Scoring your film..

‘There are occasionally eureka moments – off the top of my head, maybe Darth Vader’s theme, you know, the Imperial  March.’ John Williams

And where would we be without the Imperial March? Check out this 14second clip where it has been replaced!

From the many shred videos you can find on YouTube, it is easy to see how much music can effect our reaction to what we see on the screen.

Watch this movie teaser for The Girl In A Coma with the sound turned off, and look at the relatively ordinary action, then turn on the sound and see how the music (and dialogue of course) changes how viewers feel about what they are looking at. Think about how the right music can drive home the points you want to make with your project, and have the greatest impact.

Some movies are of course famed for their scores – Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jaws, The Exorcist, Gladiator, Close Encounters, War Of The Worlds to name but a few. I’m sure you can think of lots of big budget movies where the music has been very memorable for you.

So, at what stage do you start to think about the music for your project? At Igloo Studios we have worked on projects where we are involved at the earliest stages – some even before the script has been finalised, as well as projects where money and time are seriously running out, release dates are looming and no music has been sourced at all.

Our advice would be that, regardless of budget, give it some thought from the earliest stages, and make a plan for what sort of music you want in your project. How big a role is this going to play? Is music integral to your storyline or content? Would one good juicy theme lift your project to new heights? Do you need incidental music? Would you like to include more traditional songs at certain points? Discuss this with your team, or if you can’t do this, you can always call us for a free consultation to bounce some ideas around.

What Resources Do You Have? Budget? Time?

Budget is of course a concern at every level and goes hand in hand with copyright issues. I’m sure you’re aware that if you just download the latest Ed Sheeran track and use it without permission, you will be snookering yourself when it comes to promoting your film. The fact of the matter is, you can avoid this problem whatever your budget in this day and age, by using public domain music for example which is copyright free. You may be able to source good music very cheaply which is great for your project, however this can be very time consuming.

The time you have to work on each film is also a consideration. You only need to watch the credits for Rouge One to see that as well as the composer, there were approximately three music supervisors and about 16 other people on the music team. This adds up to a huge amount of man hours, and if you are trying to source music on a budget, you can find these man hours are yours. If you are on a tight turn around, this obviously becomes impractical very quickly, and corners get cut somewhere in the project.

As with everything in life, the bigger the budget, the more sophisticated your movie score can be, but even with a very modest budget, you will be able to source something that is more tailored to your film, and takes the pressure off your diary to come up with a quality solution.

Here at Igloo Studios, we offer a range of services, flexible to suit a range of budgets. We work with student film makers and Hollywood film production companies. We have our own library of music (some of which is available at an exceptionally low cost), up to and including the composition of a full original Official Sound Track. We can fulfil the role of music supervisor for your project should you desire, and source all the music for you, or just give you some free advice if you don’t know where to turn.

We’d love to hear about your project so please contact us at the below details if you would like to touch base with us.

studio@igloomusic.co.uk
02392 006 507

Categorised in: Film Music, Recording, Song Writing