TASK 2 | Daniel Jones

COMPOSITION

REASERCH

Structure

In my experience of writing trailer music, there is a pattern that the structure regularly follows. It starts with an intro that is simple but pulls in the listener/watcher, it also sets the tone for the film; for example, if the film were a horror, you would play high and eerie music or if the movie were an intense action film the music would be intense and triumphant.

The next section of the music would slowly intensify or grow. While at the same time introduce some of the main themes and characters in the film.

The last section of the trailer would be where the music is at its peak, full of intensity with its main goal to excite the listener.

The website Reel Crafter backs this up by its simplified definition for the structure of trailer music.

'Usually, the first thing you learn about trailer music is the “Three Act Structure.” A trailer may have an intro to reel you in and prime you for the vibe of the film, an exposition of story or characters, and a final act whose

main goal is to generate excitement. A trailer cue is usually constructed of these sections as well."

Here is the link to the website:

The basics of a film trailer cue - ReelCrafterhttps://www.reelcrafter.com › blog › the-basics-of-a-fil...

Layering

To create that intense, epic, and cinematic sound, layers of instruments are frequently used. If you use a full orchestra to play the same notes in a, A minor chord, you can achieve an insanely cinematic sound, with the help of simple but effective precession from a full drum kit, timpani and so forth. An example of this is in Hanz Zimmers piece ‘time’. you can also see an example of this in the, how to train your dragon - fliying theme :

Hanz Zimmer uses the chord tones in every instrument to make sure none of the instrument's clash and only complement each other this is also the case in the how to train your dragon 'flying theme' and 'main theme'. On the other hand, if this were a horror film the writer would use a smaller texture of instruments and try and use diminished, clashing and uncomfortable sounding notes. In the guitar solo of ‘time’ the rhythms are simple and the notes that are played are in a circular melody. The melody is also played in an ostinato (the 1st , 2nd , and the 3rd are the only notes that are used that stays in the chords of the piece).

When writing trailer music with only orchestral music it can sound very empty without synthesizer's and sound effects. The videos below shows how to add those synthesizer's and to grow the sound of the music. these videos also show small tips and ticks that help you understand how to make trailer music.

SECTION 1 - INTRO/BUILD UP

For my composition I want to create something epic and dramatic. To create this I'm going to start with a high pitched Pino playing one loud dramatic note and added quieter cords in the piano to make it sound more full in every bar with string slowly growing in the background. then in bar 27 to ad a more dramatic effect I introduced staccato strings. I also put the same full string section into the full brass to create more of a build.

After doing this the tracks sounded really dry so I added some simple plug ins that were already on logic to all of the instruments.

The track was starting to sound good but it needed some percussion to add to the dramatic feel. On every bar I put a big hit on the timpani's with a varying 3 note build up to the next beat each time.

Just before the intro ended I added a few French horns to build the track a bit more.

all of the chords I used for the composition were. D minor, Bb major, F major, C major. The key the composition is in is g major

next I added some synthesisers to create a riser for the drop

SECTION 2 - MAIN THEME

Starting with the strings I put in 6 different tracks. The first track is a full string sound playing full extended cords. The second track is a playing the staccato ostinato in three different octaves to create a higher sharper sound for the epic effect. The third track is playing high octaves. Next I put in violas that are playing fast 16th notes to speed up the track and create more intensity.

The last strings track is playing the melody along with French horns.

I added 5 different brass tracks to make more layers to add to the dramatic effect, the first track I added were trombones playing full low block chords to create a massive sound. then I made the melody with the French horns that matched the melody in the strings to create the main theme of the composition. then I added another French horn track playing high crescendoed octaves for each chord in the bars. I added another French horn track to play octaves again but going up in thirds for each chord that is played.

the grand piano plays the same thing with the high notes and chords. the timpani plays the same main hits but with maximum velocity and a louder three varying build up notes, and an added 16th note drum roll to increase the intensity, speed and epic feel of the composition. then a simple heavy drum kit plays on the first and third beat to give the orchestral feel a hybrid modern epic sound.

Then I added some synthesisers and copied and pasted the trombone sections into the tracks to intensify the insane full sound. After that I put a knocking echo sound on every bar to make a huge epic sound every bar. then I put a sub bass track in and played the first notes of every chord.

after adding all of the instrumental tracks I wanted to put in a full choir track to make the track sound epic and celestial

the choir follows the main pattern of the melody with added notes and chords to make the track sound really dramatic.

Then I added synthesisers at the end of section two for a drop and rise to lead into the last section. All of the synths I used for the drop start as the main instruments are ending to introduce the sound in a more subtle way. Then all of the other instruments stop to let the synths rise. The synths play a single C note then a D shortly after to make the rise more effective. then another synth plays full extended chords at the end of the rise to make is more epic.

SECTION 3 - CLIMAX AND ENDING

For the last section I wanted to change the vibe of the composition to something more intense and slightly less orchestral and more driven but in a way that works. The video that I was composing to was showing faster changing scenes with a lot of dramatic explosions and action, I thought a low sounding D minor chords repeated by every orchestral instrument would give the composition a more driven doom sound without completely getting rid of all of the orchestral instruments. Then I added a louder more punchy heavy drum kit to give the composition that driven feel. after that I put in a distorted heavy electric guitar for the melody playing low power chords with two high notes at the end of each bar to surprise the listener and and give the piece an un predictable feel.

