Updated 25th march.
Report:
My objective was to compose a soundtrack to accompany a scene from American Beauty using percussion.
I wanted to highlight the slow motion dance at the end of the film; I changed the feel of the music at this point and timed shakes and bells to occur when the camera switched between the two characters.
James Horner’s soundtrack for Avatar influenced my piece, particularly the piece called Jake’s First Flight (Horner, 2009) as I liked the polyrhythms in it and the overall style of the piece. A R Rahman was also a major influence on my piece, he was responsable for the Slumdog millionaire soundtrack. Indian music from musicians such as Malkit Singh, Panjabi MC and R.D.B also influenced my choice of instrumentation and rhythms.
I used the drum pads on my axiom keyboard and allowed the pressure of hits on the pads to decide the velocity of the sample/note, which achieved a more humanised feel. One music technique I learnt was using cross-rhythms; I tried to use conflicting patterns on the Latin and Indian drums in the slow motion dance section.
For this task I learnt about Indian, Latin and African percussion and cross-rhythms so I could understand the instruments and techniques better, I then experimented by mixing techniques, instruments and rhythms together. I would award myself a mark of around 68-70% for this task because I feel my piece provides evidence of experimentation of my research findings and explores musical techniques that are new to me.
Word count : 249
References:
- Davis, R. (1999) The Complete Guide To Film Scoring, Boston: Berklee Press.
- Karlin, F. (2004) On The Track: A Guide To Contemporary Film Scoring. Great Britain: Routledge.
Films
- American Beauty (1999) [DVD] dir. Mendes,S. USA: DreamWorks Pictures.
- Avatar (2009) [DVD] dir. Cameron, J. USA: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
- Slumdog Millionaire (2008) [DVD] dir. Boyle, D. UK:20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Websites
- PMC Records. (2011). Panjabi MC Official Website. Available: http://www.pmcrecords.com/index.php/home. Last accessed 11th Mar 2011
- RDB. (2011). RDB Music. Available: http://rdbmusic.com/. Last accessed 11th Mar 2011
- phoenixrising113. (2008).Ringa Ringa. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-osWvzCMQ7s&feature=related. Last accessed 12th Mar 2011
- passtschonJO. (2009). Avatar Soundtrack 07 – Jake’s First Flight. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXDKRayFTik. Last accessed 12th Mar 2011
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Influences:
love the housey latin feel plus the trombone licks in the cheerleading section. Great use of exotic percussion in the ‘trance’ section, the only thing separating you from a clear First is that as we approach the moment when the rose petals are going to pour out of her jacket, there is no noticeable crescendo, just work on that bit !
btw James Utting has a nice builduo in his… check it out !