Ali Land

This is only a very rough draft of my idea for a task 5 ( I think). There is about 3 minutes worth of music, however other sound design examples haven’t been added yet any further than about 70 seconds in. This is as far as I have got with it.

In addition here is the original scene used.

I found this advert on YouTube….wasn’t looking for anything in particular and just came across it.

Originally i thought about a clarinet for the child’s movements, but settled for strings instead as it sounded less harsh.

I tried to make it a little humourous, hopefully I get somewhere with that idea.

Instrumentation

With the vibraphone the original idea i was going for was background music you migt find in a supermarket.  I was thinking along the lines of slow music to entice shoppers to wander round slowly, that sort of thing.

S o I wrote this simple little 3/4 time piece and started playing with synths and a few instruments.  Once I heard the piece on the vibraphone i suddenly realised how childish it sounded, which was exactly what the piece needed to go with the naughty child.

By the time I had picked the vibraphone I had already composed the string parts anyway, so with they get a bit mashed up towards the end it creates the naughty child tone.

Strings

With regards to the strings, as the advert was in French and subtitled I realised I didn’t need any audio voices, so decided to use instruments instead to emphasise speaking.

My original idea was to use the trill strings for the movements at the beginning of the advert….but i realised by piling dissonant notes on top of each other i could create the effect on the child screaming without actually having a child scream.

Notice at the beginning that the trill is used for both child and father’s movements…however his are lower each time.  The low trill when he tries to ’shhh’ his child is also there instead of using audio.

When the film pans back to the father’s unimpressed face i took off the strings for that second of footage.  I thought about leaving it there, but felt it gave a better impression of the father’s mood.

When the scene the cuts to the child running rampage around the store I added more dissonance in the string trills which continuously built up until i faded them all away just before the product is revealed.

Percussion

The percussion was the last part I added to the piece.  I used a Tribal Drum Kit and picked sounds that I thought suited the situation.

The first time you hear percussive sounds is at the beginning after the first 4 short trill sounds.  The 4 sounds get progressively louder as the sweets are picked up and put back.

I then felt that the child’s words and actions needed more representation than the subtitles alone, so decided to write a percussive element to correspond with that.

It starts with simple drum his on his words, and when he screams longer words i put in cymbal hits too.  Quickly moving on to him jumping i added drums to that, and a gong for his loudest screams.

Put lots of drums in when he’s pulling the trolley cart around, and to his feet when he runs around the store.  I also used other percussive ideas to show things being thrown on the floor as he mindless throws things around.   I continued the bell sound even though the child goes out of shot when the camera goes back to the father to point out that action is still happening out of shot.

Finally I added drums to his stamping his feet on the floor and again continued that out of shot.

The End

The music fades out - apart from the constant melody on the vibraphone - just as the slogan comes in.  The franchise name pops up in time with the first beat of the bar.  I could have put a new sounds in as a hook sound, but I felt that he melody on the vibraphone was doing this.  I then faded it out after all the information had been broadcast.

Coyote….what a fool!!

My attempt at doing some sounds for Persona!

So, this is my attempt at doing music for the opening of the film Persona.

Things to point out/take note of…

• I’m more musically skilled than technologically skilled and I think that’s shown i this piece.
• I chose a very simple theme of 2 chords, i think they were Fm and C with a couple of notes falling in between the change of chord. Listen to the opening on the piano and you get what I’m trying to say.
• Throughout the piece I rarely used any other chords.
• The build up to the exploding light was actually a sample called ‘busy lobby’ that I slowed down and built up with layers gradually to the big crescendo as the light explodes. You can just about make out voices in the sample, I thought that added a human element, and used the sample again later in the piece.
• The violin ostinato I created was very simply based on those chords again, as was the low lying melody underneath that begins when the screen shot says ’start’.
• The roars of sounds when the light flashes are again the ‘busy lobby’ sample.
• I looked at the old cartoon as if it were just that, so put a simple piano background to it as if it were in an old movie theatre when someone would sit and play piano to the pictures. I made a mistake while recording the instrument but thought I would leave it in to add a realistic touch to it.
• The mechanical sound you hear after the cartoon is again the ‘busy lobby’ sample in a much higher pitch. To me it almost sounds like the cliche sound a mother makes when telling off a child, which is what I picked up from the child’s hands scene - almost like a mother was telling a child to wash his hands.
• I decided to add canned laughter to the comedy scene , and created a short trombone riff combined with the typical comedic drum hits. I think it lightened the moment in comparison to the following scenes.
•  Again I used primarily 2 chords for the spider and slaughter scenes, changing their positions and the chord inversion, forming a slight melody.
• Just before to the hand is nailed in the next scene I added some quick runs on the violin to try and create some sudden tension.  Then there are stabs - again on the violin - followed by a shot solo melody.
• For the outside scene I have birds singing, a loop that I am quite tempted to change.  I like the effect but I think it is too typical of the scene and too cliche.
• Finally in the last scene I felt apporpriate to put a choir in, singing again the original theme from the beginning, ending on a major chord.