Music and the Mac

http://www.ilovemymacthesong.com/ Copyright ©2006 Daphna

Creating a Score in GarageBand 3

by Daphne Kalfon

Just when you thought GarageBand couldn’t get any better, along comes GarageBand 3 with all kinds of new goodies, one of which really grabbed my attention. 

GarageBand now has a video track, which allows you to create a score (music for moving picture) right in GarageBand! You can import a clip or project from iMovie, create music for it, and you can even add in sound effects to give more realism to your project! Sure, you could just as well bring in a song from your iTunes library, but creating your own score can be both a lot of fun and at the same time a challenge to go outside your comfort zone and try something different. GarageBand now allows you to create your own original music for whatever project you want. Isn’t that cool?

For a little history on me, some years ago, when I was much more involved in film scoring, I was using a music program called Cubase. I started using Cubase to create film scores back in 1997-1998. Apparently, at that time, as my husband tells me, we were on the cutting edge of technology. Most outfits at the time were using a hi-fi video player, which was connected to an interface that provided SMPTE time code, which was then converted into MIDI time code, which your computer program could then read. This setup basically allowed you to sync and play the video along with your music score, and be able to fast forward and rewind, or nudge back and forth a few frames, while keeping music and video in perfect sync with each other.

We, on the other hand, never had such a setup. After doing some research, we opted to purchase something called a Miro card, which allowed us to do away with any need for a video machine and the interface. Instead, we installed this card into my computer, and this capture card would allow me to import whatever movie/film project for which I needed to create a score, and work directly in Cubase with it. Cubase had a little movie window that you would play alongside the music arrangement window, and it would play in sync with the music I was scoring to it. It was easy and convenient.

And now for a little info on the art of filmscoring...

Filmscoring is an art form separate from anything else. It is different from songwriting in many ways. Aside from the fact that it is instrumental (i.e. no lyrics), a score essentially takes on the role of another character or actor in a film or movie. And this character known as music, makes up at least 50% of the viewing experience. 

To better illustrate what I mean by that last part, here’s an anecdote. Some years ago, while taking a course on film sound, I got to meet Ben Burtt. For those of you who don’t know, Ben Burtt is a sound designer. He worked on such films as E.T., Indiana Jones, and most notably, the Star Wars movies. His sound design and editing work has won him Oscars as well as many Oscar nominations and other awards. 

One evening we had a movie night at a private theatre, and it was a very special screening indeed. Ben unwrapped a copy of one of the Indiana Jones rough videos he had been given during the shooting of the film. I use the word “unwrapped” because he had never actually viewed it himself. What it was, was a rough, pre-post version. Post refers to “post -production”, which is the stage at which - hopefully! - the entire film has been shot, and now it is turned over to the sound, foley (door creak sounds, footsteps and such), dialogue and music teams.

He skipped around on the video, and the scene which most stands out in my mind, is of the Indiana Jones character on a ship at sea, and all you could hear was the wind machine which was being used to create the waves on the water, and not really much else. The dialogue was barely audible, and there was no music or sound effects. 

I was astounded at just HOW boring the scene was in that state. It really felt like not much at all was going on, and the whole scene was really quite one-dimensional and lifeless.

Well, then we were shown the finished scene, which he had brought with him on another tape. It really was fascinating to see just how much a scene is transformed when infused with the addition of good sound, sound effects, dialogue and music. Wow! That experience really stuck with me, and we were all really appreciative of Ben’s very personal presentation that night. It was something I’ll never forget. 

Which brings me back to the music score and what an integral role it plays in any moving picture. I have read a number of books on the art and craft of filmscoring, and here than are some salient points that I have gleaned, to keep in mind when you are creating a score. It really doesn’t matter whether you are creating it all from loops that you sew together, or whatever else. What matters is to balance what you are seeing with what feeling you want to convey to yourself and to your prospective audience as you are seeing it.

Invisibility - a good score should never be heard consciously by the viewer; its primary role is that of hypnotic catalyst; it should never detract from or intrude upon the visuals.

Mood - score serves to establish the overall mood of the film. For example, is it a comedy, thriller, drama, sci-fi, horror, action movie, etc.?

Time period/historical - score serves to establish the historical context in which the story takes place. This is where instrumentation can play a vital role, in that each and every instrument has a connotative quality that evokes certain ideas in the viewer’s mind.

Place/geography/setting - places have a signature ambiance; Aaron Copland’s music evokes wide open spaces in the midwest or Holst’s music, some of which strongly evokes space. (Holt's work “The Planets” helped set the groundwork for virtually every sci-fi music score thereafter, by the way). Throughout the storyline, this can be a powerful tool to use whenever the audience needs to be reoriented.

Continuity and flow - score is often used as a transitional device between different scenes. This eliminates any potential disruption in the flow of the story line.

Believability - music helps lower viewer defenses; for the viewer to buy the characters and situations in the movie, the score must be convincing and appropriate; this in turn serves to increase the level of involvement on the part of the viewer.

Added dimension - music can add a dimension to the story, can convey a part of the story not being told or not in the visuals; this could be in the form of emotional messages conveyed to the viewer or in giving a character dimensions that we otherwise would not see, such as communicating to the viewer the internal psychological workings of a character.

Reinforce or emphasize - virtually any element in a movie can be given added emphasis through the use of appropriate score, such as key personality traits in certain characters or elements important to the setting in which the movie takes place.

Mislead - effective score can lead the viewer into a different direction or give a different impression than that initially created.

De-emphasis - this kind of technique is effective when the desired effect is to limit how the viewer interprets a scene.

Foreshadowing - here again in the idea of conveying messages to the viewer that may not be readily apparent in the visuals, but may be crucial to the story line.

Underscore dialogue - sometimes, though not always, a scene with only dialogue may need some score underneath (this is a good example of reinforcement). Certain instruments work better with dialogue than others, such things as pitch class must be considered in order to avoid any overlap or clashes; for example, don’t pair up a low voice with a bassoon line.

Source Music - music that emanates from a source the viewer can actually see in the film. Source music can serve as both source and score or alone or can become score, and vice versa. For example, where music coming out of a ghetto blaster, or music being played on an instrument by a character, becomes score.

Unity - probably the most important element of all to any score. Unity is established through repetition and variation of musical themes. For example, there may be themes or motifs for each character or for just one character. A motif can be a musical phrase or a rhythmic gesture used as an identifier of a certain character or place or activity, and as changes in character, place or activity occur, the motif changes with it. Also, two or more motifs can play together to signify two or more characters’ interplay.

I know this is a lot, but I wanted to cover as many points as I could, and from them, you can pick the ones that matter most in your particular project, to make it the best it can be. Happy scoring!