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Posted: |
Sep 11, 2016 - 6:33 AM
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By: |
KevinSmith
(Member)
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Hello everyone,
With the last Composers Challenge using an action clip from the award winning game 'Mass Effect 2', I thought that the next Composers Challenge should take us into another realm.
The Artist is an Oscar winning silent film which follows the life of an actor in the silent film era. Ludovic Bource wrote an Oscar winning score for the movie.
The 3 minute scene is from the dramatic climax of the movie where the actor is down in the dumps because , faced with the ultimate choice in life and his love interest is desperately trying to find him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beA4yxEj6mE
I thought that this clip would be a good choice because we have not had drama as yet and drama is an important genre to master. You could take any approach to this, don't feel like there is only way to do this; you could make it sound like a musical score from that time period or you could make it more modern sounding (since the emotion is timeless).
What is different about this challenge is that there will be professions from the film music industry reviewing the entries in addition to the contestants own:
1) William Stromberg - Composer best known for Trinty & Beyond and Starship Troopers 2 and Master of Re-recordings.
2) Alain Mayrand - Composer best known for The Legend of Silk Boy and Orchestrator/Conductor of Elysium.
3) Vladimir Nikolov - Orchestrator who worked on The Artist.
Also a couple International Film Music Critics Association members will also be commenting on the entries.
The deadline for this challenge is November 12th. Either the composers can:
a) upload their own entries to YouTube (but unlisted) and send me the link so I can make a playlist.
b) send me the music file (through a file sharing website), tell me where the music goes, and I can do it myself. The music file should be MP3 or equivalent.
It is important that the entries be anonymous. The identity of the composer videos will be announced after the voting has finished.
In regards to the voting, the composers, or anyone else who wants, will submit their votes/rankings by rating each entry out of 10. The votes will be averaged out of 10 and the top three will be announced.
Everyone will receive reviews on their efforts (either from other composers, members of the community or myself included). The composers of the challenge are requested to give a short review of the other works. If anyone who finishes outside of the top three wants to know how they did, then contact me. If anyone not participating in the challenge wants to be a reviewer, you are more than welcome to.
The prize for winning the Composers Challenge would be either one of the following (depending on the winner's preference):
a) A CD paid for by me shipped to the winner's address
b) A cash equivalent (up to $25-30 Canadian (exchange rates pending).
If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please contact me at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com.
Best of luck to everyone and have fun!
Kevin
PS: I forgot to mention that anyone who directly plagiarizes from The Artist score (even if the music was not used in the movie) will be disqualified. Use your own voice, not someone else's.
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Posted: |
Nov 14, 2016 - 6:25 PM
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By: |
KevinSmith
(Member)
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Hello everyone,
In the end, it turned out that we have 12 wonderful entries (which is more than the last two composers challenge).
Now that the contest is closed, the voting can begin. Let me be clear, everyone (not just composers) can vote and giving feedback on the entries is highly encouraged. The comments allow each of the composers to learn from this experience.
For voting, you rate each entry out of 10 (one being the worst and ten being the best). At the end, the votes will be added up and the top three will be announced.
Composers who entered this contest: You cannot vote for your own entry.
Here is the playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZTxpL6wfPQrOtsNIN8WMD5zPG0qhHsVy
These clips have been labelled for the purposes of anonymity. If you entered the contest or if you know someone who entered the contest, please do not name the entry in question or name the composer in question.
The deadline for voting will be November 27th. That gives you two weeks to listen to the clips and vote. I know that there are a lot of entries but if you do one or two a day, then it becomes easier.
If you have any questions, please contact me at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com.
Kevin
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I skimmed through entry one and couldn't find any music. Was that a mistake? Or was it mixed so low I needed to max out the volume here?
EDIT:
Never mind. The playlist doesn't have all the entires in it and put the music-less clip where number one would be.
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Entry 1: six stars.
