THE MODERN FILM COMPOSER: “AVATAR – The New Film Experience”

As a student of films I am generally skeptical about any hype and critics acclaim, billion dollars or not. After spending at least $280 million dollars to create a future world of fantasy, most people might think that’s a little excessive… but then again it was spent by James Cameron. Which brings me to another area of skepticism, a one time success assuming a later success. In other words, just because Mr. Cameron had a passion and focus on Titanic, doesn’t automatically mean that will prove true in his next big project.

For me personally 3D films have been a double edge sword. I love the concept and I love the experience, but I hate the double images and ensuing headache. There have been a lot of technological advances in our movie experience, and with the progress in home entertainment, theaters have to do some work to keep things on the cutting edge. As I’ve said regarding my skeptic ways, I don’t jump on board with the next big gimmick easily. Laser discs, projection, flat screen projection, HD, digital, blah, blah, blah. Who can keep up?

Now that I’ve actually broken down and jumped into the Avatar frenzy I have to admit that senior Cameron has done it again. There is the impeccable attention to detail and follow through that we all know and love… even if by accident. The visual is crisp and cohesive. I can’t say I ever noticed a difference or variance between live action and CG. What that means to me is less distraction, distraction from the story, from the emotion, and from the enjoyment this film deserves. The computer animation was astounding with the Avatar characters facial expressions, skin tone, and hair. And I have to say that the 3D quality was at a level that I had not experienced.

Mr. James Horner did a great job on the score. It seems like every director has his favorite composer, which I think is great… still looking for mine. Where I thought the score was so well done was not only in the theme, which are hard to find these days, but in the effort made to combine traditional orchestration with modern elements. There is a sound emerging in the score world of harsh mechanical samples that could have easily over run the film. Instead, the sounds of fantasy and mystery utilized with lush strings and classic orchestration was perfectly blended with electronic percussion and synths.

There is something that happens to the majority of artists who use their talents to make a living. The passion that once was, gets lost. After the success comes complacency and the chase for the next big gig. From what I understand, Avatar was written by a young, passionate, Cameron with a clear vision and a massive imagination… and it shows. He takes you on a journey into a complex subject with simple story lines that everyone loves. For the first time in a very long while, I caught myself feeling like I was experiencing something new and exciting. Avatar is a perfect example of a pure vision with professional follow through.

There is a bigger picture to this picture. Avatar has officially changed the film goers experience. James Cameron has upped the anti again. There will be a day when this level of film making will be old news just like Star Wars. Until then, there will be a long road to ho for all the follow up blockbusters trying to match the challenge.

THE MODERN FILM COMPOSER: “The Wild West Of Broadcast Media”

NBC… Who’s NBC? Well NBC, currently NBC Universal has been a giant in media in some form for as long as there’s been broadcast media. It is amazing to me how short of a period it has taken to come from black and white tube T.V.’s to fully digital flat screens that hang on your wall. Along with all that technology has come massive changes in how the media gets to your screen.

We as the general public don’t think much about how things started. We just have strong memories of classic shows that shaped our childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, from the “A Team”, to “Friends”, to “Seinfield”, to “The Biggest Loser”. There is a dichotomy in film and T.V. that is created by the fact that the delivery system for media is driven by business, otherwise known as money, but the content is driven by art. All of the elements that create the media we all love are based in design, performance, creation, and emotion. The problem is that art is expensive, well only if it isn’t successful. So something quite profound is happening in the entertainment industry with the invention of iTunes and Hulu. The system that has worked since the 1930’s, isn’t working.

Only recently did I learn that shows were created by advertisers, not the network. “Guiding Light” was the longest running soap opera that only recently, after 70 years was taken off of the air. Originally this was created by soap manufacturers to catch the attention of housewives listening to the radio, integrating their product into quick intermissions between all the riveting drama. Obviously, other advertisers wanted in on the action, which the broadcasters took full advantage of. This process has flipped a bit. By having a successful show that draws millions of focused viewers, you now have a format for advertising dollars. CHA CHING! Superbowl 2009 cost $3 million dollars for 30 seconds. It just took 30 seconds to write that and I didn’t get a dime. That’s just for the air time, forget about the cost of the content.

