Meeting Topic: Music For Picture
Moderator Name: Michael Godwin
Speaker Name: Paul Intson, Composer, Music Editor, Producer, and Engineer
Meeting Location: Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology Inc. London, Ontario, Canada
Paul Intson is a composer, music editor, producer, and engineer for music in film and television. He has worked on numerous films including the Saw series, The Snow Walker, Ararat, The Statement, and Bangkok Dangerous just to name a few. He has also worked scoring for various televisions series including Skyland, Whiskey Echo, Spliced, and The Wrong Coast. Paul discussed various topics with us, including his method of composing for picture, orchestral recording techniques, the role of a music editor, and specific projects. He began his presentation with some general philosophies regarding music in film with his main point being that music is their to serve the film. He believes that the music often needs to be dulled down to best serve the picture because the extremely high quality of the dialogue, picture, and sound effects can often be an overload for the viewer. He went through a Logic Pro session from the film The Snow Walker, and discussed the process behind producing and scoring for that film. He first played for us a MIDI version of the score, and then played the full orchestral version which was recorded at Glen Gould Studios in Toronto, Canada. Paul discussed the process of spotting, and working with the film director and creators to achieve the final score. He then played examples of other projects, such as Hoverboy, Skyland, and Whiskey Echo. He then explained the process behind the composition and production for those various scores. Paul discussed how he began his career, first as a musician, then music editor, and finally a composer. He then talked about the role of the music editor, and the skill set required for music editing. He briefly discussed orchestral recording techniques that are commonly used, more specifically the "Tree" setup. Similar to a decca tree microphone setup but with the addition of rear left and right microphones. He finished his presentation by answering some questions regarding starting out in the industry, and how he begins a composition.