Entry 2: five stars
Entry 3: six stars
Entry 4: five stars
Entry 5: five stars
Entry 6: six stars
Entry 7: five stars
Entry 8: two stars. This was ... like a joke.
Entry 9: four stars
Entry 10: four stars
Entry 11: five stars
Entry 12: eight stars
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Posted: |
Nov 16, 2016 - 2:48 PM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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Film music is emotions so among the things I am particularly looking for here is:
1) Even if you haven’t seen the film (you should it won a Best Picture, actor, score, etc. ) it is self evident it is one of the big moments, if not THE big moment in the movie and, as much as I like lowkey scoring, this is not the time to go there.
2) Acknowledging the individual elements in the film that are pulling at our protagonist’s psyche (laughing faces, revelation of the gun, the dog).
3) Since it is a period silent film subtle ways to acknowledge that too.
6) ENTRY 1: Considering the emotional state involved, life and death, way too lowkey. Points for bringing a semblance of a theme to it. 7 stars
9) ENTRY 2: The dirge towards the end anticipates a dire ending. Even if he did blow his brains out (he doesn’t) it is better to score his emotional conflict than telegraph the end result. More emotional than #1 overall but hits only one visual element, the gun. 6 stars
4) ENTRY 3: Nice rendering of her emotional state and feelings for him, unfortunately his side is almost a horror movie, again anticipating a dire ending. 7 stars.
1) ENTRY 4: Best so far. Emotional music even reflects the car horn. Solo piano brings out his individual loneliness. Both emotional states merge at the end for a find crescendo. 9 stars
12) ENTRY 5: Solo piano CAN be a spare approach to scoring this but this sounds more like accompaniment to me. What you would get if a skilled silent film piano player just looked up at the screen and followed as best he could what was going on. 4 stars
3) ENTRY 6: This is terrific music. But as I was watching I was paying more attention to it than anything in the movie. It brings attention to itself more often than not and hence I have to call it as fantastic “inspired by the scene” music. It does not marry with the image enough. But I cannot give it a low score because the music is so good. 8 stars.
8) ENTRY 7: This is throwback time. Her music, which reflects old time chase music, isn’t too bad respecting her emotional state enough. But his melodramatic music didn’t even work that much in real silent movie days. The best silent movie music became more effective the closer they got to real emotions rather than “harrowing clichés”. However if you do see THE ARTIST as more satire of cornball movies I guess this matches. 6 stars
10) ENTRY 8: Looks like we are visiting John Carpenter territory. The upside is that simple cliché ideas like the tick tock of a clock can work very effectively with a film like this one. The downside is after a while I get a sense I could come up with something like this just fooling around with my old Casio. Rewards and nuance is limited. 5 stars
5) ENTRY 9: Retro scoring again that is too melodramatic to connect with real emotions. But better than the last one like it and #9 gets the prize for the most full blooded theme! Even though it all sounds like it would work better in a horror film. 7 stars
11) ENTRY #10 The lightest of all the scores. The chase music almost says don’t take any of this seriously, it is just a funny old silent drama. 5 stars
7) ENTRY #11 Wow! She gets even a more beautiful theme than in #3. But after that everything is muted. For the emotions involved this time less IS less. 6 stars
2) ENTRY #12: Thank goodness! The last is another masterful rendering. I have to go back to #4 again to see who hits the most right moments for me. Above all real emotions is the goal. These vary and spin around those rollercoaster moments while keeping on track with what goes on onscreen. 9 stars
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Posted: |
Nov 17, 2016 - 8:41 AM
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By: |
Broughtfan
(Member)
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Film music is emotions so among the things I am particularly looking for here is:
1) Even if you haven’t seen the film (you should it won a Best Picture, actor, score, etc. ) it is self evident it is one of the big moments, if not THE big moment in the movie and, as much as I like lowkey scoring, this is not the time to go there.
2) Acknowledging the individual elements in the film that are pulling at our protagonist’s psyche (laughing faces, revelation of the gun, the dog).
3) Since it is a period silent film subtle ways to acknowledge that too.
