Page 2
Home ] Up ]

 

    
 
Writing The Music
The Composing process narrated by Don Caron -  page 2

Scriptwriting
Writing the music

     When the shooting was completed (October of 98) and the editing began I received the finished scenes in their preliminary form. The movie was being edited on an Avid system, which is referred to as a non- linear system. This means that editing can happen in any order with any segment, unlike the linear requirements of editing actual tape or film. This allows unlimited flexibility in making changes and tweaks. That can be great for the editor but a real drag for the composer, who has to rewrite every time a change is made. Naturally I wanted to start on the scoring as soon as possible. Starting too soon meant having to do a lot of extra work with rewrites. But that’s what I did anyway.

     Rich began giving me edited scenes on standard vhs tape. I would make a copy of this and put all of the dialogue on the left channel, and timecode on the right channel. The left channel would be routed to the speaker and the right channel to the computer. The computer would then "lock up" to the vhs tape, by always locating to match the timecode. In addition, I used a program that would show the vhs picture on my computer screen in any size and any location so I could watch the movie while trying out musical ideas.    

     The initial sketches consisted of music that I played along with the picture that the computer would play back in sync when I replayed the tape. From there once I had worked it into the exact shape I wanted, I would begin to orchestrate using the sounds on the Kurzweil keyboard.

     About three months before the completion deadline for the film, we realized that the mechanical quality of the keyboard would not be sufficient to pull off the lengthy orchestral score that this was turning into. We needed a real orchestra. With the movie budget already stretched, and nothing budgeted for this of activity, we were faced with a dilemma.

     I felt very strongly that if we were to use an orchestra, we needed a large one. A chamber ensemble playing the big sounds of this movie would sound under-budgeted. Where do you come up with a 65 piece orchestra, a recording room, engineers, mikes, and a producer that can record 65 minutes of music in 18 hours or less  with no rehearsal, and can do all that precisely eight weeks from now?

     Years ago Paul Sandifur Jr. and I were hatching a scheme to start an orchestra in Spokane that would provide a service to composers for recording their music. Their fee would pay the musicians well and would make Paul and I filthy stinking rich (I forgot, he already is filthy stinking rich). Well, I could have joined him there. That was the plan. He had given me a brochure published by The Kiraly Music Network. This was the brainchild of David Kiraly, a clever capitalist from the formerly communist city of Budapest, Hungary. I still had that brochure in my files, oddly enough. I pulled it out and gave it to Rich who proceeded to set up a recording session with the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra. WAIT A MINUTE…

Up ] Page 3 ]

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1