Giancarlo Vulcano

This class will explore the art of film scoring through weekly assignments designed to develop our composing “muscle” and establish good habits for consistent musical output. Less a survey of other film scores, this class will present students with weekly assignments drawn from films currently in production. Students will read the brief on a project and have a week to create a one-minute composition that captures the mood of that project. Major topics will include creating themes and developing palettes that are unique to a particular project. Music technology is a necessary part of the study of film music, and we will explore ways to use the digital world in personal and creative ways. Logic Pro will be the main program used, but students will be able to translate the concepts to whichever platform they are working with. Basic demos created by the students will be expected weekly. Class will be spent listening and critiquing each other’s cues and also discussing strategies for developing and expanding our ideas. Students will score to picture once certain basic topics have been covered. Students should have some music theory experience, and reading music is recommended but not required. No matter what their process, the expectation will be that students commit to creating film cues on a weekly basis.

This class will explore the art of film scoring through weekly assignments designed to develop our composing “muscle” and establish good habits for consistent musical output. Less a survey of other film scores, this class will present students with weekly assignments drawn from films currently in production. Students will read the brief on a project and have a week to create a one-minute composition that captures the mood of that project. Major topics will include creating themes and developing palettes that are unique to a particular project. Music technology is a necessary part of the study of film music, and we will explore ways to use the digital world in personal and creative ways. Logic Pro will be the main program used, but students will be able to translate the concepts to whichever platform they are working with. Basic demos created by the students will be expected weekly. Class will be spent listening and critiquing each other’s cues and also discussing strategies for developing and expanding our ideas. Students will score to picture once certain basic topics have been covered. Students should have some music theory experience, and reading music is recommended but not required. No matter what their process, the expectation will be that students commit to creating film cues on a weekly basis.

This class will explore the ways in which music and sound serve the dramatic intent of a film. As coinhabitants of the aural spectrum, a film’s score and sound design are increasingly called upon to interact. Working in one of these areas now implies an understanding of the other. This class will cover: spotting music/sound with a director, choosing musical themes that correspond to the dramatic needs of a film, using sound design to highlight facets of the world and its characters, conceptualizing the sound world of a film, and designing the music and sound so that they occupy different but complementary spaces. The marriage of sound and music has deep roots in the history of cinema, and special attention will be paid to great works of the past. There will be weekly listening assignments to survey the history of film music and to explore current trends. Technical topics covered will include: intro to ProTools and an overview of basic mixing; concepts in music editing; use of effects such as compression, eq, reverb, and filters; file organization, management, and workflow. Students will work on sound design and/or scoring concepts using video clips that I provide or, better yet, using works from their fellow students in the film department. Music students will be asked to compose cues and nonmusic film students will be asked to sound design scenes, with the goals being technical and expressive clarity.