Generally Speaking - Scoring Events

[Movies]

For the most part, do the measure numbers for whatever cue you're working on correspond sensically to each measure?

There are certain circumstances in which I wind up, say, in 4/4, but, due to a bunch of events needing to be accented, a downbeat will be forced to start in a bummer of a place, shifting the whole part, metrically, off [while still sounding fine, for the most part].

Like, I use Find Tempo to get a pulse that makes sense with everything I have to accent, but, at times, it feels like the music I write is at the mercy of whatever DP decides on.

Is this a standard sort of thing?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Indeed, you are describing the true craft of scoring. Making the hits work out while preserving the integrity of the music is, in fact, the goal. It takes skill which often only comes with time and experience. There is no menu option in ANY app that will solve that issue. You're gonna have to use your brain for that one. Imagine that!

[Movies]

Yeah, see, part of the problem is that I feel like the generation before me was the last generation to learn how to use their brain.

I shall press on!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Nothing of the sort. Sometimes it's a matter of persevering and/or trial and error. If a temp score was used in the edit that can be helpful in finding the editors rhythm.

[sprout]

I'm in total agreement with MLC, and find that bending, folding and spindling the conductor track to work with picture is a huge part of the job. While I may have themes, ideas, etc. sketched out before working on a particular scene, I generally try to get to a point where I can watch the scene with a click track and have it feel right before going to town writing a lot of notes.

That said, on the current documentary I'm working on there were scenes where I just played along on a treated piano sound I'd created for the film to get the feel right. I was really familiar with the dialogue, since I'm also doing the rest of the audio post, so I naturally knew where things wanted to sit.

At the end of the day, I think much comes down to spending enough time with the material to understand how it works visually, sonically, and story-wise.

cheers,
step

[Movies]

Thanks, Sprout.

My problem, I think, is definitely a coaxing-DP-to-bend-to-my-will issue.

I think a lot of this stuff comes down to figuring out awesome, creative ways to employee all of the awesome tools DP has to work with. Like, the manual explains basic functionality very well, but it's more up to the user to figure out how to employ those tools in a way that best suits their needs.

A lot of the tricks people explain on this board are totally counter-intuitive -- in an awesome way. I think I probably just need to think things through a little more systematically before I dive into a particular project/cue.

[kinnylandrum]

And don't overlook tempo changes, either big or subtle. Instead of taking a lot of counts and using complicated click track calculations to find the hits, this aspect of working with picture seems much more organic to me. Much more like the old days (still used by many) of conducting to picture. The irony is you are using more technology to make things more organic. But isn't that what technology is SUPPOSED to do?

[FMiguelez]

There are certain circumstances in which I wind up, say, in 4/4, but, due to a bunch of events needing to be accented, a downbeat will be forced to start in a bummer of a place, shifting the whole part, metrically, off [while still sounding fine, for the most part].

One thing I almost always do when I use Find Tempo, is to set it to look for ANY 1/8 note (as opposed to 1/4 notes only). This lets you work in a less stiff manner.
Changing from 4/4 to 5/8 to 7/8 to 3/4 is an every day thing here. Sometimes I have measure changes every measure (as long as it flows and feels natural).

Those accents you mention that end up in "weird" places are surely those...

You can choose to reflect those accents by changing the meter, or stay in 4/4 as if they were notated off the beats. We all are familiar with those cryptic-looking music that is all over the place rhythmically with tons of meter changes, even if it's so syncopated that it can actually be felt in 4/4 with accents.

And don't overlook tempo changes, either big or subtle. Instead of taking a lot of counts and using complicated click track calculations to find the hits, this aspect of working with picture seems much more organic to me.

+1
Usually it's a combination of what you wrote and syncopated accents and changing meters.

I like massaging tempo changes when there's no "space" to insert (or delete) an 1/8 note in a phrase, for instance.

I really think Film Scoring is actually 2 separated but embedded arts: the art of Film Scoring (as in writing nice music against the picture -story telling - using all the necessary "fitting" techniques), and the art of simply writing great music

[Movies]

Interesting! A ton of tempo changes seems like a hard thing to juggle!

I definitely use meter changes -- in an "only move barlines" way. Things get pretty weird when DP tries to chat to Reason about anything too serious with that regard.

Since I've begun working on each cue in a separate chunk, things have gotten WAY easier to deal with.

Now I'm just working on honing my skills with the more granular tools -- which I imagine is an ongoing process.

[kinnylandrum]

No, small tempo changes can make everything work much better. Just changing a couple of BPM can make a hit falling a number of seconds away be right on and not off by an eight note. And don't over look how musical a ritard can be to make the end of a piece happen right on a cut. And it's so easy these days; you don't even have to do math, just a little trial error (something I normally abhor). Just sayin..

[FMiguelez]

Totally agreed.

Just play with the Conductor Track tempo. Even modifying one tempo change little handle can make things sync perfectly.

There are also the Scale Tempo commands... very useful too.

[Movies]

Thanks for all of the tips, y'all!

This is definitely opening up a lot of options!