OVERVIEW

Building an atmosphere in a film relies on a solid plot, the visuals and of course the music. Music can play an essential part in changing the mood and encouraging sought after responses from the audience. The music for Juniper – The Last Robot was mainly inspired by the work of Danny Elfman, Michael Andrews, Ennio Morricone, John Williams and Clint Mansell each responsible for their own outstanding film scores. Danny Elfman was the mastermind behind the music for The Nightmare before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands. He has a peculiar style of music that stylizes aspects of the film that visuals alone can not reach. He fills in what the audience can’t see on the screen with music.

Michael Andrews is famously known for his musical contribution to cult classic film Donnie Darko. The strange plot of the film allowed Andrews to explore a combination of using both classical instruments and computer generated synthesizers. The hybrid of the two sounds sets the mood of the film beautifully. He creates haunting music that can suggest both suspense and loneliness simultaneously.

Ennio Morricone is one of the most established film composers ever. He has worked on hundreds of films with his most famous score coming from Western The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. I looked at his work closely in preparation for writing the music for the fight scene where Juniper and Jed duel in Ravensville town.

John Williams is responsible for writing some of the most memorable Hollywood blockbusters. His triumphs include ET, Star Wars, Schindler’s List, Deer Hunter and Indiana Jones to name a few. He has the ability to write both uplifting music and powerful disheartening music which is very effective on screen. His style is so varied that it is sometimes hard to recognize his music.

Requiem for a Dream is one of the most innovative and thought-provoking films of recent times. Clint Mansell composed the soundtrack which has been regurgitated many times for use in other productions (i.e. the trailer to The Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King). His music is extremely powerful, modern and stylistically simple.

The Process

I began by watching a rough draft of the 3D film, where all the scenes were in relatively the right places. Then I decided what role the music has in the film and the aims of the different songs. I outlined the stages of the film and determined the type of music required for each stage and where it will begin and end drawing together a rough idea of the duration of each song. Then I began working on the main melody of a song, building new tracks and adding different instruments around the melody. I began by writing some of the music on a guitar and transferring the selections of the notes to FL Studio 4. These were written using the sequencer (piano rollout) available in FL Studio 4 where the velocity and duration of each note could be created and edited instantly. Then I would save the track and hear it back the next day. If it still sounded suitable for that particular scene, I kept it, if not it wasn’t developed further. The process of compiling the different tracks in Sonar 1.0 and testing their compatibility against the imagery took many hours but was an essential part of the film that formed the backbone of the plot.

Below are screenshots of one of the tracks from the song ‘Jed’s Theme’ that features extensively in ‘Juniper – The Last Robot’. The second image shows the setup in Sonar 1.0 where the music was compiled once the individual tracks had been made.

Sonar 1.0 sequencer allowed me to easily edit and manage my tracks. Each track has its own rollout menu where modifications can be made, for example the volume of the track or the bias of the track’s panning. The more prominent tracks were set to have louder volumes and pan relatively central. The intro tracks for example were arranged so that the instruments were heard from either the left or right output. This way the clarity of each instrument could be maintained and minimize (or even eradicate) muffling as the number of tracks increased. The louder tracks usually included the main piano melody and the cello pizzicato.

Recording Juniper’s Footsteps ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sounds effects for the film were obtained from both the internet (with manipulation in FL Studio 4) and recorded using a Carol MUD-916 Cardioid Dynamic microphone. This was performed by setting up the microphone on an extendable tripod stand in the bathroom and recording my fingers tapping on the tiles. I made three sets of recordings from the tapping each with varying durations. Because of the echo of the small room, the sound produced was a dull thump which was ideal for the footsteps. To increase the echo and velocity of the wave I added a reverb filter and a chorus filter in FL Studio.

The waves acquired from the internet were obtained from www.flashkit.com and www.freesoundfiles.tintagel.net.

Listen to my Music----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can listen to the full soundtrack I composed for the film. To do so please click on the title of the song.