Film scoring/The sound of fear

Your first assignment (Just one note!)

1. Create the sound of fear.

If your computer has the sound of a violin trill, create a 6-second long violin trill which sounds "scary". Keep it nice and simple. (If your computer does not have a violin trill, try something else. Some chords also sound scary.)

• Once you are finished, attach the file to an email and send it to me at r_elliott at innercite.com.

• Then click here to send me a message telling me what software you used.

• Then go to the next lesson where you create additional moods with single instruments.

Huh?

That is too easy!!!!

Most music packages (such as Apple's Jam Pack:Symphony Orchestra) have terrific violin trills. Just by pressing one key, you get the wonderful sound of a violin trill or tremolo.

There is a problem

The problem is the volume has no shape. The sound is either on or off. Not good!

If you use a program like GarageBand, you must create an envelope for the volume to give the sound emotion. Or you can create an envelope for expression which is an advanced feature of GarageBand which is hidden inside the track editor.

Keep it simple

That is all you have to do for this exercise. Easy! Just adjust the volume of the sound of fear made with a violin trill. That is all you have to do.

Sounds dull, doesn't it?

Many people think this will be boring. Not at all. A single note can be shaped in many different ways and can be pitch shifted over time. Yet it is still just a single keystroke on a MIDI keyboard.

Listen to the sound of fear created by Tiego Louis Zontag in Brazil using Protools and Miroslav plugin. Since with Miroslav, the trills violins not exceed 3 or 4 seconds, Zon used trem violins.

Ten minute rule

If this assignment takes you more than five or ten minutes, something is wrong!

Ten points for just one note

If you use a single note, you get ten points. (Chords count as a single note.)

If you use two consecutive notes, you get nine points. (Chords count as a single note.)

But if you use three consecutive notes, you get only four points. (Chords count as a single note.)

The goal of this lesson

Extremely important

It is very important to understand the goal of this lesson.

I do NOT want you to create music. This lesson is not about making music.

Instead, I want you to find the natural sounds of musical instruments that create moods. A single violin trill creates the entire mood of fear. You just need to shape the volume of this sound.

Limited time and space

When you are scoring a motion picture, most of the time, you don't have the room to create music. Instead, you will have only enough room to create a single sound. That one sound must be enough to create the mood that you need.

That is why you are looking for moods which can be created just by the natural sound of the musical instrument with one or two notes or chords.

No music, please!!!

Don't create music. Just create moods with musical sound effects.

Create the mood with the natural sound of a musical instrument.

Use no melody and preferably no rhythm. Just simple notes!

Your Demo Reel

Creating a demo reel

When you finish creating all the musical cues for these lessons, you will put all the musical cues on your demo reel.

Therefore, try to make your assignments good enough to show to film producers who will hire you for their next motion picture.

There is limited space and time in a motion picture. You need to be economical with your music, not just for the normal reasons.

Half the time when you have a film cue, something else is happening in the movie. Either there is action on the screen or someone is talking, etc.

The human brain has a limit to what it can process. The more notes you have, the less processing time for watching the movie.

When you write a song, you want to keep the audience completely engaged in your music. You want lots of notes and lots of instruments.

But this is NOT true in a motion picture. Most of the time, you want to create a mood without the audience having to think about it.

When you win an Oscar for best film score, you don't want the audience to say, "Hey, that was great music!!!". Instead, you want the audience to say, "Music? I didn't know there was any music in that movie."

If your music requires that the audience spend all its time concentrating on your music, the director and the producer of the motion picture are going to get mad. Their solution is to TURN DOWN THE VOLUME of your music.

So, to make everyone happy, PLEASE use as few a notes a possible.

You can create a mood with one note on one instrument or one note with octaves (say two octaves) or even multiple octaves with multiple instruments. Or you can go wild and try a chord.

Just remember that the more you make your music thicker and richer, the more it might distract from the motion pictures. So be careful.

If you are wondering what style to use, here is the rule.

If you have talent, limit yourself to a symphonic style. If you have extreme talent, do anything you want.

• Rainer Pusch has created the sound of fear. June 3, 2007 - 2 points

• Stanislav Tanov has has created the sound of fear. June 5, 2007 - 2 points

• Horncomposer has has created the sound of fear. June 24, 2007 - 2 points

• Orsanct has has created the sound of fear using just a single note. July 20, 2007 - 10 points

• Eze has created the sound of fear - 30 April 2007 - 6 points

• DanielPhillips8 has creates the sound of fear using other instruments. Here is his Fear, Fear #3, Suspense, and Suspense #2 - 19 May 2007 - 6 points.

• Requiescat has creates the sound of fear using other instruments. Here is her Sound of Fear - 18 June 2007 - 6 points.

• Bob DeYager has created the sound of fear - 2 August 2007 - 10 points -- Instructor Note: The best so far. Can you do better?

• Blueygh2 has created the sound of fear using Sibelius 4 using Garritan Personal Orchestra sound library. - 23 August 2007 - 10 points

• TBOL3 has created the sound of fear - 24 August 2007 - 10 points

• Joe Mac has created the sound of fear with GarageBand and Boldt Package and he has also created the sound of fear 2 using real instruments in his recording studio - 13 September 2007 - 20 points

• Wayoutjake has created the sound of fear - 25 September 2007 - 10 points

• Keith Eppers has created the sound of fear. - 20 October 2007 - 10 points

• FIREborn has created the sound of fear using Propellerheads Reason 3.0. - Best one yet. - 05 November 2007 - 10 points

• Sowens has created the sound of fear using Finale with the Garritan personal orchestra. - 07 November 2007 - 10 points

• Tiego Louis Zontag (Zon) has created the sound of fear using Protools and Miroslav plugin. Zon says, "In Miroslav, the trills violins not exceed 3 or 4 seconds. So, I use trem violins." - 13 December 2007 - 10 points - - - Most interesting sound of fear yet!!!!

• Christian Hamm has created the sound of fear. - 01 February 2008 - 10 points

• Robert Hall has created the sound of fear using Sibelius 4. - 14 February 2008 - 10 points

• Ben Henderson (Cubinoid) has created the sound of fear

I used Logic Pro, and Miroslav strings. The strings did not last six seconds, so I layered them. I allowed a bit of space at the end for the reverb to die away.

I used track automation to provide a gentle volume slide into the sound, and panned the violins into their correct orchestral position. I used a long tunnel reverb to make the violins sound so scary. - 23 February 2008 - 10 points

• Maestro has created the sound of fear using GarageBand with Jam Pack Symphony Orchestra. - 10 May 2008 - 10 points

May 15, 2008

• Tonto Silver has completed this assignment.

Tonto Silver has created the sound of fear.

Tonto Silver says, "I have created fear with Protools using structure sampler. One note sudden then fade then swell then fade out. The strings tremelo 1 from garageband orchestra loaded into structure. I added medium hall reverb with TL space plug in. using GarageBand with Jam Pack Symphony Orchestra."

The next page

That was so much fun, let's do it again. Exercise: Other moods from a single note

Contact your instructor

Your instructor for this course is Robert Elliott. You can send me a quick email by clicking here.

NOTE: To submit assignments

To submit assignments, attach your completed assignments to an email and send it to me at "r_elliott innercite.com".