After doing all of this it sounded a little bit to simple so I added a format builder to create and endless rise in the background to make more tension and give it a more epic feel. Then after every big D chord I added the knocking echoes effect to give it a huge hit.

OUTRO

To end the composition I wanted to go back to the beginning and play a the slow piano chords, so I let the reverb from the last section to carry a bar then began the slow low piano chords.

EFFECTS

So far I have only added the original plug ins for the strings piano and brass. So I added a few more plug ins for the percussion and synths.

RISERES AND HITS

once I finished the music it was sounding amazing, but I wanted to add some massive epic its and risers on the explosions and different big important sections of the piece. I went through the video and marked out the big sections and looked through the sounds and edited the ones I likes to fit the part by changing the EQ, effects and reversing some sounds to create my own risers.

Here I put a shackle hit to emphasise the explosion. with lower eq frequencies to make a deeper bass sound.

I used this sound to mimic multiple explosions and once with the same low eq frequencies

This was a simple sound that was very high pitched to re create the sound of a futuristic gun

I used the same shackle sound here with the medium eq frequencies higher to create a more far away sound because the image is in space

This was a simple low pitched hit to make this sense where the sword hits the ground more epic

With this sound I made the eq low with a rising sound and to make it feel like the ball of fire is coming at you in real life I moved the pan all the way to the left

I did the same with this sound but with the pan on the right

Again these two sounds resemble an explosion but with the left to right pan

This sound is a massive epic hit to create a dramatic feel when the logo gets shown

I layered two sound here t make the sense more epic and to grow the sounds and create my own that sound better.

With this hit I got rid of all low frequencies to make a more clingy metallic sound

I did the same with this sound

I layered two sounds here to make a more realistic effect of the helicopter bouncing as it hits the ground

This hit was very low pitched to create a huge bass effect to catch the attention of the watchers as the writing appears

Again I use the high pitched eq to make a more metallic sound for this hit

I slightly edited the EQ in this explosion to make all of the explosions sound different with unique pitches which makes the piece more interesting to listen to

This was a revised sound I used to make my own huge hit and riser for the next drop

again I only used the high frequencies for this hit with the pan all the way to the left

the pitch on this hit was slightly lower with the pan to the right to make some variation

this sound recreates the gush of the dust and explosion perfectly

I used a louder bass sound for this to create more tension and dramatic effect

This sound gives a perfect left to right slice to perfectly show what is happening in the scene

EVALUATION

When starting this project I found it hard to get the timing of the video and music to stay in sync. although when I did manage to adjust the bars and chords to fit the video I really enjoyed it. One thing I did well was matching the chords in each instruments and making all of the chords, notes, and arpeggios work well together. I enjoyed making the different noises and sound with the different instruments using the effects like reverb and delay. It was quite a challenge mixing the music to hear every track equally and hear the important melodies to make the music more epic and convincing as a trailer piece. In my opinion I think that I achieved my goal in making a successful trailer composition that could be used by a possibly big company and if not a smaller company. One thing I did that I think was successful, was the way I used the synth and sound effects for the drops and risers although some of the risers could've been smother or more dramatic by adding a complete silence. I think that my ending was portrayed almost perfectly from transitioning from the huge rise and the massive hits from every instrument into a slow piano playing chords. The ending really brings out the hopeful emotions and makes the listener feel happy and triumphant.

SONG WRITING TASK

DAN

I started writing the chords for the song on the piano playing them in D major to fit my vocals. Then added guitar parts using the session guitarist in kontakt on Cubase. Then I developed the chords in the piano to fit the genre of the song (which is pop )by adding arpeggios and broken chords. Then me and Sam used our instruments to write the verse, chorus and bridge of the song, for the verse the chords were the 1st, 4th, 6th, 5th and the chorus; 1st, 5th, 6th, 4th for the bridge; 4th, 1st, 5th, 6th.

PIANO

Maya then learnt the guitar parts and Lennon learnt the bass.

Guitar and Bass

Here are the sections without structure

Here are the sections with a rough structure

Once the backing track was complete I wrote a topline melody with the piano to work out our vocals and lyrics for the song. To do this me and maya played the topline solo over and over until lyrics came into our minds. Our song became a sort of romance song about a past relationship and the recovery of it. After we got the lyrics and melody down I plugged in a microphone and sang a rough vocal track.

SAM

I programmed the drums throughout this track using the studio drummer preset in Kontakt in Cubase.. This includes a four on the floor bass drum for the intro, I then added a basic beat including a bass drum and a click sound for the verses. For the choruses, I made a more complex drum loop seen here.

For the bridge, I added a crash to the verse beat, and added a simple drum fill at the end to lead into the chorus. When recording, I will add some small additions to these such as ghost notes and fills. I also assisted Dan with lyric writing and the melody.

Lennon

I am going to be playing bass and backing vocals. Once the track was finished I listened to the bass section and it was too difficult to play. So I will re-write a bass line that follows the song that is comfortable for me to play.

After doing my bass line I listened to the song and sang backing vocals to the song, harmonizing in the chorus and some sections of the verses.

Maya - guitar

I will re-record the guitar parts that Dan mapped in using the Session Guitarist VST and the chords [D, A, Bm and G] and add a simple acoustic solo at the end of the song based around the notes from these chords. I will also record this with multiple tracks: one on the higher frets and one on the lower frets, as well as overdubs.