November 19, 2005 - Saturday
With the boys' high interest in all things Star Wars, it's probably nothing surprisingly that Harry and Jeremy, particularly Jeremy, often walk around (or sit around in the car, at the dinner table, in the bathroom, etc.) singing the Star Wars and Darth Vader theme music. Maybe since I'm a musician it's not even that surprising that I've actually talked to them about how Darth Vader's theme music only comes on when Darth Vader is on the screen, about to come on screen, or otherwise somehow lurching.

I attended a trade association meeting this past Wednesday on film scoring and the process of how music actually gets married with films. For example, after the film is edited and dialogue and sound effects more or less polished, the Music Editor builds "Temp Music" track that's made up of any random music they can find from CDs, other movie scores, TV commercials, or whatever. They don't need licensing rights because the Temp Music will (almost) never stay with the film when it's released to the public. The idea is simply to start matching musical ideas, emotions, and styles with what's happening on the screen and to decide what scenes need music. The Temp Music is just there so that the Director, Producer, and ultimate Film Composer can build a consensus as to what the film score should eventually be.

I found it fascinating and the boys must have heard me talking with their mother about it because this morning when they started in with their usual Star Wars pretend play, they started saying things like, "when the bad guy comes in the music has to go like this" and "you're a a good guy, so your music has to sound different."

I think that's cool.


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