Scoring Big

Having not yet filmed any of my scenes, I'm putting a lot of importance on editing Joey's monologue.  This monologue makes up about 90% of the production and is by far the most important element when factoring in the worth of the words and how it sets up the premise for the rest of the film.  However, a slight issue arose when I realized that my friend Joey, who's playing Joseph, didn't read the lines the way I pictured them in my head.  Despite trying my best to direct him, this final product was still not something I am completely satisfied with.

Therefore, editing this aspect became extremely crucial.  I pieced together the lines of dialogue that I liked the most, changed the volume of several clips, and even cut out some lines definitively; I call this: Frankenstein's monologue.  However, even Frankenstein's monologue wasn't the final product.  Although it was definitely an improvement from the original draft, it was still messy and odd-sounding.  Therefore, I turned to music to provide a distraction.

This is around the point in which I turned to my father for help.  Along with being Father Peter, my dad has also been tasked with the act of creating a score for my production.  Music has always been his passion, having been in several bands throughout his life, the latest of which you can find here.  Knowing that he's very interested in music (and that he's good at it too) I asked him if he would be willing to make the score for my production.  Of course, he was more than eager to help!

Having finished editing the monologue, I sent it over to him for him to tinker with.  In just a few hours, he had come up with a soundtrack.  Although I thought it was good, I made notice of a few things that I wasn't 100% on.  Mainly, I noticed that the full audio was 2:27 minutes long.  Considering that my absolute time limit is 2:30, this is far too long.  Immediately, I asked him if he could shorten this.  I also noticed that Joey's speech was very echoey, which I didn't like too much.  Similarly, when discussing the song itself, it was a bit upbeat and hopeful, whereas I wanted something darker and more dramatic.

First draft that my dad sent me

Finally, I asked him if he could rework the score with this feedback in mind; we ended up sitting down together and making the necessary changes.  Here are some things that were changed:

• Instead of piano, we used guitar for the melody
• Added a lot more synth
• Added some bass for rhythm
• Changed the key from major to minor
• Shortened it to only 2:01 minutes

After these changes, I was feeling a lot more confident about the production.  I feel like the score is a perfect mix of dark ambientals (while not being too horror-like) and melodic tunes (while not being too cheery).  I feel like the music expresses the vibe of the production fairly well, and I also appreciate being able to have my own original score, as I think that it adds a nice extra touch to the film.