That's a very interesting perspective, Morricone. My "take" on this, however, is a bit different.
Not to say I have "a dog in this fight," but I feel that the object of the contest is to simply score the excerpt, not necessarily with knowledge of what occurs beforehand. The woman in the scene could be any number of things: lover, sister, close friend, for which the "Tristan and Isolde" treatment may or may not be appropriate. Also, what exactly can we assume she knows before going to the man? Has she seen a suicide note? If so, and if this had been included in the clip, the music scoring approach could vastly change. Also, if she thinks the man is going to kill himself she's not going to waste time waiting for the older man to drive her (the fact that she can navigate out of the compound indicates she can, in fact, drive). Also, you'll notice that "the artist" doesn't make the decision to "end it all" until his psyche is sufficiently tortured (by the visions of overlapping, laughing faces). Finally, what makes this particularly challenging are the cutbacks between the man and dog and the woman in the car. What to do? Write slow, pathetic-sounding music for the guy in the room, fast, frenetic music for the woman speeding to him in the car or just "play through," not making tempo/style changes when cutting to the woman in the car? To my mind, both approaches as displayed in the sundry entries, are valid.
All this said, I enjoyed everyone's efforts on this. Good luck to all involved in the contest.
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Posted: |
Nov 20, 2016 - 10:41 AM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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Film music is emotions so among the things I am particularly looking for here is:
1) Even if you haven’t seen the film (you should it won a Best Picture, actor, score, etc. ) it is self evident it is one of the big moments, if not THE big moment in the movie and, as much as I like lowkey scoring, this is not the time to go there.
2) Acknowledging the individual elements in the film that are pulling at our protagonist’s psyche (laughing faces, revelation of the gun, the dog).
3) Since it is a period silent film subtle ways to acknowledge that too.
That's a very interesting perspective, Morricone. My "take" on this, however, is a bit different.
Not to say I have "a dog in this fight," but I feel that the object of the contest is to simply score the excerpt, not necessarily with knowledge of what occurs beforehand. The woman in the scene could be any number of things: lover, sister, close friend, for which the "Tristan and Isolde" treatment may or may not be appropriate. Also, what exactly can we assume she knows before going to the man? Has she seen a suicide note? If so, and if this had been included in the clip, the music scoring approach could vastly change. Also, if she thinks the man is going to kill himself she's not going to waste time waiting for the older man to drive her (the fact that she can navigate out of the compound indicates she can, in fact, drive). Also, you'll notice that "the artist" doesn't make the decision to "end it all" until his psyche is sufficiently tortured (by the visions of overlapping, laughing faces). Finally, what makes this particularly challenging are the cutbacks between the man and dog and the woman in the car. What to do? Write slow, pathetic-sounding music for the guy in the room, fast, frenetic music for the woman speeding to him in the car or just "play through," not making tempo/style changes when cutting to the woman in the car? To my mind, both approaches as displayed in the sundry entries, are valid.
All this said, I enjoyed everyone's efforts on this. Good luck to all involved in the contest.
We are not that far off from each other. I too believe the scene should be scored as is, which is why when the revelation of the gun goes unscored by a couple composers I thoroughly reject it. That would only be legit with information that is not self evident in the scene itself. For me it does not matter if she is a sister, lover, etc. she simply cares a lot about him. Whether it is an inkling or real knowledge there is a sense of urgency in the way she acts and drives that says she has to get to him now. The parallel action "says" life and death situation. It is interesting that you think she is waiting and honking for her driver. I thought she was honking and calling out for our hero and when he doesn't show she urgently drove herself to another place he might be, not even considering waiting for the older guy.
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I will say overall, I found most of the music bland and uninvolving and not fitting to the picture, though I blame the picture mainly. The only entry even worth winning was the last one, Entry 12. I think that composer should be working in the industry if he or she isn't.
I found the clip incredibly boring and badly acted. The best actor in it was the dog, and that was natural talent.
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