Baby Turtle Time

Last post I mentioned a movie soundtrack was in discussion. While the legals are still in progress and they’re still in the shooting stage I’m now deep into music design. I’ve supplied some previous work, had feedback about what’s right/wrong and now busy generating short textural beds for further critique.

I’m following the strategy of bugs and turtles – make lots of children because most of them are not going to survive. Many musicians make enough tracks for an album and keep polishing them. Film (and advertising) isn’t like that – you have to be dedicated, open and prolific. Someone else will kill your darlings. It’s also difficult to anticipate what will capture a photographer’s approval. One ad soundtrack I did was a quick rough made on a wavestation – that went international for years. Other labours went in the bin.

This is a true story. Peter Greste, working for Al Jazeera, was arrested and charged with terrorism by the Egyptian government. This event is intertwined with other previous experiences covered in his book The First Casualty. It’s a personal documentary and so has to walk a landscape – vantage points, emotions, situations. I’ve been chosen because I don’t do the orchestral fluffing that’s clouding up the current documentary of the month The Octopus. Nor am I Hans Zimmer with ‘my music is bigger than your music’. I am a cold bastard. I just have to be careful not to sound too much like other cold bastards.

Even on a medium sized production you will be part of a sound team. There will be a Head of Sound. There will be Foley. The Editors will have their own demands. Best to listen more and talk less.

Very happy to have settled on spectral synthesis as my main weapon. You take any existing natural sound and hack away at the partials to form a tone. Music made out of natural sounds is a lot like emotions filtering in a real world situation. It’s physical but it’s also in the head. I hope that will be the right way…