007-08-28T12:26:00.001-07:00

If you're old enough to have played an Atari 2600, then you're old enough to know 90% of these old TV-logo intros and signoffs from the 70s and 80s.

The classic logo-music of all time is of course NBC's "bing-boing-bing" chimes, (unfortunately not included in the YouTube emebed below). Just 3 notes. It's all you need to brand a network.

Somewhere along the way, though, it seems that log-music producers started trying to top each other. Music had to be "cutting edger", "forward looking", and "aspirational". It was the 70s, outer space was big, so everything had lots of synthesizers and reverb. Logo music was as it you were trying to score the Apollo moon landing in 5 seconds.

Too bad more log-music producers didn't try a Star Wars-eqsue symphonic approach, instead we got creepy sound effects and synthesizers. But they do bring back memories!

Footage of the Original Star Wars Scoring Session

2007-08-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

Directors know how important it is that the scoring orchestra really get into the film's character and theme. Apparently George Lucas and John WIlliams decided to take this concept to the extreme - here is some unearthed footage of the original 1977 Star Wars final scoring session London...

Mastering for your soundtrack's source music

2007-07-01T12:01:00.000-07:00

A successful composer gave me advice to hire a mastering engineer for my demo album, because if mastering were easy to do yourself, well, the world wouldn't have any mastering engineers.

I'm taking the advice, and before hiring an engineer, I'm reading "Mastering: The Art and Science" by Bob Katz of Digital Domain. It was recommended to me as a sort of bible for mastering, and reading it I would agree.

Let's say you're a film director and you want to use a friend's band for some of the music. It's an inexpensive option, the song fits your story, but lacks that full professional sound of say, a Fall Out Boy.

A surprising number of bands don't consider mastering for their demo albums, which can greatly improve their sound. At the very least, ask the band how their project has been mastered. If not, they may be willing to spend the money to add that polish, since after all, it is their demo, and it will improve the fit and finish of your film when you show it.

Why hire a mastering engineer? Bob Katz has an article about this. It's long, but here are some excerpts about why a band should master their album:

1. Ear Fatigue
Some mixes may be done at 2 o'clock in the morning, when ears are fatigued, and some at 12 noon, when ears are fresh. The result: Every mix sounds different, every tune has a different response curve.
...
2. The Skew of the Monitors
The result: your mixes are compromised. Some frequencies stand out too much, and others too little.
...
5. The Perspective of another Trained Ear. The Buck Stops Here.
The Mastering engineer is the last ear on your music project. He can be an artistic, musical, and technical sounding board for your ideas.
...
7. Don't Try This at Home
We've found many DAWs and digital mixers that deteriorate the sound of music, shrink the stereo image and soundstage, and distort the audio.
...
Those are only some of the reasons why, inevitably, further mastering work is needed to turn your songs into a master, including: adjusting the levels, spacing the tunes, fine-tuning the fadeouts and fadeins, removing noises, replacing musical mistakes by combining takes (common in direct-to-two track work), equalizing songs to make them brighter or darker, bringing out instruments that (in retrospect) did not seem to come out properly in the mix.

Rolling Stone on the Record Industry's Decline

2007-06-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

Ah, what could have been. In the heyday of Napster, I would download singles I would never have paid for - goofy songs like Cher's "I Believe". And the fun could have continued for $10 a month. The record company's held a secret meeting with the Napster CEO in 2000:

Seven years ago, the music industry's top executives gathered for secret talks with Napster CEO Hank Barry. At a July 15th, 2000, meeting, the execs -- including the CEO of Universal's parent company, Edgar Bronfman Jr.; Sony Corp. head Nobuyuki Idei; and Bertelsmann chief Thomas Middelhof -- sat in a hotel in Sun Valley, Idaho, with Barry and told him that they wanted to strike licensing deals with Napster. "Mr. Idei started the meeting," recalls Barry, now a director in the law firm Howard Rice. "He was talking about how Napster was something the customers wanted."

The idea was to let Napster's 38 million users keep downloading for a monthly subscription fee -- roughly $10 -- with revenues split between the service and the labels.

But ultimately, despite a public offer of $1 billion from Napster, the companies never reached a settlement.

Now album sales are down from 785 million albums in 2000 to 588 million in 2006; record stores are closing; laid-off workers are polishing their LinkedIn profiles; and ringtones and iTunes are not making up the shortfall (let alone restoring growth).

The article points many fingers, but it's a familiar business-school case study: incumbent players are pressured by distribution relationships to prevent the growth of cheaper channels.

