After receiving the title sequence graphics, it was time to begin assessing the type of music required. When purveying the visuals, I was immediately reminded of the film Seven of which the title sequences are similarly flashing with crime-styled, disturbing imagery. Therefore I began by listening to the music to establish an influence in my own writing. The music is a remix of a Nine Inch Nails song titled “Closer” and conceptually adds elements of sound design to the imagery.
Title sequence of Seven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k2gsEI34CE
Elements of the music include:
- A pulsating bass kick
- Distorted instruments
- Music crescendo’s towards the final climax
- Musical triggers to coincide with flashing imagery
Therefore I decided to follow these conceptual ideas however using the main lullaby melody as the drive and it’s chord progression accompaniment.
Bass Elements
- The bass was provided by a cinematic sub-boom that was placed at the start of every phrase.
- A synthesised and sustained electronic bass playing throughout the piece in B flat.
Distortion & Crescendoing
To conceptually achieve this element, I implemented the following:
- Chose a small section of the piano and looped it through a delay with infinite repeats and printed the results to audio.
- Bussed the printed audio through a guitar amp plugin and altered the tone to a desirable effect.
- Placed the loop at the start of the piece and applied volume automation, steadily increasing the volume until the climax of the piece.
Below is an example of the finished loop:
(EchoBoy delay on full feedback to create the desired effect)
Musical Triggers
I managed to achieve this element by selecting appropriate orchestral instruments fitting with the brand of the film score and performed sweeps at integral, visual-sync moments. Instruments working this included: Clarinet, Piano & Kick.
A Visual Leap
When initially receiving the imagery that linearly follows the fantasy section of the film, I noticed a potential issue with the style of the visuals (for the title sequence onwards) being radically different to the preceding scenes. This was overcome by sonically, branding the film by choosing the main lullaby for the music, as the audience would have already heard different forms of the piece already and will help to audibly connect the scenes together. The choice of orchestral instruments, morphed the electronic style of the piece to an electro-orchestral hybrid–connecting the preceding musical style of the film to the scenes following the sequence. I believe this piece of music played a vital role towards smoothing over this leap in the visuals.
Here is the completed sequence: