Sci-fi movie trailer music

[greentea23]

Hi all,

A 1.5 min long piece that hopefully sounds like a movie trailer! Comments welcome.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8193921

Cheers

 

[hohoholalala]

Man its great to finally see someone around here whose into the whole trailer music thing.

Your piece is pretty good but i wuld push the drums a bit more to the background and perhaps change the orchestration a bit to have more stingers and "hit point". But all in all i like it.

 

[l0u5y]

hi. great to see people who does scoring. I think overall it is pretty good. How long have u been doing stuff like this?

For the opening. You might wanna go for a single cello for that mysterious effect you are going for. Then introduce the rest of the section in tgt with the brass. as for those mysterious percussion u are using, u might wanna reference other film scorers. Because usually when dis kind of music appears in a film, or game etc, it is like telling u something is gonna happen next. So the rhythm shudn't be too simple and obvious. U have to go for little notes but less obvious percussion rhythm. When u go into the faster section. U have good ideas such as using a different register of the strings to give more impact. But i feel that it is a little stale there. It's basically not executed well. I would suggest an introduction of another instrument as well to take the lead. And i dun agree with a few of the selection of timbres here and there. You shud pay attention to the dynamics of the piece as well. I would want the timpani to go louder so when the piece ends, it will signal that this is the next scene or the mood of the situation has changed. of coz there is also the mix. But i won't be criticising on that.

But what u are doing is great. Such as the chords the strings and the brass are playing. nice ideas here and there. U are getting the hollywood thing. Keep working on it. =)

 

[greentea23]

Hi hohoholalala,

Thanks for your comments. What are "hit points" and "stingers"? Are there examples you can point me to? I'm just a hobbyist so there's still much to learn.

Btw, I checked out your page too and you have some interesting pieces too. Very Christmassy, if I may say so.

To l0u5y, thanks for taking the time to give me so much feedback. To answer your question - I have just started doing this in May. My first few pieces are very quiet sentimental type songs, and Dawn of Ra is my first attempt at a more high-energy Hollywood-big-sound piece.

I know what you mean about varying the percussion to create a sense of anticipation. If you know of any resources I should check out to improve my skills, I'd appreciate if you can point them out to me. I'm especially new to software and how to tweak each sound better, beyond just reverb.

Have a good weekend, all!

 

[Cheez]

Hi Corrinne, I believe you've managed to create the effect you wanted. For the purposes of mimicking a "trailer", it's pretty good. Nice counter melodies in the lower brasses in the ending section.

I suggest reducing the reverb. Too much reverb can really make things sound mushy. Don't worry about sequencing techniques as yet. Focus on arrangement - that will win half the battle. Although a trailer often don't require it (as opposed to full pieces), you should still try to incorporate a thematic line. A good thematic melody will stick in the heads of the listeners after they stop listening (hence, a sing-able melodic line is probably the most powerful. Example - few will not remember the Superman theme or the Star Wars theme - they just stick in the head). Then work around the theme.

Second section sounds a bit like the Amazing Race...

 

[hohoholalala]

Hi greentea

Yea the first piece on that page was smth i did for a production company/music lib looking for xmas stuff haha guess the season is upon us.

Hit points are for eg a sudden strong accent in the strings, sforzando, (can be done by varying velocity suddenly among other thing) or an orchestral hit or something to emphasis either a certain beat or note. To my knowledge this is valued quite highly in trailer music because it compliments that action montage thing they do.

Stingers can for instant be a very rapid crescendo or brass rip or something of that sort. Very often today stingers dwell into the realm of sound design by for example incorporating the sound of a racing car zooming pass while strings are doing penderecki style tone clusters thing or aleatoric stuff.

Neway not sure if you've done it but i recommend checking out two steps from hell, pfeifer broz, immediate music, globus, E.S posthumus and city of the fallen for some real awesome trailer/production toolkit style music.

 

[l0u5y]

well, basically for ur scoring style, it depends on wat direction you wan to go to. Since 2000 i tink the thematic music style of scoring has pretty much died out. U dun really hear much thematic music in films now. Except a few like pirates of the carribean. If that is the style of scoring u wan to go towards, then u have to listen to john williams. He has written countless music for big time hollywood movies. Star wars, jaws, jurassic park, the list goes on. And u will always rmb the melody after u walk out of that cinema. If u wan to write the most modern style of hollywood music, den hans zimmer is the biggest right now. Some other composers whom i tink are good, listen to danny elfman. And if u wan to pursue the dam hollywood cliche style, listen to this guy, andrew lockington. He's a canadian composer who did the music for journey to the center of the earth last year. I find his works super hollywood. Whereas hans, philip glass and all, have more of their own style on their music. If u practise on that hollywood style, u will be able to write a lot of great stuff already, but then applying ur own style into it is a totally different challenge in composing. in a nutshell, it still depends on wat style u wanna do, like thriller and horror movies are different. Epic,sci-fi, romantic, etc all very different. And even the asian style is different from the hollywood style. Find appropiate film scorers for the style u wanna do, den study his works. i hope that helps.

 

[l0u5y]

btw i realise that ur piece, isn't very sci-fi, but more epical. If u wan it to be sci-fi u could try adding electronic elements in ur piece as well. Like synths, electronic drums. Think Harry-gregson Williams. Reference to appropriate movies scores, like Star wars etc. Transformers is also pretty good. But Transformers is sci-fi influence, not very sci-fi. i dunno if u noe what im talking about. Not very good at explaining. lol.

 

[Cheez]

All music will have a main theme. It may not be obvious during the film itself, and indeed many parts may be for the sole purpose of creating moods. But film music that stands out in the end are those who good thematic lines. Many times, the thematic line doesn't have to be long - but good composition and arrangment will include little little snippets of certain themes at the right places. This is the same with Hans Zimmer, although he steals from his own work most of the time (getting repetitive nowadays). As for Elfman, he has a "elfmanish" style of his own.

Most of us has our own favorite, and so our music sort of reflect those we like. The challenge is to create our own style and arrangments that's unique.

L0u5y is right, the music is indeed more epic than sci-fi. The title also doesn't reflect sci-fi. Actually, titles are just as important as the music. As for mood of sci-fi and choice of instruments, it depends a lot on the movie theme. I would certainly use electronic-based sounds/instruments/effects for futuristic/technological-slant type. With spacey/adventure type, a full orchestra with the right arrangement do just fine. In the end, the music is supposed to paint a picture. The question is what picture is that...

 

[hohoholalala]

All the above are great points but i've always wondered, and even occasional debated with game directors on the point, does a certain instrument or instrument class really define a character? I mean if we listen to lux aeterna or Zarathustra independently of 2001 space odyssey we dont exactly get an outer space or sci-fi feel but it works remarkable well with whatever is on screen.

Personally, and again this is what i think, given that an orchestra was chosen as the medium for expression, it is more important to be able to convey the message through whatever theoretical knowledge of orchestration or harmony as well as individual musical experience following which usage of synths or Hollywood scoring notions can be use to enhance the music as opposed to being the driving force. In my experience both as a listener and composer, it does, IMO, a whole world of good if the association of certain instruments to certain situations or genrs can be discarded. Scoring possibilities can be expanded and more creativity will flow.

 

[jeremyspk]

awesome stuff
though I don't do filmscore ~

pm-ed u

 

[greentea23]

Thanks for all the comments and pointers. Very useful!

Cheez, I'll try that theme-based approach next round.

Cheers

 

[greentea23]

Hi all,

Following the feedback, I reworked the percussions in the middle section and added some minor stuff.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8230973

Do have a listen if you have time and tell me if it's an improvement from the first one.

Thanks!

 

[squarehero]

Nice music and melodies. I think you hit the spot in terms of the emotions.

Arrangement-wise, here are my opinions.

I think the first and second parts feel too disjointed. This mostly has to do with the timbre of the instrument used for the staccato like stabs and the transition. Didn't feel very smooth. You may want to consider writing a bridge section to build up the tempo.

Also, in terms of dynamics, I think the percussion is way too loud. And there is not enough dynamics in the rest of the instrumentation except for the layering of instruments in certain parts.

You may also want to polish the detail part of the music as others have mentioned i.e. the articulations such as sforzando, marcato etc.

In terms of mixing, I feel that the reverb is still over the top. No one uses that much reverb.

Since you are interested in game music specifically, I suggest you go download and listen to the Dead Space OST by Jason Graves for a good idea of a great sci-fi soundtrack for a game. Listen specifiically Welcome Aboard the USG Ishimura for a similar but darker sounding arrangement.

The above is purely my opinion and may not be 100% accurate. All in all, you're getting there, just need a bit more.

Also, if you didn't know already, you can study a free orchestration course over at Northern Sounds.

Good luck.