Film Scoring: recommend periodicals, books, e

douglas_clark wrote on 4/10/2006, 10:57 AM

Sound on Sound has an ongoing series of articles on "Making a Living from Music for Picture", with Part 4 in the March 2006 issue.

TorS wrote on 4/10/2006, 3:36 PM

Bob,
Where are you starting from? To extend one's education means you have one to extend, right? Are you a composer? Are you an Acid fiddler? (Meaning you do not have to be a composer to couch up a score in Acid, and I am not even sure it helps.) Are you into the technicalities of making musical audio function in a sound melange?
I may not be the oneto point out your direction, but I am sure putting the question more precisely will help.
Tor

Spot|DSE wrote on 4/10/2006, 4:59 PM

Keyboard Magazine is a good one, Sound On Sound is a good one. There are books by Jeffrey P. Fisher that are excellent on the subject, he's got a new one, but I can't recall the title right off hand.

Bob Greaves wrote on 4/10/2006, 5:43 PM

Thanks Douglas for the Sound on Sound heads up.

TorS Where are you starting from? To extend one's education means you have one to extend, right?

I teach digital audio at Davis College, have been operating an audio recording studio since 1994, I have produced several multimedia productions including video, voiceover and music wherein the modality and purpose of the music was in constant change. I also have a degree in computer science and feel comfortable in the PC environment.
My education about this is limited to personal observation and experience doing what makes sense to me to do with various short videos. I would like to find out what is considered standard knowledge in the industry and perhaps some of the ideas to help solve various problems (Choosing tempo, key, and genre, etc.) I would like to start seeking out longer films, perhaps start with student films until I have a couple of full features under my belt.

SPOT There are books by Jeffrey P. Fisher that are excellent on the subject, he's got a new one, but I can't recall the title right off hand.

Thanks Spot, I have seen How to Make Money Scoring Soundtracks and Jingles, by Jeffrey Fisher published by Mix Magazine in 1997 but I'll look for a newer one.

I've been finding on line books by Richard Davis, Fred Karlin & Doris Wright and Earle Hagen. The one by Fred Karlin & Doris Wright, Complete Guide to Contemporary Film Scoring, Second Edition, is $60.00. A bit steep but if it is a good book it would be worth it.

Spot|DSE wrote on 4/10/2006, 8:54 PM

Karlin/Wright's book is very good. I have the first ed, and it's a great write. I'd forgotten about it, and didn't know it has a second ed. A peek on Amazon tells me it's 2 years old.
I also found the book on how Danny Elfman scored "Batman," so ordered that one as well. His work on that show was outstanding, IMO

HHaynes wrote on 4/11/2006, 7:09 AM

Books

"The Reel World - Scoring for Pictures" - Jeff Rona, Miller Freeman Books
"Complete Guide to Film Scoring" - Richard Davis, Berklee Press
"From Score to Screen" - Sonny Kompanek, Music Sales, Ltd.

although it's not about composing, but about audio mixing and mastering, I highly, highly recommend "Mastering Audio - the art and science" by Bob Katz. It can get "down into the weeds" a bit, but he leads you in and out at a reasonable pace. Put your thinking cap on, though.

Web sites

If you're new to the circle of egos in online composer discussion forums, I'd say to wade in carefully. Many times you'll get responses to your queries that come from the respondant's own need for self-aggrandizement (be particularly careful of people that use big words like "self-aggrandizement") and will espouse something as "gospel truth" when it's really their own agenda talking. That said - many product discussion forums will have knowledgeable film people posting - as topics inevitably drift into functional areas. I spend more of my time cruising the Northersounds forums, but the above definitely applies. Just today there was this post for a film scoring summer intensive with Hummie Mann. In general you can pick stuff up like this at several virtual instrument and sampling forums - but some of them have a lot more noise-to-signal than NS forums. I don't think there is a forum for composing for film, per se - but I could be wrong. Again, I think a lot of that has gravitated toward the notation software discussion areas. Since I do equal parts scoring and sound design, I spend most of my time at the Nuendo-post discussion forum. It's much quieter in there and I know some of the folks there personally. Jeff Rona has a site that has some good resources (but some of it is pretty hopelessly out-of-date), I got my Urei click sample that I use for my metronome in Nuendo from his site. Also, Bob Katz has a web site where many of the articles were originally published that eventually made it into his book.

Good luck.