Megatron Wants What's In My Blog

Today I had no new assignments, so it was basically a day off.  And given that the FR3 DVD is finished (other than printing some box art and mailing copies), it was a good chance to catch up on things.

So after messing a little more with the Eating Disorders: The Musical trailer, I opened Batman and Spider-Man Save Christmas to do some new editing on it.  Today's challenge: start laying in a soundtrack, beginning with the production logos and opening pre-title sequence.

I started hunting through the Spider-Man 2 score, because I only have a couple track from Spider-Man 1, and the early Batman scores are a little less sophisticated (I'm unsold as of this moment on whether I'll be incorporating the Hans Zimmer/James Newton Howard scores from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight).  I found a piece that was mildly suitable, but after a hundred and fifty movies and eight years, what I've learned is that music is never a throwaway element, and something "mildly suitable" is never good enough.  If that piece of music doesn't stand the hairs on your neck up when matched with the picture, then it isn't the right piece of music and you're not getting the mileage out of your movie.

Now, I'd been briefly entertaining the idea of testing a track from Michael Giacchino's Star Trek score.  To satisfy my curiosity, I placed it in and took a look.  The effect I was looking for was there, but only briefly.  Then, the picture began to develop a separate pace from the music, and I thought, "Rrrrr!  The titles need to go there!"

But Uh-oh.  An impasse.  I'd already decided to put the titles, over footage, later in the film.  Now what?

I thought this was an interesting example of the challenge of deciding what serves what in the film.  On the one hand, I can resort of a weaker score piece, or make uneasy decision like fading out driving music, to better support the image.  Or I can alter the image to better match the score -- a severe and classic No-No, especially because real films are scored TO the picture by a composer.

But then, that's not really an option to be undertaking, now is it?

Besides, I've a long and dense history of editing picture to fit sound, and not visa versa.  Maybe it's a cheater's way out -- the score is conducted by a professional's pacing; why not copycat along?  But I was just told only last night that human beings are an aural audience; we're more influenced by what we're hearing than what we're seeing, and when a movie sounds excellent, we'll believe it's excellent... even if the visual testifies contrarily.

So which will I do?  Well, I haven't quite decided yet, so it's still up in the air.  Regardless, I found it an interesting dilemma and an issue worth mentioning.  Hopefully, when you see the finished product, you'll find that both sound and picture speak quite clearly for themselves, while matching quite neatly.