Film & Television Music

This lesson is part of the Style & Compositional Techniques category.

Objectives

• Students will be familiar with the compositional processes involved in writing for film, television, and online video
• Students will be able to create a sequenced track which underscores a short video scene

Resources

Readings

• Lehman, “Complete Catalog of the Themes of Star Wars“
• Spitfire Audio:
  • Bellamy, Henson and Thomson, "Scoring a Film"
• DIY Film Composer:
  • "Finding the Perfect Tempo for a Film Score"

Listening or Videos

• Doll, "Was it Diegetic, or Just a Dream? Music's Paradoxical Place in the Film Inception"

Tools

• Absil, Film Music Tempo Calculation Tool

Class Activities

• Discussion of the mechanics and compositional challenges of scoring film and video
• Scoring a short video scene using a sequencer

Assignments

• Analysis of music from film, TV, or online video
• Creating a compositional plan for a film, TV, or video
• Determining a tempo map for a cue based on given hit points

Files

• Scoring a scene (Word | Pages | PDF)