Photos from the event.
CRAS Instructor Mark Brisbane, who has worked under Hans Zimmer and scored music for several films, shared how he goes about his scoring process. The very first point that Mark made was that, when film scoring, you are writing to improve the visuals, not to outshine the director. Ensure that you are not "over-doing" it but also make sure that your music has purpose and adds to the scene. He stated that the best compliment that you can receive as a composer, especially from the director, is, "Without your music, this scene would not be what it is."
After explaining that crucial job as a film composer, Mark explained that a quality sample library is a must. He also mentioned that, if you are looking for a good sample library, you likely want to start with one that has an entire orchestral section. A few libraries that he mentioned are:
• Spitfire Audio
• Albion One
• Albion III
• EastWest Composer Cloud X
• LA Scoring Strings
• Cinematic Strings
• Heavyocity
• Evolve
When you are ready to start scoring to picture, Mark Brisbane recommended to watch the scene you are about to write to at least 5 or 6 times. This way you know the scene well enough to understand its dynamics and get a general idea of how to phrase the music. He states that while creating phrases of music for film, it is best not to allow a single phrase to exceed 16 bars unless the music surrounding the particular instrument are changing their phrases. It is important to know how to blend instruments correctly and use them to heighten emotions through excitement
and tension. The music must be emotional involving. A couple tips to help make the music fit to the scene better while adding emotion are to use visual cues and movement to change phrases and how instruments are played and to tempo map the scene to help change playing speed smoothly.
A film composer must be dedicated to their art. As a composer, if you can write 2 minutes of music a day, which may typically take around 10 hours as per Mark, you are successful.
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