Audio Post: Film scoring - part 1 (Rewire)

OK, so by now we have done some work with FX and dialog. Today, I want to spend some time working on the main musical aspect of film: the score.

According to Wikipedia:
"A film score is a broad term referring to the music in a film...The term soundtrack is often confused with film score, though a soundtrack may also include songs featured in the film as well as previously released music by other artists, while the score does not. A score is written specifically to accompany a film, by the original film's composer(s).<sup>"


So what are some of the differences between film scores and other kinds of music (like hip-hop songs?)
What kinds of instruments do you typically hear in a score? What kinds of things do you NOT hear?

The main purpose of the film score is to support the overall feel of the film and convey the emotions of the different scenes to the audience. It is very important for film scorers/composers to keep in mind that the main focus has to be the characters on the screen and the dialog. Usually, the music is NOT supposed to be the main element that the audience is focusing on, so the music should be done in a way that doesn't compete for the audience's attention - meaning you don't want the audience nodding to your beat when the characters on the screen are having a serious conversation!

So, you folks have actually already done some film scoring of your own in the last assignment. Did you have any challenges as you were doing it? Did the music line up with the images from the video?

Today we're going to focus a little more on scoring, but this time, you're going to write your music directly to the video. In order to do this, we need to get Reason working together with Pro Tools. This is possible through a thing called Rewire. Rewire allows you to control Reason through Pro Tools.

To Rewire Reason into Pro Tools, do the following:</sup>

1. Create a new Pro Tools Session.
2. Go to Track>New.
3. Change the settings to 1, Stereo, Aux and hit the Create button.
4. Now go to the Mix Window.
5. At the bottom of your new Instrument track, find the little triangle and click on it. Make sure there is a checkmark next to the word "Instrument" in the menu that pops up. You should see this section appear at the top of the track:
6. In the Inserts section, click on one of the double arrows and go to multi-channel plugin>Instrument>Reason. Reason should start up.
7. In Reason, create an instrument that you can play with the keyboard (Subtractor/Malstrom/NN19/NNXT/etc.)
8. Now go back to your Mix Window in Pro Tools.
9. In the section at the top of the track, find where it says "none" and click on it. This is where you tell Pro Tools which Reason instrument you want to control with your keyboard.
   
10. From the menu that drops down, click on the name of the instrument you just created in Reason. You should now be able to play the instrument from Pro Tools and record it, just like you would in Reason.
11. From here you can create as many instruments in Reason as you want and create Instrument tracks for each one in Pro Tools. Don't forget to label them!!!

So, your assignment today is to Rewire Reason into Pro Tools and use it to score a short video clip. Please do the following:

1. Create a new Pro Tools session and name it your name_scary score.
2. Find the file on the Media Share folder called hauntinginconnecticut-edit01. (Media Share>Class Materials>Movie Trailers>haunginconnecticut-edit01). Copy it to your hard drive and Import it into your Pro Tools session.
   
3. Watch it and start to think of what sounds you might want to use.
4. Create and Instrument track and use Rewire to load Reason into it using the instructions above.
5. Create an original score for this piece that uses at least 3 instruments and has a buildup section and a loud hit to scare the viewer. Make it scary!!!
   
6. When you finish, Bounce it as a Quicktime movie and turn it into the Student Work folder.