Hero - Short Film Score - Walkthrough Pt.7 - M1 (Part 5) & M2 (Part 1)

Welcome to the final part of the composition walkthrough for M1. All other parts of thiis walkthrough are available here. 

Today we're going to finish M1 and will start with M2.

As usual, the entire track plus score sheet is attached at the bottom of this post. The movie without music is available here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1aVLZMtSRw

Here are the spotting notes I made for that sequence:

• 01:46:00 build up again – evil guy motif
• 01:48:16 hit, go for it
• 01:59:21 drop suddenly

Bars 60-63

https://soundcloud.com/robin-hoffmann/hero-m1-bar60-end/s-lMLYlowBuLb

This small section happens during the surprise "resurrection" of the evil guy and his death (again) which all happens in just a few seconds. The musical idea behind this section was to create a "chaotic backdrop" with a menacing statement of the evil guy motif in the low strings/brass and woodwinds.

Here's that fanfare how it was stated the first time in that cue:

I wanted to put more or less all low instruments in octaves on that motif in the statement in bar 60/61 so in order to create the needed space in the frequency spectrum, it was essential to not have any other instruments competing in this register.

The "chaos texture" in the mid register consist of several elements:

• the high strings move in groups of four 16ths (1st Violins) and eight note triplets (Violas) more or less chromatically upwards targeting towards the hit point at the downbeat of 62.
• the horns play a rhythmically staggered chromatic cluster accenting every quarter note
• the trumpets build a chromatic cluster targeting the downbeat of 62 consisting of repeating 16th notes played with straight mutes
• the high woodwinds play an aleatoric texture with the direction "random notes/random quick rhythm/gradually move up to highest pitch"

Cosnsequentially there is not a real harmony that is being established in these bars in spite of the "evil guy motif" rooting it somehwat in Ab/G#.

This whole sequence has its climax on the downbeat of bar 62. I consciously placed that hit point not on the shot but slightly after when it is clear that the Hero is actually (fatally) hit. Also, syncing up that shot exactly with the music would have a very mickeymousing quality to it which (in spite of the campyness of that whole scene) wouldn't fit the tone here.

Bar 62/63 hold a tenseful tremolo chord that supports that few moments that it takes for the hero (and the audience) to realize that he's fatally hit, sinking to his knees.

I wanted these final few moments of the hero falling to his knees and out of frame to express some "pain" with chromatically charged harmony to wrap up this insane battle with a small lamenting passage where the music grieves about the death of the protagonist. Even if this sequence (as everything in this cue) lasts just a few seconds, I felt it needed that emotional conclusion.

The harmonic progession basically is Abm-Cm-Ebm which in itself employs a lot of chromatic motion between the chords that always create some "pain" associations. Additionally, I added quite a bit of tension notes and chromatic passing tones that create this nice minor second rub that creates this "musical pain".

Observe the top line of violins which moves mostly in chromatic steps. Over the Cm chord the chord changes while that B sustains on top and becomes the major seventh of the chord while one inner voice also establishes the major third which however gets "taken back" to the minor third more or less immediately on count four moving to Ebm which includes the ninth and major seventh which both rub chromatically with chord tones.

We end the cue with a sustained low Ab that also hits slightly before the scene change to not make it too mickey mousy.

This cue was definitely one of the most hitpoint dense cues I've ever written and looking back at it three years later, I would have done a few things differently, mainly sacrificing a few hit points for a bit more musical integrity and less "chopped up" feeling.

M2 - Let's Roll

The second cue in this score supports the golf car theft and first part of the race and generally gets a more light hearted tone than the first cue as we're clearly now in the world of the children. 

The score sheet and recording is attached below.

Here's the sequence without music: https://youtu.be/y1aVLZMtSRw?t=211

The spotting notes that I had for this sequence:

• 03:31:20: start, adventure with a little danger
• 03:44:00 – let the music loose steam
• 03:47:15 – danger serious
• 03:58:00 release tension
• 04:01:21 – adventure
• 04:09:20 – music lay low
• 04:14:09 – hit quick, no music

One thing that I would have liked to change in retrospective is the start point of the cue, the original idea was to start with the feet on the ground but I think the start would have been more effective if it fell together with the kids starting to move about a second earlier as this would have given a stronger visual justification for a musical entrance. It's just a small difference but I really think it would have helped and tied that cue better into the visuals.

The cue generally is not as hit point heavy as the first one and can be separated into three sub sections.

1. The more light hearted theft sequence without a specific danger

2. The tenseful buildup with the search for the key and almost being caught

3. Managing to escape until the arrival at the "race track".

In communicating with the filmmakers we were discussing which direction this cue should take. On hand those are just kids playing in their backyards which would not really justify opening up the music to a big orchestral cue but on the other hand for these kids, this is a serious adventure and they really feel like they are the daring badasses stealing these gold carts. And after all this is what the entire movie is about -  to stay in the emotional world of these kids which totally justifies having the music painting the pictures "bigger than they are".

This cue and the following cue are based a lot on bitonal harmony which we will have a closer look at in the next part.