Hey all!
My name is Brennan Mackay, and I am a young Composer out of Seattle, WA! I've been working in Film and Theater for a while now, and would love to expand my craft. I'm currently working on recording live tracks, taking classes in mixing and accumulating other live musicians to record instruments with, but would love to get some critique on my music from new peers!!
I've attached a video of a recent composition a made for a Youtube channel. They were doing a sketch about the Professor Layton Games, so I was aiming for a cartoony mystery/ suspense type of score.
This link goes to my Youtube Channel, where I have independent music uploaded.Youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdLx04egCTrJWVVvU80vucQ
I also have a Soundcloud, that may or may not be a tiny bit outdated.Soundcloudhttps://soundcloud.com/brennan-mackay
Thank you all so much ahead of time, I'm looking forward to seeing what you think and working with you in the future!
All the Best, Brennan Mackay
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Great start. First and foremost, any music no matter what it sounds like is an original artistic creation and 'legitimate'.
First thought which you already know is learn by studying others and using what works for you and how it fits into your 'sound'. So before you spend a lot of time looking at the current animation music, start from the beginning and look and listen to the earlier 'classics' whether it be warner brothers cartoons or even early disney animated films from before 1960. One of the things you will learn is that music very closely matched and supported the action and in fact animations and cartoons often involved significantly more music than non-animations.
One of the things you should pick up on is that in animations and often in live films, the action is not 'regular' or 'in tempo' and that means neither should the music be. Imagine how artificial/boring a fight scene, for example, would seem if the punches and other action were in tempo. The speed and regularity of the music should match the action and not end up sounding like a independent musical work being fitted in. However, if the animation is a video game, that could require more regular tempo'd material.
The other thing you may discover in animations in particular but also often used in live action films are associating certain musical sounds or musical segments with an event or a character - the roadrunner/coyote in warner brother cartoons is a good example but also often mentioned in a general discussion of what we call "Motifs" is what John Williams did with the Star Wars characters.
One more thing to get you started, something I was criticized on regularly when I started and I still sometimes do is insist that some instrument maintain the rhythm whether it be percussion/drums (as you did) or piano or guitar, etc. Viewers are very good and 'hearing the rhythm' even when all that is playing is a string section (in legato), for example.
I assume you academics go into all of the above and more in significant more detail.
Hey Joel, thank you so much for your input! I have noticed some great music with tempo shifting according to the On-Screen contents. I have played with some single shifts and returns in score-to-screen, but you make great points on how important/ effective it is to have music shifting as necessary.
I'll have to watch some early animated films to see some of their tricks for action matching. Do you have any specific film you recommend?
Thanks Joel!