music cues?

valen_sinclair said:

Ok i was just wondering if you should include music cues in the script. Not choosing the music, just saying when some instrumental music or whatever should start and build towards, i would not use it all the time, but there is one time in the script that it would highten the drama.....any help?

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Whoever is hired to write the score will know exactly how to apply these techniques. It's what they do.

PLEASE do not do this. I read at a few major production companies as well as do my own consulting and nothing makes a writer look like an amateur faster than including music cues. UNLESS YOU CAN PROVIDE THE SOURCE AND IT IS CRUCIAL TO UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHARACTER - and even then do it very very sparingly.

What I mean is that if your character really is defined by the music they love, if it really tells us a lot more about this character, and you can provide a source of the music like the radio or whatever, then you can have your character (as one of myriad examples) hop in their car, pop in a tape and KISS blares as they peel out to go buy beer. Or they turn on their old, scratchy record player and OPERA music drifts through the mansion... But again, even then - seriously, give yourself the best shot ever with this script. Just write a great story and avoid the temptation to over-direct it with music choices and camera shots.

Just incase the OP misconstrues my post. I totally agree with Julie, and wasn't referring to 'applying' what the writer had included in the script. It shouldn't be in there. The score is written from the completed footage, not the script.

In short - it's a big no-no.

valen_sinclair said:

ok, am not sure we have wires crossed....but thanks for the input.

what i meant was I have short sharp scenes, skipping from an important speech, between a lonely main character, several bad guys are converging on him....always jumping to and fro.
the image i have in my head is of rising music building to a climax with an explosion ripping out half the deck, it's supposed to be VERY emotive. I realise that the producer will assign a musician, and he should see this, but being the writer the chances are you are going to have no control over whom he chooses, so you want to have a piece of music that is orchestral in origin with some haunting voices....

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The original advice still stands. I suspect you're basing this upon a very emotive sequence that had similar qualities, and appealed big time to you, but the odds are that that particular piece of soundtrack was added by those whose job it is to pair the action with the music.

Unless one of your characters is actually listening to a certain piece of music, and it's relevant to the story, I'd strongly advise against it.

If it's supposed to be VERY emotive, then this should come across in the writing and the filming, and you can rest assured that such a sequence won't be accompanied by the sounds of an Oompah Band.

There are way of getting around this, but they clunk. For instance, the lonely main character is recalling a specific piece of music as he awaits his executioners, and this then drops a hint as to what you have in mind.

But I'd still leave it to those whose job it is to connect your writing to their music.

clint eastwood is pretty much the ONLY writer who can control this because he actually writes the score, plays the score, and produces the score and film. if you're not he, then know that you will have no control... unless you make the "independent" film yourself. and with the necessity of obtaining music rights -- that's a whole different pony!

I actually wrote s musical direction into my recent script --and it's probably WRONG that I did this, but I'm going to mention here it anyhow. Critiques of my decision are more than welcome.

I have a montage in the story, and it's supposed to be done comically. And then, when the montage is over, I have an additional scene right after it that is in no way a montage (it's a fully viewable situation with dialogue), but I still wanted it to somehow be part of the same sequence. So I decided the best way to "append" my montage with this formal scene was to link the two together via music. I also lect made it onlt ONE blank space instead of TWO between the end of the montage-proper and the beginning of the montage-appendment, to reinforce the stipulation that they go should together.

Here's roughly how I wrote it, and again, I'm sure it's "wrong" but in spite of the "wrongness," I suspect most people would still "get it."





MONTAGE OF NEW WAVE IF TOURISM (WITH COMICAL MUSIC)

-- Tourists again arrive.

-- The diner again is jammed.

-- The streets are again filled with out-of-state cars.

-- Percy's shop again does miraculous business.

-- Donna again fields phone calls at the parsonage while scribbling into a new journal labelled "Angel Calls Volume III."

-- Galvin again is delighted by all that he sees.

END MONTAGE (BUT CONTINUE COMICAL MUSIC INTO NEXT SCENE)

INT. HARKSVILLE COMMUNITY CHURCH - FRONT FOYER - DAY

David walks in and finds Carl bolting a locked wooden collection chest to the wall directly below the stained glass angel window. Several Tourists stand back, taking pictures of the window.

DAVID
Carl -- what's this?

Carl looks up in shame, and rolls his eyes as he confesses:

CARL
Ed asked me to install a collection box under the angel.

Carl finishes and backs away. The Tourists then step forth and drop money into the slot. David sees this and is ready to explode.

Restraining himself, he beckons Carl into the

SANCTUARY - BELOW THE "GOOD SHEPHERD" STAINED GLASS WINDOW

DAVID
(hissed whisper)
This is the house of GOD! Not the house of ANGELS!

CARL
(whispering back)
Look! I agree! But Ed told me to! And besides: none of the tourists who come here are interested in taking pictures of God!

END COMICAL MUSIC


EXT. DESERT WARE POTTERY - NIGHT

(etc., etc.)

Plot,

the only real problem I see is the agains, used again and again and again.CUT! very annoying.In your passage the music notes sound like simple script notes and I don't think they are a glaring issue.Though one could wonder, "What do you mean by comical music?"