As for record company execs: they may be criticized as ostriches, but they have weak strategic power. When your main suppliers - the talent - can demand "no-look" clauses in their contracts, and your main distributor is Wal-Mart, you're vulnerable. The Internet has created a new distribution channel, and the incumbent suppliers and distributors has every interest in pressuring the record companies to fight the tidal wave.

The next middlemen to suffer? Certainly the TV and cable networks. Expensive talent, and powerful distributors (Wal-Mart for DVDs, Comcast for cable).

It's only a matter of time when some talent decides to take VC money to produce a show the quality of Lost, 24, or Grey's Anatomy and distribute it all directly to consumers. The cost of creating a TV series is surprisingly close to the average series B round. And the ROI timeline is similar as well.

How soon before private equity starts raising money to fund David Chase or Darren Star to create an all-Internet TV series?

Which business is worth more? A YouTube? Or a business card printer?

2007-06-12T12:26:00.001-07:00

If you said "business card printer", you'd be right!

VistaPrint, the online business cards company, is now worth $1.64B. YouTube sold to Google for just $1.6B.

So can we expect to see VistaPrint founders on the cover of Time and Newsweek? Well, no...

But it goes to show, you don't have to be in the slick businesses to have a wildly successful startup.

Great Moments in Film Scoring, V. I: Shake Hands with Danger

2007-06-11T19:37:00.001-07:00

A heat-drenched landscape coughs up dust. A bulldozer belches exhaust. And a lazy blues guitar is heard strumming in the pounding heat.

A worker climbs on the bulldozer's gears, failing to realize his life is at risk...

Yes, it's "Shake Hands with Danger", an industrial safety film produced for Caterpillar from the 70s (via BoingBoing).

The music is inspired by the darkest of songs from the man in black, Johnny Cash. Lots of reverb, exposed blues melody lines, languid pauses between phrases - the perfect mood for working hard in the heat and losing two fingers because you weren't careful.

Don't miss it when the foreman says "What if he bumped that control by accident? You'd be mincemeat by now!" (Has anyone really said "mincemeat" since 1975?)

"Shake Hands with Danger
Meet a guy who ought to know
I used to laugh at safety
Now they call me...three-fingered Joe

Shake hands with danger
Find it anywhere you choose
Be careless for a moment
Spend a lifetime with the blues."

Rejected WiiPlay Games

2007-05-27T23:55:00.000-07:00

Paperwork Mario, Cii-Section, and SealHunt - proetty politcally incorrect, but still, wish I got to do the score for this one... ;-)

Nielsen SoundScan Data for 2006

2007-05-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) had its annual convention a couple of weeks ago, and Chris Muratone and Rob Sisco of SoundScan gave an overview presentation of Soundscan data from 2006.

The data is fascinating. Think music is heading to the long tail? Well 89% of all albums released in 2006 (by indies and majors) sold fewer than 1000 units. 74% sold fewer than 100 units.

So if you crack the top 11% of all artists, keep your album production expenses under $5000, and earn $5 an album, you can break even. Earn $10 an album and you're making $5000.

There are many more fun facts in the deck (just don't read it in slide show mode - too many animation effects in it...)

Are TV Theme Songs a Dying Breed?

2007-05-09T11:08:00.000-07:00

The Hartford Courant wonders whether the super-short musical intros to Lost, Seinfeld, and Ugly Betty are a sign of TV theme songs dying out:

So, obviously, people like TV themes. Why don't network executives? They've been trying to kill them off since the 1990s, when "Seinfeld" opened with a funky - but very quick - bass line.

Bob Thompson, professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University, blames it on network consultants fretting over viewers' itchy remote fingers.

"The idea was that you had to immediately close in your audience like quicksand, and a theme song that would provide nothing new was an invitation to check out other channels," Thompson says.

Sure, sales execs are going to fight for another 30 seconds of commercial time to sell each week. But I can't agree with the article. Theme songs are thriving. American Idol, CSI, Battlestar Galactica, House, and The Office - plus anything on in late night - all have prominent themes.

The article laments that Ugly Betty devotes a scant 11 seconds to Jeff Beal's theme. But Lost's theme song - basically a few seconds of interesting sound design - is essential to the show's atmosphere. (Really, can you imagine anything else? Try this alternative Lost theme song on for size. Not quite the same, is it?)

Whatever the length, TV themes are still essential to establishing both the storytelling atmosphere and the "brand" of their shows. Seinfeld's bass-and-beatboxing and the 60 Minutes stopwatch may not be as musically complete as Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance or Mendelssohn's Wedding March, but they are just as indelible.