Re-scoring

I've been re-editing my first feature film, "The Broken Quiet", from scratch for about two or three months, now.  Since the structure of the film has completely changed, the old musical score really doesn't fit at all. I had too choices going into this -- tweak the old score or just create a new score. I opted for the latter. It's an interesting experience, scoring for something I've already edited and scored for almost two years ago (wow, that went by fast). 

I approached the last score in segments. I'd edit a sequence, then score the music for it, then edit a sequence, then score the music, and on and on. This time through, I decided early on to try a different method, perhaps the more traditional route. I locked down the rough edit (of course, there may still be changes, but it's pretty much set) before even striking a key. Now I'm scoring one long, 70-80 minute piece that has its gaps, but flows together much more like one ever mutating song instead of multiple isolated tracks.

Another of the creative decisions I've made is the lack of too many central themes or motifs, but to rather focus completely on the emotions, save for one main, title theme that makes its way into the piece here and there, sometimes subtly, sometimes at the front of it all. It used to be that I would develop multiple re-ocurring themes that helped shape ideas and thoughts behind the actions and dialogue, and take us back to them when it was time to chew on them some more. Instead, this time around, I'm simply walking through the woods, hitting the instruments that come to my mind.

The result is a more reflective, simple and yet at times foreboding score that speaks in a much greater way to the inner turmoil our characters face, yet without pouring the melodramatic overtones on thick (and without always relying on the high pitched violins to say "this is drama").

In many ways, this film could come off as an extended music video without words, as many silent moments that weren't in the film before are now present, and require some kind of musical accompaniment.

It's a fun ride, scoring a film, and it's an interesting experience doing it all over again for a piece that I've already completed.

Here's a short sample of the new score.