Is it now possible to simulate a huge orchestral score on computers and synthesisers?
It is, but it’s pretty painstaking to make it sound half reasonable. Even with the best samples it takes time to go through all 20 or so violin sections to see which sounds best, then to add in realistic fades, swells… It might fool most of the people some of the time, not all the people all the time. To my ears string sections can be OK, but sampled solo strings or woodwind are really bland. I prefer to work with a small selection of real instruments. It has more oomph; samples sound compressed and dull and lack the little glitches and the soul of real instrumentalists.
Once you have finished the soundtrack on what format do you give it to the filmmaker? Does it then need mixing or is it ready to be put on the film and shown?
Quite often I’ll email an mp3 whilst writing, or put it on a CD as audio. For the final music I’ll provide an audio CD (stereo) unless the director has specifically requested AIFFs, which can be at 44.1 or 48 MHz. I do my own mixing, sometimes providing a more bass-heavy option for the filmmaker to choose between, and the sound editor might tweak the EQ or add a bit more reverb. For higher-budget productions I may have to one day provide music as separate tracks, which could be 8 tracks ADAT or Pro-Tools. I haven’t had this requested as yet.
What are the commonest problems you encounter when trying to score a film?
Getting started can be tricky sometimes. I’ve found coffee and pastries to be one of the very best ways to get me buzzing with ideas. Also deadlines. And, most importantly, good films. Lack of time can be a problem. The biggest problem has probably been finding good musicians who are prepared to record for little in return, or a recommended musician who it turns out can’t read music or who can’t play in tune. When I have a tight deadline and the recording is going painfully slowly or not at all that’s a real low point.
What can the filmmaker do to make your life as easy as possible when it comes to you creating a soundtrack for their film?
Provide coffee and pastries.
Make a good film, give me a reasonable amount of time to score it, provide me with an easy format to work from, keep me up to date on edit changes (please not too many!), give me constructive feedback on what I’ve written so far and be inspiring to be around.
Is it now possible to create a score by just sending emails and mp3s back and forth between the composer and the director? Have you ever worked in this way?
Yes, I’ve worked with directors in the US and the UK this way. In a couple of instances we’ve never even spoken on the phone, but sent lots of emails, and built up a good understanding. Sometimes having things clearly written is ever so useful; I can re-read it if I’m not sure what they were getting at first, or remind myself when I need some inspiration.
Do you ever get asked to play from sheet music a composition that is now public domain?
I’ve done some arranging of traditional music, which is fine, but not had to just play from a score. I’m a composer not a performer – okay, I am a performer, but only of my own music – so it wouldn’t be my thing to play someone else’s music. Rearranging someone else’s ideas could be a creative exercise if the music was to be shaped and varied to flow with the film, and co-composing can be rewarding.
What advice do you have when it comes to short film directors looking for composers? Where is a good place to start?
Recommendation is the best way, or if you admire a score you’ve heard and seen, maybe at a film festival, try getting in touch with the composer. Shooting People is a good source; though even the dreariest films solicit up to 100 CDs from potential composers and you’ll have to listen to a lot of inappropriate submissions before finding someone possible. You can search for composers on Shooting People and visit their websites, probably less time-consuming. My website is a great place to start!
How long does it normally take you from receiving the film to completing the finished soundtrack?
I’ve had a weekend to score a short at one extreme, three or four months being about the longest. Usually it’s a month or two. In a way, a shortish deadline gets me focused. If there’s no end date I could put it on the back-burner for too long and miss out on the ideas-generating buzz when I start working on a new film.
What do you enjoy most about composing for short films?
I get really excited when a new DVD pops through the post, or watching it for the first time and discussing all the possibilities with the director. The very best bit is probably when I’m on a roll and the music seems to be composing itself, which does generally happen after staring at a blank keyboard for long enough.
27. FILM TRANSFER
TELECINE (TK)
Telecine or TK is a process for transferring film onto a video format. The term is also used to refer to the equipment involved in the process.
Telecine is conventionally used to transfer an exposed and developed 16mm or 35mm negative onto a digital or analogue tape format. This allows the film to be viewed on video, without having to make a print of the negative. It can be used to transfer film onto multiple formats, often simultaneously, which means that having a negative telecined once can produce a VHS viewing copy for immediately watching the rushes, a low-resolution copy such as MiniDV for offline editing and a master copy for online editing.
