Score: Dante 1, Music 0 (Get it? Score? Like the music?)
I had so much fun making my narrative essay. Like a ridiculous amount of fun. It probably helped a lot that I not only had a script that I was fairly happy with, but I got to score my piece using music from Star Wars, which I loved on like five different levels. One thing that I found really interesting was how I didn't really place my music based on thematic shifts, or changes between acts, but rather a general feeling for where the music belonged. Of course, that "feeling" is very informed by the shifts in theme and the pace of the piece, but there seemed to be moments that called for music, and some that didn't quite as much.
The most difficult part of this whole process was, however, actually getting the music in. I had a library of soundtracks to choose from, but finding the right piece with the right tone was important, and then bringing it in at the right moment, fading it in and out and doing everything else that the project necessitated wasn't easy. I spent a good five minutes just getting the start of the Cantina music lined up perfectly with the end of my narration. I could have left a moment of silence there, and I did initially, but scoring this piece was a process of trial and error, so after quite a few adjustments, I ended up with something that I was happy with. This is all on top of the very difficult task of balancing my narration with the music, and I actually got conflicting feedback regarding the volume of the opening piece of music, so I'll probably spend ten to fifteen minutes getting that perfect when it comes time for the final draft.
Other than that, I found myself most frustrated with recording my actual narration. There were a few mispronounced words, and stumbles, not to mention the difference in background noise that I found between two different times that I started recording. I ended up just working with what I had, and resolving to re-record most of it when the time comes to finalize the piece, but that's going to mess up the timing of the music, and the levels of the music, and oh no I've gone cross-eyed.
With all of that said, I really enjoyed this project. I definitely need to mess with the audio levels a little bit, I need to tighten up the script and clarify/simplify some areas, but I think that I'm largely happy with it. As a mostly-done draft, I'm very proud of what I ended up with, and I'm excited about making it as good as it can possibly be, and even though that means essentially doing the whole thing over again, I'm looking forward to it.
I really enjoyed your comments about the challenges of scoring your narrative. Teaching the course this time around, I think I have a better grasp of some of the principles behind it: cues to Act and scene changes, punctuating moments of rising action, and so on. Your piece added another dimension: music that specifically points to narrative content (i.e. soundtrack from Star Wars). Brendan Baker, in a piece about scoring radio essays that we didn't read, says this: "I suspect that the power of scoring doesn’t come from matching music to the words in your story, but matching music to your listener’s translation of those words into images. In other words, you’re scoring for a film playing in someone else’s head." What do you think about that? Does it describe the more intuitive approach to scoring that you described?
ReplyDeleteMy writing style has always reflected how I think and how I talk, which is why I have an affinity for the personal essay. An interesting byproduct of this is that I've always read and written my writing as if I were speaking it out loud, which has always conjured up some kind of image in my head, even if it's just the facial expressions that I'd be making while saying the words on the page. I do agree with the idea that scoring really aids with the transition of words to something other than words, although I don't know if it's necessarily specific images, but rather images and/or expressions and/or feelings and/or actions. This is one of the reasons why I don't really like using only one piece of music in pieces, or even hearing a repeated piece of music. Motifs and themes can work to the same extent that we use them in film scores, but repeating the exact same part of the exact same song in multiple contexts within a piece of work makes the tone of the piece and the music seem a little... homogeneous, I suppose.
DeleteScoring music to narrative is an interesting idea, and I think it worked really well in your piece. Every time I watch a movie now I listen to the scoring and think to myself 'damn those guys are good at audacity'. I wonder if using this movie-like technique presents more challenges than trying to just punctuate acts with music (which is what I tried to do). I'd definitely like to give this other approach a shot now.
ReplyDeleteIf nothing else, this project has given me enormous respect for editors of movies and podcasts and really anything. I know that they say editing isn't an exact science, and that it's like half feeling, but man, it really is. The only way I'll ever get actually good at this is by practicing and practicing and practicing, which seems very difficult and time-consuming.
DeleteThat is great to hear your enthusiasm! This class has been a joy for me, as well!
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate to the frustration with mispronunciations/stumbles. It can be maddening to record take after take and essentially nail it, but still have one or two places where you flub so much as a syllable.
ReplyDeleteI ended up doing separate takes of some individual paragraphs and, in the end, even switching some words in my script on the fly to try to get past that.
I think you did a great job with your music, though. While the structure we were presented makes a lot of sense and works for most pieces, the story you were telling was so much about feeling anyway, that your choices made a lot of sense; I think it's a perfect example of knowing the rules and then breaking them.
Your gut instinct felt spot-on when I listed to the piece. I think you have a natural ear, so to speak, on how to bring out the strongest moments of your narrative. I felt that your recording is one of the strongest pieces we heard. I'm impressed with the sound quality. (Did you use the Yeti?)
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your 'cross-eyed' comment. Editing the recordings is very much like dealing with a Hydra of different sound factors. Fix one, another pops up in its place...but it IS fun!