So why in the world would GE try to dump NBC? Well this is just a lowly ol’ struggling film composers take, but… PEOPLE DON’T WATCH COMMERCIALS. First it was Tivo, now known mostly as a DVR. Guess what, not only can you watch what you want when you want, you don’t have to watch all those ads!! This revolutionary device was introduced in 1999. That was the start of commercial free T.V. Actually, they are produced, paid for, slotted and shown, it’s just that we don’t watch them. Deciding what and when you want to watch also means deciding what you don’t want to watch. So now the content really has to grab your attention, and for some that hasn’t been happening.

Along with all of that, for the last two decades networks have been able to coast on the momentum of the previous 50 years, but then came the speed, access, and drive space fed by the Internet. More and more people are now watching T.V. online. New DVD players and T.V.’s connect directly to the world wide web, providing access to endless media content without the networks.

So what does this mean for me, and anyone else interested in tapping in to the world of television? To be honest I’m not sure, but what I do know is that technology is changing the way that T.V. works and how we get paid. Because reality T.V. is so much less expensive it has grown to become a behemoth along with it’s general structure has changed how we write music. At least it is getting broadcast and is still traceable.

So here’s the issue. Like any system that has been in place, working seemingly fine untouched for decades, the infrastructure is there to track literally every second of airtime an artist gets. Thankfully there are organizations in place to help with all these tedious details daunting to any artists mind. But how do we track all this business on the web? How do the content providers get back to forcing the viewers to watching the ads… the money? Hulu is in control of what is shown during an episode, not the viewer, so maybe they have that covered. We watch the commercials during the super bowl because it’s an American event. The advertisers put so much into their content it’s like getting ready for a hundred 30 second blockbusters. We WANT to watch them. Maybe that IS worth $3 million bucks?

What is the point to all this information and jib jab? Just like the record companies who have lost millions of dollars on the fat they once earned with CD sales, “forcing” them to crack down on 12 year old girls and their purple lap tops, music in video content is becoming more valuable. Why should some guy who cut together a video of him shooting a potato gun off the back of his dirt bike on You Tube be able to use Thomas Newman’s hard work to broadcast all over the world? How do you track it? Truth is, until now private video production was so personally delivered, who cares… right? I mean, what’s Thomas Newman going to charge for four minutes of crummy footage. The problem is that Billy Bob is now getting exposure, viewer hits, links to his potato gun web site and profiting from Thomas Newman’s hard work. Well, you get the idea.

So, am I the guy that needs to get paid for every little thing I do? Not even a little bit, but I would like to be in control of what I give out for free. More than that, I would like people to realize that the reason creators get paid so well in the entertainment business is because there is a value to the art. The finale of “Family Ties” where everyone cry’s drawing millions of viewers was made by the artists and sold lots of ad space which perpetuates the business, which perpetuates the art. I applaud change, ease, instant access, and all that stuff, but I hope the substance doesn’t get too watered down along the way.

What we do as artists is meant to move people. Move them to cry, laugh, contemplate, forget, change, love, and in order to strive for that depth we need to feel valued.

THE MODERN FILM COMPOSER; “Find The Balance”

It has been said that music is 60% of a film. Whether or not that figure is accurate, there is no question that music has always been a huge piece of the film puzzle, and appears to be an ever-changing landscape. There is a part of me that feels like true film composers are a dying art. With apple loops and powerful software at times musicianship has become mechanized, a series of key strokes and quantizing plug ins. Don’t get me wrong, I am a firm supporter of technology, and to be perfectly honest wouldn’t be able to do what I do without the help of that support.

