It was really fun today to be part of the studio orchestra recording music for 4 films. The film scores were composed by students from the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program. The founder and director of the program, Hummie Mann, conducted. The music was the culmination of a 2-year program for the students. We were allowed to give feedback; for most of the students it was the first time they had written something for an orchestra. A friend of mine from orchestra composed one of the pieces we played and right before we played it she said she was terrified to hear it for the first time.
We were in a full studio - during one of the breaks I wandered into the soundroom to watch and hear one of the pieces we had just recorded, and it was amazing how good the orchestra sounded! With a headset over one ear to hear the click track and sitting in the middle of a section, and playing, it was impossible to really hear the music. Getting to hear and see what we had recorded along with the film was pretty cool.
It was an exhausting day. We started at 10am and finished at 6pm with 10-minute breaks each hour and an hour break for lunch. By the last 2 hours it was really hard to concentrate and play with the same energy as in the morning. We would run through and rehearse a piece a few times, then we recorded it twice. The first film had a jazz soundtrack, and the other 3 were animated films, one with more of a cartoony feel to the music, and others much more dreamy/sweet music. I loved the first animated film we recorded - it was a story set in New York's Central Park about 2 old women. They competed with each other to feed the birds that had gathered around them. There was one scene where they were feeding the birds so much that the birds were visibly getting fatter (I was sitting where I could see the monitor that Hummie was using to watch while conducting) and you could hear the birds getting heavier in the music - it was hilarious. I would love to see that film when it is finished.
At the end of the day, I was brain dead. Needless to say practicing is going to wait until tomorrow.
2 comments:
What a great experience! Sounds like you had a blast doing this.
We did some recording last month in orchestra. Check out my "Horror Movie Music" post in June.
Thanks Cellodonna - it was a really fun day! Your "Horror Movie Music" story sounded like fun, too. I hope you get to see the finished film so that you can have the satisfaction of knowing that you helped create it!
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