In my vlog this week I talk about my
top 5 movie soundtracks:
The reason being that the past couple
of months have been pretty much all about film-making. After
soundtracking a film called The Cyclist (BAFTA-nominated!) the
director: the fantabulous Sarah Grant, decided to make another film
and asked me to help with the music side of things. I then ended up
being assistant director (a testament to saying yes before asking any
questions) and luckily I kept myself organised and we had a really
good shoot.
I've been trying to do more
soundtracks. I really enjoy making music for someone, or something
else (hence why my first E.P and album are both dedicated to people).
It's also nice composing something that isn't limited to the loop
pedal, although the ideas generally start there. The main theme The
Cyclist was originally a loop song which I'd recorded with other
instruments and then left alone for a few months. When Sarah asked me
to come up with some ideas for the soundtrack, I sent her the demo
and it worked! I'm still very proud of that soundtrack.
I also really enjoy watching films and
listening to how the soundtrack interacts with it. A good soundtrack
can completely change a film. Case in point being one of the films I
talked about in the vlog: The Terminator.
;
In essence, the film is a dumb action
movie, with Arnold Schwar...you know the guy. But the soundtrack here
contains so many emotions: fear, hope, strength, conflict, bravery,
loss, it adds so much more to what could've been a very
straightforward movie. There's also something very intimate about the
theme for the first movie, the time signature alone is the subject of
debate even now, and this resulted from the percussion loop Brad
Fiedel recorded for the track was slightly out, and he just went with
it. There's a great story on Fiedel's website about it.
Another great example of a good
soundtrack changing the tone of a film is one of the other films
discussed in the video: the Mr Bean movie. Just watch this and listen
to the music from about two and a half minutes in
HOW AWESOME IS THAT MUSIC! (although
whoever made that video did some shoddy editing there) You can't get
a sillier concept than Mr. Bean, but man that music, it chokes me up
just listening to it. That scene, featuring a security guard
desperately trying to unlock the bathroom after being drugged with a
laxative, used to make me cry, because the music was that good.
(This effect isn't always a good thing.
I love the song 'Love Me Like You Do' only it's officially the
soundtrack to the Fifty Shades movie.)
I deliberately missed out grand scale
orchestral soundtracks in my top 5. Films like Star Wars, Indiana
Jones, Inception, Pirates of the Caribbean, El Dorado...John Williams
and Hans Zimmer basically! These soundtracks are amazing, but with
the top 5 I was wanting to focus on the more minimal soundtracks.
With films like Blade Runner and The Terminator the scale is large
but the soundtracks are relatively small, a lot of it performed by
the composers (Vangelis and Brad Fiedel respectively). These
soundtracks inspire me because they make me feel like capable of
doing something large scale while still being relatively small. The
idea of scoring an entire film for an orchestra is terrifying, but
scoring an entire film where I'm using instruments and techniques I'm
familiar with, I want that.
I'm back in the Lake District for now,
playing around with some new ideas.
Also sleeping, lots of sleeping.
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