Here’s the thing, no matter how you are writing, you still need to know how to write. For the moment, much of the music written for film and T.V. is made up of acoustical instruments, familiar sounds that are played by humans in real spaces. If a composer doesn’t have the ability to recreate that sound with a semblance of classical knowledge, then we all begin to lose the knowledge of how real music resonates in the human ear. How the wave forms travel from a vibrating string, wind reed, or skin of a drum, to the drums in our ears. I know that may sound a bit dramatic, but the point is that music equates into emotion, with or without picture. Music can make you feel pensive, happy, melancholy, or angry, you name it the emotion is there. It is my firm belief that a composer’s responsibility is to “service the film“; To support the emotion and vision of a director drawing their audience into a film, series, or commercial. If we lose the fundamentals of what that means, we have lost the art of music in its relationship to film.

There have been many points in history where the face of music has changed. When technology threatened to alter the course of sound that we have been familiar with for centuries. A synthesizer to define an era, or a voice altering generator that defines an entertainment icon, we always end up back with the fundamentals of the “real thing”, incorporating those innovations throughout. What does that mean you ask? It means two things to me. If you are a modern film composer, don’t forget to be a musician. Don’t forget what music is and the instruments and the people that play them (another subject) give to the overall art. At the same time, understanding that we live in a world of orchestras in a box, hip hop beats testing the limits of bass levels, synthetic sounds found only in fiction, and that ignoring these advances only stifles our own inspiration.

Find the balance. Don’t forget the music.

THE MODERN FILM COMPOSER: What is music to film?

What is music to film? What is the point and the significance? Where does silence fall into the affect on film, the absence of music? There are large discussions about the anatomy of film and a film score. Music was in film before sound was in film. Before dialog was in film. Music has always been an integral part of the film process and more importantly the result of the director’s vision. It is my mission statement to “service the film”. What do I mean exactly? I mean through the process of your spotting session with a director, it is not only vital to determine where he is headed with the overall feeling of the film but with each cue. Throughout history filmmakers have used music to direct the audience either exactly where the scene is headed, accentuating the feeling of sadness or delight, or steering the audience in the exact opposite direction of what is happening on screen. Often music directs the audience to what’s happening inside the mind of a character, which may be different from what they are physically doing on screen. Many times, one of the more challenging scenes to write for are the ones where a characters emotions change on a dime. For example when the direction of the film appears to being headed in overwhelming delight only to be redirected by ones long lost love being hit by a truck… or whatever, you get the idea.

So, with all of these “royalty free” library’s and garage band mix’s, is the value of an original score being diluted? Probably to some degree, but there is a tremendous amount of thought that goes into the creation of a score. There are so many details from the musicality in its inception, to the instruments used in a hit point. For instance, you wouldn’t write the same music for a network drama as you would for a blockbuster film like Pirates of the Caribbean right? Not just because the budget’s different, or the content isn’t the same, but because they are on a completely different quality level. Having a 60 piece orchestra blowing out fat blatty horns is simply too big for a little TV drama. It doesn’t fit. Along with that, there is a rhythm to visual content. The pace in which something is edited and where the audio crosses over transitions all have an impact on what happens with the music and how you work around dialog. Sure there are a lot of things where library music can be cut in, but there is no question that it detracts from the quality of a film. There is a term, “TV Tight”. To be at a professional level, the entire mix should be as seamless as possible. Nothing should distract from what is happening on screen, in fact it should draw you in without you even knowing it.

At times even silence is your friend. Silence is uncomfortable in social situations, in observing something, possibly intimate moments that you may or may not normally be a part of. Silence is very powerful, and especially so when it is just before or just after a leading score. It’s like being dropped off in the desert in the middle of the night after blasting music on your road trip to Vegas only to be left with anxious and slightly disturbing… silence. “Sometimes less is more” is a term I think all storytellers in an age of shaky camera’s and eye blistering fire balls should keep in the front of their minds.

Whatever the call, it should always be about the intent of the film and how the music enhances its process.