film score

The tradition & historical record

A film score is original music specifically written to accompany a film or a television program. The score constitutes a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues that are timed to begin and end at certain moments during the film to enhance the dramatic narrative and emotional impact of scenes. Scores are written by one or more 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 – usually including an orchestra (most likely a symphony orchestra) or band, instrumental soloists, and choir or vocalists – known as playback singers – and recorded by a sound engineer. The term is less frequently applied to music written for media such as live theatre, television and radio programs, and video games, and that music is typically referred to as either the soundtrack or incidental music. 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. ¹

A film score is also called a background score, background music, film soundtrack, original soundtrack (OST), film music, screen composition, screen music, or incidental music. ¹

The composer usually enters the creative process towards the end of filming at around the same time as the film is being edited, though 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 watch the entire film, noting which scenes require original music. During this process, composers take precise timing notes so that they know how long each cue must be, where it begins, where it ends, and of particular moments during a scene that music may need to coincide with in a specific way. This process is known as spotting. Occasionally, a filmmaker actually edits their film to fit the flow of music, rather than have the composer edit their score to the final cut. An extreme example of this is Baby Driver written and directed by Edgar Wright. Director Godfrey Reggio edited his films Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi based on composer Philip Glass's music. Similarly, the relationship between director Sergio Leone and composer Ennio Morricone was such that the finale of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and the films Once Upon a Time in the West and Once Upon a Time in America were edited to Morricone's score as the composer had prepared it months before the film's production ended. In another example, the finale of Steven Spielberg's E.T. ¹

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. When syncing music to picture, generally a leeway of 3–4 frames late or early is sufficiently accurate. Using a technique called free timing, a conductor uses either a stopwatch, studio size stop clock, or watches the film on a screen while conducting the musicians to predetermined timings. These are represented visually by vertical lines (streamers) and bursts of light called punches. These are put on the film by the Music Editor at points specified by the composer. In both instances, timings on the clock or lines scribed on the film have corresponding timings that are also at specific points (beats) in the composer/conductor score. ¹

A written click track is a method of writing bars of music in consistent time values (e.g., four beats in:02+2⁄3 seconds) to establish a constant tempo in lieu of a metronome value in beats per minute (BPM). A composer uses a written click if planning to conduct live performers. When using other methods such as a metronome, the conductor has a perfectly spaced audible click playing. This can yield stiff and lifeless performances in slower more expressive cues. A standard BPM value can be converted to a written click where X represents the number of beats per bar and W represents time in seconds by using the following equation: ¹

60 b p m ( x ) = W {\displaystyle {\frac {60}{bpm}}(x)=W} ¹

Written clicks are expressed using 1⁄3 second increments, so the next step is to round the decimal to either 0,1⁄3, or 2⁄3 of a second. The following is an example for 88 BPM: ¹

60 88 ( 4 ) = 2.72 {\displaystyle {\frac {60}{88}}(4)=2.72} ¹

2.72 rounds to 2.66, so the written click is 4 beats in:02+2⁄3 seconds. Once the composer identifies the location in the film to sync with musically, they must determine the musical beat this event occurs on. To find this, conductors use the following equation, where BPM is beats per minute, sp is the sync point in real-time (i.e. 33.7 seconds), and B is the beat number in 1⁄3 increments (i.e. ¹

Once the spotting session has been completed and the precise timings of each cue determined, the composer starts writing the score. The methods of writing the score vary from composer to composer. Some composers prefer to work with a traditional pencil and paper, writing notes by hand on a staff and performing works-in-progress for the director on a piano, while other composers write on computers using sophisticated music composition software such as Digital Performer, Logic Pro, Finale, Cubase, or Pro Tools. Working with software allows composers to create MIDI-based demos of cues, called MIDI mockups, for review by the filmmaker prior to the final orchestral recording. The length of time a composer has to write the score varies from project to project; depending on the post-production schedule, a composer may have as little as two weeks or as much as three months to write the score. In normal circumstances, the actual writing process usually lasts around six weeks from beginning to end. The actual material of the score depends on several different variables that factor into how a composer may write - for instance, the emotion the composer is trying to convey, the nature of the character on screen, the scenery and geography of the set, along with multiple more different variables. A composition could consist of different instrumentations, varying genres, and different influential styles. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Film score”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, part of the film's soundtrack, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 32 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²