Music and story

Ok, I'm about a week into scripting an episode of a new crime show for a UK streamer, and I've got to one of the parts I love most: the music. It's pretty self-evident, but music and sfx are key to setting the mood and tone of a sequence and cumulatively the emotional register of a whole film. 

Pictures with no natural sound, music and sfx are just pretty images. (Try watching Michael Jackson's Thriller, or any thriller come to that, with the sound off and you'll see what I mean). Sound makes you 'feel.' Getting the music and sound right is critical to a well made film and in an age where we focus on pixels and images, they're in my opinion highly underrated.

I often start a project with the music, before I've even thought of picking up a camera or writing a script. I ask myself, how should this story/doc/film 'feel.' Where does the story arc take the viewer emotionally? What music and sound will support and reinforce that narrative? Where are the climaxes, where's the conflict, the suspense, how does the suspense build? Where are the moments of shock and surprise, reflection, dilemma, doubt, pain, remorse?

Spotify is useful. Picking film soundtracks and film composers to listen to helps build up a sense and find answers to those questions. If I'm working with a composer on a new series or single doc, sometimes I'll compile a Spotify playlist to send to him/her to give an idea of what I might be looking for.

Finding the music for a project also gives me insight into where the drama is, and how best to structure and tell the story. So it's a virtuous circle too. 

On this project, I'm using tracks available in a music library I've not used before. https://www.thenerve.io/ 

Really interesting to listen to the work of composers I've not heard before.

Brain dump over. Back to scripting. The narrative and musical journey continues...