Music: The Finishing

Fuck.

Been combing through a bunch of temp soundtracks to get the right feeling for my short film. There’s so much to listen to. I’ve been “auditioning” what I’ve found so far into the intro of the movie. Essentially, this is the most important, since it will set up what the rest of the movie should feel like. Too big of orchestration for a small movie is bad. Seems like. The ‘scope of the movie does have to match the soundtrack. And I’m wracking my fucking brains over what works. Simple piano concerto? A moody sonata? A skip beat fable-like theme? I think most composers are big budgeted movies just latch onto a theme and…then they nail it. Excited to get to the director and present it with picture. I stepped away from the movie for a little just to re-calibrate the sense of the movie.

For me, this new process is different. I have a composer who can mock the tone I had in mind. But what tone is it? I consider it fable-esque. It’s a darker world and is melancholy, but exudes hope. I’ve always been a fan of Marc Shaiman. He does a lot of Albert Brook’s movies and it seems to fit. For me, I think I should focus less on the lighter beats and maybe go for the mindset of the character. He’s on a mission to do something. Today’s the day. The feeling should be…today is the day. Damn, that’s stupid to tell a composer that. “Hey listen, can you do a music cue which sounds like “today’s-the-day”? Watch the confusion wash over.

Why was it so fucking simple in film school? Maybe because I had time? Maybe because I wasn’t afraid to make a mistake. Although first started as a project just to do something…anything, has blossomed into…the importance of music. In film school, I never dealt with a composer. So this is learning for me. A sound mixer for dialogue either. More new things. And having to generate a fund to keep people interested in the project. Massive new thing for me. Since in film school I had dough to chuck around.

But, back to the music. It has to, HAS TO…convey the mindset of the character. What is the character feeling. Whimsical doesn’t work. It can’t be too dark or too light. There is too fine a line. And it’s driving me nuts. This should be the fun part. In this case, music is crucial in terms of setting the tone IMMEDIATELY out of the gate. Maybe this is also an indication of an accessible movie versus a more vague one. For instance, in “Jerry & The Kid” I specifically was aiming to make a Disney type movie. So a big orchestrated score worked well. Tugged at heart strings and all that. It just made sense. I’m not exactly sure about “Nick’s Van.” I think it should be a fable. It should be…larger than it looks. Would it contrast too much though. Hmmm…