The equipment used to perform a telecine projects a beam through the negative, which is then transformed into an electronic signal. This can be outputted to nearly any video format by the required recording deck being linked to the machine.
Telecine scans the negative in real time and at the same frame rate that the film was shot at. Telecine systems vary in quality, and the resolution of image they produce is dependent on both the quality of the machine and the format you are recording out to. Conventional telecine systems work at resolutions of up to 2K (see resolution) but this then needs to be recorded to a format that can capture this resolution. Telecine is now surpassed in quality by Digital Intermediate systems that use a different type of scanning process, which is purely digital.
When do you telecine?
Telecine is carried out after the negative has been developed, often at the same facility that has developed the negative. This is often done overnight, so that rushes can be dropped off in the evening and viewed in the morning.
This allows the rushes to be watched on video, rather than a print having to be made and projected. The telecine is often outputted to several formats at the same time, for different purposes, such as analogue or digital versions of the rushes for offline or online editing.
When the telecine takes place, time code is recorded onto the video format which refers directly to the frame numbers of the film stock and starts with the first frame of the negative which has a hole punched through it. This is essential, so that any offline editing will still produce an EDL that will refer to the frames of the negative, allowing neg cuts and further scans to be performed accurately.
Types of telecine
The quality of telecine you need will depend on the formats you are using for your post-production workflow. Depending on what you are using your telecine video versions for there are several different types of telecine you can have done.
One light
A one light telecine is a transfer where the first shot on a roll of negative is given a neutral balance in brightness, contrast and colour, and the entire rushes are then transferred with these settings.
Best light
This is a telecine where each shot is stopped and brightness, contrast and colour settings are set for each, until the entire rushes are transferred.
Full grade
A full grade can be performed at any time the neg is going through a telecine, but unless this is the final transfer then it is normally not necessary (see grading).
Other options that are offered at the telecine stage are choices over aspect ratio, letterboxing and burnt-in time code.
DIGITAL INTERMEDIATE (DI)
Digital
Intermediate is widely used to refer to a film transfer and workflow that is purely digital. This is a relatively new workflow for film, but is becoming increasingly popular. The technology was first used on an entire feature film in 2000, but since then this type of workflow has become ubiquitous for high-end film productions of any length.
Operating at higher resolutions than telecine systems, digital laser scanners are used to scan the negative film frame by frame; this method allows huge amounts of information from the original negative to be stored. This information is then stored as digital files on computer hard drives or other storage devices. This digital version is then the master version and the film negative is not used anymore; any subsequent film print versions are made from the digital master not the original negative.
Figure 51. Arri laser scanning produces digital files of each frame.
Why DI?
The advantage of DI is that the entire post-production of the film can take place on one format, with no need for offline editing, neg cuts and shifting between formats.
The entire film can be edited, graded and have effects added digitally on computer-based systems allowing the entire post-production workflow to take place at full quality. Because of this the finished film can then be transferred back out to a film print without any loss of quality, which could not be achieved with a telecine.
Extremely appealing as a potential workflow for a film, for short filmmakers this has several drawbacks. Being a new technology, DI is very in demand and therefore not a cheap workflow. The other disadvantage of DI for short films is the high quality itself. Currently S16 is scanned at 2K (see resolution) and 35mm at 4K. This creates two dilemmas. First, each single frame of the film as a single digital file can be very sizable, so an entire film’s rushes requires lots of dedicated hard drive storage, which is expensive. Second, once you’ve got this amount of digital film information on hard drives you need a computer that can play it back and potentially manipulate it. This requires a very powerful computer designed specifically with this purpose in mind.
That said, DI is still an option for short filmmakers with the right budget; prices are falling constantly and there are now top-range prosumer computers that are capable of handling this amount of information.
28. GRADING
Grading is also known as colour timing or colour correction. It is a process that alters the appearance of a video or film image by adjusting the colour palette, brightness and contrast. It is an optional process that is normally performed in the final stages of post-production and provided by post-production facilities.
Grading can be performed on either film or video images, and you will have seen examples of it in feature films, commercials and music videos, all of which will have been through this process in post-production.
The purpose of grading is to manipulate the raw footage, by emphasising or subduing hues and tones so as to give a certain scene or entire film an overall look. It can be used in several ways:
To bring the film closer to how it appeared to you at the time of shooting, rather than how it appears once recorded on a format, thus giving it a more realistic look.
To visually emphasise atmospheres by enhancing certain colours, brightness and contrast. It therefore allows you to match the visual style with the mood of a scene or the film and create a unique look.
