SCORING JARGON - A Glossary of Terms
Scoring stage, click track, spotting, punch and streamer.. there is so much jargon that comes with this fascinating industry and after a little bit of internet trawling I present a brief little venture into some trivia, cinema history as well as industry terminology:
Various functions of film scoring:
1. to intensify or relax the pace of a film
2. to reflect emotion
3. to create "unspoken" thoughts of a character or unseen implications of a situation
4. to parallel or underscore the action (Mickey mouse the action)
5. to create atmosphere of time and place
6. to create comedy
7. to provide unity or coherence to the story (use of leitmotif)
8. to be used as source music (diegetic music)
9. when music plays against the action
10. to speed up slow scenes or slow down scenes that are too fast
11. to be used as a neutral background filler (wall to wall music)
Mickey mousing: Parallel the action
Leitmotif: musical theme or fragment of the theme to represent a movie character
Wall to wall music: score that goes non-stop, no breakage
3 stages of film editing:
1. assembly cut - longest version
2. rough cut - 5 to 15 minutes of additional of footage that will be taken out
3. fine or locked cut - no intention of further editing
Temp track: Temporary music
4 reasons to use a temp track:
1. To help the filmmaker edit the film.
2. To make the movie more marketable during test screenings for for sneak preview audiences and studio executives.
3. To determine the music concept for the score.
4. To illustrate that musical concept to the composer.
2001: A Space Odyssey: Original score by Alex North was rejected by the film director. There is now a growing fan base that seeks out rejected scores.
Spotting session: director sits down with the composer and they talk about the scenes. 2 most obvious decisions made at a spotting session,where there will be music and where it will start and stop
Spotting notes: notes music editor takes at a spotting session
Orchestrator: Someone who takes the composer's piano sketches and assigns the melody line and harmonic accompaniment to the instruments of the orchestra. They need to know:
1. The playing range of each instrument
2. What instruments playing in various combinations will sound like.
3. The limitations of each instrument's playing capabilities.
4. That string players will sound better playing in certain key signatures for certain effects.
5. Orchestrators need to know the characteristics of all musical styles, the capabilities of all instruments and should possess additional experience of knowing what works for a given scene and what doesn't work.
Music Supervisors: Keeps track of all of the music used within the film. Responsible for checking the clearance of rights and must have an extensive knowledge of the music business and some administrative, library, and legal skills.
Film composers: Restricted to certain timings yet must be expressive, music can't be louder than dialogue but must compete with the sound effects. They have a job to control our emotions throughout the film. If their score is rejected they will still be paid the full amount agreed on in the contract. No composer ever has the final say on how their music is to be used in the film. Most film composers are able to compose an average of two to three minutes of useable music every workday.
Cartage fee: when someone gets an additional fee to play an oversized instrument
Main Title Music: helps to prepare us for the drama before it occurs. Crucial to setting the overall tone of the picture.
6 methods used for music to picture synchronization:
1. Punch and streamer method
2. The stopwatch method
3. The click track method (most perfected method)
4. SMPTE timecode
5. Wild recording
6. Tracking
Punch and streamer method: every musical cue is drawn out as a 3 ft long line on the film for 2 seconds (streamer), screen flashes, hole punched into film (punch). Punch is when the conductor cues the orchestra to play
The stopwatch method: music editor will have prepared several key which are allotted times on the clock
The Click Track Method: repetition of stead clicks heard by the composer and musicians and these clicks are locked to the picture so that the musical parts are in sync with the steady beat of the clicks.
SMPTE Timecode: series of numbers at the bottom of the picture. The first set is in the hour position and tells us either which reel of film we're looking at or which hour of film we're dealing with. The next set is the number of minutes. The third set signifies seconds and the lest set tells us which video frame it is.
Wild recording: recording music without seeing the movie projected on a screen.
Tracking: a filmmaker uses prerecorded music cues from another source.
Music editor: prepares the spotting notes that will be turned into timing notes for the composer to use while composing the music cues.
Side-Line: when a person looks like they're playing an instrument on screen but they're faking it
Booth person: usually the primary orchestrator, sits in the recording booth and monitors things
3 types of recording for movies:
Before scene is shot - prerecording/prescoring
During the Shooting of a scene - set recording/standard recording
After the scene is shot - scoring/underscoring
ADR: Automatic dialogue replacement. When an actor is called back to redub in their voices
Sound designer: customize the needed sound or use a prerecorded sound from a sound effects library. Different from foley artist since they create a whole new sound rather than trying to fix up an old one.
Dialogue mixer: always makes sure the dialogue can be heard
Sound effects mixer: balance the sound effects in order to heighten the dramatic effects of the movie without overpowering the dialogue.
Music Mixer: Person who will dub in the composer's completed score.
Kinetescope: early device that Edison helped to invent where you put a coin through a slot and looked through a viewfinder to watch image
Lumiere Brothers: gave the first known public performance of cinema accompanied by live music
Early uses of music with the cinema: to cover up noise of projector and convey mood and add emphasis to emotions on silent screen
In which country did the first official score appear? France
The Birth of a Nation: had one of the earliest specially composed scores written for films made in the US. Composer (Josep Breil). He borrowed from classical music and used music from American folk songs.
Movie theaters in the silent era: many could seat more than 6,000 people
4 types of music used during silent era:
1. Piano improvisation
2. Use of published musical extracts
3. Use of pre-arranged scores - already existing music and arranged it for the screen
4. Use of original scores......first appeared in France in 1908, but did not become popular until mid 1920's.
2 early sound systems: sound on film Phonofilm (the norm) and sound on disc Vitaphone.
The Jazz Singer: first feature film to contain some spoken dialogue, generally considered the first Hollywood musical, and the film that launched the sound era.
The impact of sound on movies: no longer need for live musicians. Spoken dialogue would deprive silent stars of their ethereal appeal. Robbed filmmakers of the dreamlike world of silent images. Freedom of camera movement was taken away. Posed artistic and technical problems with sound.
Warner Bros.: they liked the new invention of sound in movies not for the actors but for the score.
Lights of New York: first all-talking sound feature
Blackmail: England's 1st sound film. Released in 2 different versions, a sound version and a silent version
2 primary approaches to music in early sound films: have music throughout the entire production or use music only as source music.
Frankenstein: didn't have scoring but had some source music. The sequel was scored by Franz Waxman
