Page 23 - 2013 Spring

MOTION PICTURE SCORING STAGES AN OVERVIEW
Shawn Murphy
Murphy Balance Engineering 3800 La Crescenta Ave. #205 La Crescenta, California 91214
Introduction
The Motion Picture Scoring Stage holds a unique place in the uni- verse of recording and perform- ance venues. Originally a necessity, the Scoring Stage has become the center of recording versatility and technical innovation over the past three decades.
This piece intends to describe a
short history of the stages and the
included technology. The current state
of the scoring/recording art and utilized
technology will be examined with some
rent projects. The approach is not scientific; it is a personal description and history from a music mixer/engineer who has resided in this business for over thirty-five years.
The composer
The art of film scoring originates with the form itself. Live music accompaniment to moving images began with the introduction of film storytelling. With the marriage of sound and picture in synchronization, the film composer now had the ability to permanently enhance the drama, describe the action and enrich the emotion of the story.
The composer reads the script, screens the edited picture and commits to a discussion of style and form with the direc- tor. Often a process of thematic demonstration follows and fur- ther refinement of musical approach is accomplished. The composer then “spots” the picture for music with the director, film editor and sometimes the producer. Specific cue timings and functions are discussed. The music editor then creates “spotting/timing notes” and a cue-by-cue “breakdown” of the music in the film. This breakdown includes start and stop times for cues, all dialog timings, and important action timing with- in the cues. The timings were originally noted in feet and film frames and are now indicated by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) time code numbers in min- utes-seconds and frames. Currently, timings within frames are common due to the resolution of film composition software.
The composer then begins writing the music for each indicated cue. He includes timings of important action and dialog, which align with the editors’ timing notes. The tempo, bar structure and musical notation is included in a “sketch” which is developed over a period of composition and refine- ment. The sketch may be made by hand or via computerized music notation software and usually includes at least eight musical staves and often numerous “midi” lines recorded in the notation software. The composer constantly checks and re-checks his composition for picture sync and includes
changes and enhancements required by the director.
After the cues are approved, his sketch is turned over to an orchestrator, who fills out the parts needed for full performance on the recording stage. Often, the orchestrator will create “cued” parts to enhance the composition if needed in the recording process. The orchestrator will assign parts to instru- ments bearing in mind the range of each instrument and it’s ability to play the
desired part. The orchestrator is by far the key person after the composer in the recording process. The qualities of the orchestration determine the speed and ease of the perform- ance and recording process on the scoring stage.
The orchestrator then submits his full score to the music copyist/library to make transposed parts for each individual musician to be used on the scoring session. Given a standard scoring orchestra of between 65-90 players, this can result in the manufacture of more than 50 parts per cue, for the spec- ified number of bars in each cue. The music library also man- ufactures full scores for the composer, the booth score read- er (often the orchestrator), the music editor, the engineer and the assistant engineer. The library also produces a breakdown of which musicians perform on each cue, the cue timing/number of bars, as well as a breakdown specification of percussion, keyboards and solo instruments. It also indi- cates doubles in the winds and brass departments and any score-indicated overdubs.
The next step in the process is scheduling the music scoring sessions into a scoring stage by the production com- pany. Professional musicians are then engaged for the ses- sions by a contractor, who includes the input of the compos- er and the orchestrator in regards to specific players and soloists. The scoring mixer is engaged, and he schedules the equipment needed, the stage setup and the required crew. A comprehensive recording schedule is developed based on the complexity of the score and the number of minutes to be recorded for the score. A typical film scoring session would schedule six to seven minutes of completed music per three- hour session. Most film scores include between forty and one hundred minutes of finished music. However, the inclusion of alternates and on-session fixes can increase the minute count by twenty percent.
On the scoring stage, specific picture sync is maintained either by mechanical means (sprockets), or by electronic methods involving SMPTE time code and video picture syn- chronization. Picture cues, based on the composer’s notes
22 Acoustics Today, April 2013
“Scoring Stage monitor environment must be both accurate and dramatically viable, several choices of monitoring elements are provided.”
examples from cur-