Composition Assignment: Film Scoring Part 1 - Spotting & First Cue

NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement)

This is a film I just finished working on and is not yet publicly available. The director has kindly trusted us to use this film, provided that we don’t share it with anyone outside of our class. By downloading the materials associated with this project and its assignments, you agree not to share any of these materials outside of our class. If any of these materials should be shared, we collectively damage the reputation of ourselves, your instructor, this program, and the college as a whole.

Example Agreement.pdf (48.9KB)

Provided Materials

Google Sheet Template: Spotting Session
Scene: Dropbox Download Link (password to be shared verbally in class)
Notes From Initial Phone Call With Director of Blight

Situation

You and the director have just met for your first spotting session for the short film “Blight.” “Blight,” an ambitious short film written and directed by German-American filmmaker Markus Hoeckner, delves into the depths of a crumbling society plagued by food shortages and global warfare. In this dystopian thriller, two brothers confront a pivotal decision: to embrace the uncertain future of a mass exodus from Earth or seek solace amidst the remnants of their shattered world. The film stars Somali-American actor Barkhad Abdirahman who is best known for his acclaimed roles in the Academy Award nominated Tom Hanks thriller, Captain Phillips (2013), Musa Syeed’s award-winning feature film A Stray (2016), and the short film Watu Wote, which won the Student Academy Award and was nominated for Best Live Action Short at the 2018 Oscars. Along with telling a gripping and authentic story, this Minnesota-made film looks to change longstanding negative representations of Somali characters in films.

During the spotting session, you and the director establish six sections of the film that will require custom music:

Cue	Timecode In	Timecode Out	Length
1m01	01:00:05:00	01:01:02:11	00:00:57:11
1m02	01:02:30:00	01:03:16:15	00:00:46:15
1m03	01:05:21:06	01:08:02:00	00:02:40:17
1m04	01:08:20:00	01:09:50:11	00:01:30:11
1m05	01:10:28:23	01:11:05:01	00:00:36:02
1m06	01:11:50:00	01:12:57:15	00:01:07:15

The director wants to use cue 1m03, “Running,” to narrow in on the musical palette that will be applied throughout the rest of the film. The temp track is currently Alec Puro’s “Nausea” from the Netflix show Black Summer. However, the director also loves James Newton Howard & Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack from Dark Night and The Revenant soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto.

In your conversations, the director has shared that they don’t want an “obvious theme” (think Star Wars), and they want the music to push more “sound design” than “musical” while still maintaining an “organic” quality.

Creative Brief

Compose an initial draft of the 1m03 cue for the scene when Jamal leaves his brother and begins the dangerous journey to the evacuation site. For this initial draft, focus more on the sound palette and less on following the on-screen action.

File Format & Standards

When you are done composing, make sure that your track’s final peak volume level is between -1 and -24 dB. Then, export it as a movie file that contains only the music (no SFX or dialogue).

Naming Convention

Your file should be named exactly as follows:

SP24-MUSC-228_P2_FirstName-LastName_1m03-Draft_V001

Example: SP24-MUSC-228_P2_Daniel-Dehaan_1m03-Draft_V001

Naming Convention Explained: [Semester]-[Department]-[Course Number]_[Week Number]_[Project Number]_[Composers First Name]-[Composers Last Name]_[File Name]_[Version Number]

Evaluation Standards

Criteria	Points
File Format & Standards - Did you follow all file formats and standards described here or previously discussed in class?	1
Naming Convention - Did you follow all naming conventions and standards described here or previously discussed in class?	1
Creative Brief - Did you realize everything that was asked in the creative brief?	7
X Factor - Does it have that “X” quality?	1
Total	10

Submission

Upload your completed materials to this Dropbox folder: SP24-MUSC-228_W04_Project-02

Warning: Please take extra care when uploading your files to ensure everything is in the correct file format and named exactly as requested. If, for any reason, you need to upload additional versions, please increment the version number at the end of the file for each new version of a file.

Example version progression:

SP24-MUSC-228_P2_Daniel-Dehaan_1m03-Draft_V001

SP24-MUSC-228_P2_Daniel-Dehaan_1m03-Draft_V002

SP24-MUSC-228_P2_Daniel-Dehaan_1m03-Draft_V003

Peer Critique

Please be prepared to present your DAW project to the class so that we can collectively learn from or improve your work.

Example Documents

Example Contract - Short Film.pdf (99.4KB)
Cue Sheets