To rectify discrepancies in colour and exposure that might occur while shooting, allowing you to match shots that might initially look different.
Why grade your film?
Although grading is technically a fine-tuning process for the look of your film, it is not one that should be overlooked.
However good a job you or your DP has done while shooting your film, the chances are that, due to idiosyncrasies that occur when using lighting, cameras and stock, your film may look very different than you thought it would. Many film or video ‘looks’ cannot be achieved while shooting. However much time and effort you put into lighting and choosing a format, they have limited abilities to create the type of looks that you can achieve with a grading process.
Yet another way to control the image, it is a tool that can be used subliminally to help tell a story and create a professional-looking film. Not merely a finishing touch, used creatively it’s a process that can have a huge impact on your film.
Grading of both film and video can be performed in a variety of ways and at different stages. This is normally performed by a colourist or grader who relies on their experience and talent to perform the technical processes.
GRADING FILM
Film, both 35mm and S16mm, due to its high resolution and dynamic range, is ideal for grading. Traditionally, film grading was performed as a photochemical process, whereby a negative was processed in a laboratory with a Hazeltine system. The Hazeltine employed a series of techniques to subdue certain colour ranges or boost others and even removed certain chemical elements from the negative.
Many feature films still make use of these techniques, however, and over the last decade more and more films have been transferred onto a digital format, either through telecine or Digital Intermediate stages, then graded using digital technology. Dedicated suites that use a combination of software and hardware can be used to grade film negatives as they are being transferred onto a digital format such as tape or a hard drive.
GRADING VIDEO
Video, unlike film, is often already in the digital realm, so can be graded using much of the same computer-based systems that are used for grading film without the need for telecine or scanning.
Figure 52. Da Vinci Grading Suite.
However, because most video formats have much less colour space (see video formats) than film, the type of video format you shoot your film on will determine to what extent it can be graded. DV footage contains very minimal colour space, so there is not much information to work with in the first place, whereas HD formats contain much better colour space information and are much more feasible for colour correction.
DIGITAL GRADING
Contemporary digital grading systems are amazingly powerful tools. The amount of creative and corrective control that can be achieved with them is far beyond what could be done with traditional photochemical processes. Digital grading systems vary in their capabilities, with older systems being more limited. At the high end of grading systems, it is now possible to control not just the hue and saturation or brightness and contrast of the whole image, but also break an image into different zones, each of which can be graded separately. For instance, the leaves on a tree can be processed differently to the colour of the sky or the skin tone of a face.
PROFESSIONAL GRADING
Professional grading, like most post-production stages, is generally charged by the hour and it can be very expensive. When you get a film graded, you are not just paying for the use of the facilities; you are also paying for the skill and expertise of the grader. Grading, due to its improving capabilities, is increasingly a creative process. It’s not only something that requires technical ability, but also talent.
When considering where to get a grade for your film done, you not only have to weigh up the quality of the facilities but also the skill of the person who will be grading it.
DIY GRADING
With the increased quality of video formats, processors and software, it is now both possible and cost-effective to carry out grading on domestic computers.
Software editing packages such as Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere offer extensive and sophisticated colour correction tools that can be used to carry out fairly sophisticated colour correction. Capitalising on the higher resolution and dynamic range of HD formats, there are now starting to be software packages that offer dedicated programmes purely for grading.
With just a few hours of grading at a post-production house often costing as much as the entire budget of many short films, using this type of software is often the only possibility many shorts will have to be graded.
The disadvantages of this home
grading solution is that, even with the increased abilities of programmes such as Adobe After Effects or specialist systems like Final Touch, grading is still a process that takes a lot of technical skill and experience.
Just to become competent and have an all-round knowledge of grading is a long process. Using this technical know-how creatively then takes experience and practice. One of the most feasible solutions to this dilemma is a programme called Magic Bullet Editors by Red Giant software. Working from within both Premiere and Final Cut Pro, this programme allows you to select from a huge variety of preset grades, giving you the option to choose from very sophisticated film looks. The programme even offers film damage effects and other film-like filters that can be applied to video.
http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/mbforeditors.html
Budget saving
There are several ways to try getting a cheap grade for your film. Try and find assistant graders who are looking to practice their skills and ask at post houses if they have anyone who might be interested in your project. These assistants may not yet be the best in the industry, but will often have a lot of technical experience, access to facilities and potential talent.
Short Films Page 20