Daily Film scoring bits
Welcome to the Daily Film Scoring Bits. On this page I post on a more or less daily basis little tips, tricks and advices about film scoring in general but also more specific topics like orchestration, composition, working relationships, business advices etc.
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Recording in Two Minute Chunks
Recording action passages and music that demands a lot from your players is best to be split into approx. two minute chunks and later edit them…
Alternative Bass Notes of a Chord
Altering the bass note of a chord to a note different than the root note can create quite new harmonic impressions than the original chord. If you…
Film Music and Emotional Extremes
Scenes and situations that are emotionally hardly bearable (major characters dieing, catastrophic plot twists, portrayal of gruesome psychic or physical…
Project Hierarchy
Before you start working on any project, try to determine the hierarchic structure of the people who work on it. On most film projects, the director…
Study Instrument Registers
Just as important as knowing the ranges of the instruments that you are writing for you should also have a clear idea about the registers of the…
Fingers Off the Pan Knob
The standard panning knob (or balance on a stereo signal) works in a way that it simply changes the levels of the right and left channel according to…
Handling Dissonances
Dissonances need to be written very carefully. While many inexperienced composers write in the way that they just add “random” notes to a sound in order…
Ignoring Hit Points in Favor of the Bigger Arc
In some situations, it might be the better choice to musically ignore hit points that you normally would score in favor of a higher dramatic purpose…
The Relevance of Your IMDb Page
In the film world, your IMDb page is quite important to showcase your references. This platform has been the standard in the industry for several years…
Ten Seconds per Texture
The ear/brain needs about ten seconds to adjust to and digest a new musical texture so changing orchestration colours roughly in that tempo is…
Natural Phrasing of Brass Sustains
Orchestral Brass players will always execute a natural decrescendo on sustained notes unless otherwise indicated by special dynamics. Many sample…
Major 7th Chords in Film Scoring
Major7 chords (e.g. Cmaj7) are a bit tricky to handle and should be written with care. They are often used as tonic chords, however function very nicely…
Cue Naming Discipline
It is incredibly important to have a strong discipline regarding naming, sorting and organizing versions of music cues. Sometimes you need…
Work Routines for Film Composers
Even though the job of a freelance composer is very unpredictable, developing a daily work routine will help you to work more efficiently. Irregular…
