Film Score

Terminology

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A film score may also be called a background score, background music, film soundtrack, film music, screen composition, screen music etc.

A film score is original music composed specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to enhance the dramatic narrative and the emotional impact of the scene in question. Film Scores are composed by one or more music composers under the guidance of or in collaboration with the film's director or producer and are then most often performed by an ensemble of musicians

Film scores encompass an enormous variety of styles of music, depending on the nature of the films they accompany. While the majority of scores are orchestral works rooted in Western classical music, many scores are also influenced by jazz, rock, pop, blues, new-age and ambient music, and a wide range of ethnic and world music styles. Since the 1950s, a growing number of scores have also included electronic elements as part of the score, and many scores composed today feature a hybrid of orchestral and electronic instruments.

Origin of Film Score:

The origin of film music are disputed. According to Kurt London, film music "began not as a result of any artistic urge, but from a dire need of something which would drown the noise made by the projector “. For in those times there was as yet no sound-absorbent walls between the projection machine and the auditorium. This painful noise disturbed visual enjoyment to no small extent. Instinctively cinema proprietors had recourse to music, and it was the right way, using an agreeable sound to neutralize one less agreeable.

On the contrary, film historian James Wierzbicki asserts that early film showings (such as the Lumière brothers' first film screening) would have been social events to the capacity that they had no need to mask the sounds of a projector mechanism. As these early films began to move out of exhibition spaces and into vaudeville theatres, the role of film began to shift as well.

Given that vaudeville theatres typically employed musicians, it is likely that this is the point when it became commonplace for film to be accompanied by music. Audiences at the time would have come to expect music in the vaudeville space, and as such live musical accompaniment to films grew out naturally.

Digitalisation Of Film Score:

Since the invention of digital technology and audio sampling, many modern films have been able to rely on digital samples to imitate the sound of acoustic instruments, and many scores are created and performed wholly by the composers themselves, by using music composition software, synthesizers, samplers, and MIDI controllers.

Spotting:

The music composer usually enters the creative process towards the end of filming at around the same time as the film is being edited, although on some occasions the composer is on hand during the entire film shoot, especially when actors are required to perform with or be aware of original diegetic music.

The composer is shown an unpolished "rough cut" of the film before the editing is completed and talks to the director or producer about what sort of music is required for the film in terms of style and tone. The director and composer will watch the entire film, taking note of which scenes require original music. During this process, composers will take precise timing notes so that they know how long each cue needs to last, where it begins, where it ends, and of particular moments during a scene with which the music may need to coincide in a specific way. This process is known as "spotting".

 

Synching:

When writing music for film, one goal is to sync dramatic events happening on screen with musical events in the score. There are many different methods for syncing music to picture. These include using sequencing software to calculate timings, using mathematic formulas and free timing with reference timings. Composers work using SMPTE timecode for syncing purposes.

 

Orchestration:

Once the music has been composed, it must then be arranged or orchestrated in order for the ensemble to be able to perform it. The nature and level of orchestration varies from project to project and composer to composer, but in its basic form the orchestrator's job is to take the single-line music written by the composerand "flesh it out" into instrument-specific sheet music for each member of the orchestra to perform.

 

Recording and Credit to Musicians:

When the music has been composed and orchestrated, the orchestra or ensemble then performs it, often with the composer conducting. Musicians for these ensembles are often uncredited in the film or on the album and are contracted individually (and if so, the orchestra contractor is credited in the film or the soundtrack album). However, some films have recently begun crediting the contracted musicians on the albums under the name Hollywood Studio Symphony after an agreement with the American Federation of Musicians.

 

Preservation Efforts:

In 1983, a non-profit organization, the Society for the Preservation of Film Music, was formed to preserve the "byproducts" of creating a film score, including the music manuscripts (written music) and other documents and studio recordings generated in the process of composing and recording scores which, in some instances, have been discarded by movie studios.  The written music must be kept to perform the music on concert programs and to make new recordings of it. Sometimes only after decades has an archival recording of a film score been released on CD.