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| Forumas > Apie viską > A comparison of differences and similarities between film music and video game music ( mano studiju rasliava) |
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| sauliusziogelis | 2008-03-24 20:22:37 |
A COMPARISON OF
DIFFERENCES AND
SIMILARITIES BETWEEN FILM
MUSIC AND VIDEO GAME
MUSIC
By Saulius
Ziogelis
INTRODUCTI
ON
Movies and
video games are both one
of the biggest segments
of today's media and to
some extent - part of our
Western culture. Beside
their cultural and
psychological influences,
they are two of the most
profitable legal
businesses in the world
by earning billions of
dollars to their creators
every year. Computer game
consoles became almost
household things, found
in almost every home in
Western world. And
cinemas are filled with
audiences which are
waiting impatiently to
see the latest movies.
There is one
thing that movies and
video games wouldn't be
what they are without. It
is music. Most people
don't even understand
that they wouldn't be so
entertained by a movie or
video game with no sound
and music. Their presence
in these forms of media
is vital for keeping
their original purpose -
to entertain. The idea of
combining and
synchronizing sound with
picture and keeping them
interdependent is one of
the most amazing things
that benefited and
developed cinema, video
games and music
itself.
The aim
of this work is to go
behind the scenes and
overview the technical
and musical aspects of
creating scores for films
and for video games. I'll
try to analyze the
technical demands and
processes , and their
influences on musical
forms that appear in
movies and video
games.The work is divided
into two parts and a
conclusion.
TECH
NICAL REQUIREMENTS AND
PROCESSES
Let's
take a look at very
beginning process of
music creation in both
situations.
In
Movies, the first step
into creation of a film
score is taken when a
director has already shot
the film or at least some
parts of the movie are
already filmed. Then the
director or the producers
of a film hire a
composer. Next part of
the process is called
"spotting" -
the director and the
composer meet each other
and the director explains
the composer what kind of
music should sound on one
or another particular
scene. There are some
cases when director has
already put some
temporary music on his
film and asks the
composer to imitate
it.
After
"spotting" the
composer starts composing
the music. Most often
composers have to work
very fast and under
enormous pressure in
order to make it on time.
Usually only 4 - 6 weeks
are given to compose,
arrange, record and edit
the music to the picture.
Nowadays, most of the
film composers are using
digital environments to
write music, because this
allows to make so called
"Midi mockups"
- substitution of digital
samples instead of live
instruments. This is a
very comfortable way to
present and edit your
score demos according to
the demands of director
without hiring an
orchestra . However, some
composers still prefer
usual staff
paper.
When the
processes of composing
and orchestrating are
done, a hired orchestra
performs it under the
conduction of a composer.
"The orchestra
performs in front of a
large screen depicting
the movie, and sometimes
to a series of clicks
called a
"click-track"
that changes with meter
and tempo, assisting the
conductor to synchronize
the music with the
film" (
wikipedia.org).
The processes and
requirements of video
game music creation are
different. The first
thing to be mentioned is
that video game music
composers usually are not
hired as freelancers.
They are members of the
company that creates the
video. This is because
"Composing game
music in the early days
required an enormous
amount of technical
knowledge. The music had
to be developed in close
coordination with
programmers and special
sound designers dedicated
to making the composer's
music work in the
game."( Matthew
Bielke, "video game
music: not just kid
stuff", 1999) Only
recent technological
developments and
advancements made the
rise of freelance video
game composers
possible.
From
the very beginning of
video games , creation of
game music faced great
challenges and
limitations which do not
apply to film music.
Everything had to be done
in digital space which
was really difficult and
sophisticated knowing the
technological level of
that time. Quite often
music had transcribed
into computer code by a
person who doesn't have
any professional
knowledge of music.
Programmers and composers
were dealing with such
problems as how to make
the best use of only four
channels ( one sine, one
wave and two pulse wave
voices). In early days
the possibilities of
computer music were very
strongly
limited.
A giant
step forward in computer
game music was taken in
1995 with the release of
Sony Playstation.
"It allowed for 24
sampled voices, which
made it possible for the
first time for composers
to approximate orchestral
scoring. It allocated
greater memory for sample
storage, allowing for
more realistic sounding
samples and even stereo
playback."( Matthew
Bielke, "video game
music: not just kid
stuff", 1999) . It
was turning point that
allowed three different
technical approaches for
creation of video game
music. The first one is
to create music through
MIDI, second one -
through MOD, and the
third one - through
redbook
audio.
By that
time MIDI had become an
universal code of score
production. Although, the
sound was still not very
realistic, It eased the
creation of music for
interactive graphics and
didn't require much
memory.
MOD is
much harder to use,
however if dealt clever
it can produce sounds of
quality not worse than
audio CD.This is because
in MOD every note of real
instrument is recorded
and then applied to a
game in one or another
musical
form.
Redbook is
a simple digital audio of
CD quality. It is easy to
use, however it doesn't
allow interactivity
between the sounds of the
game and the
player.
MUS
ICAL
REQUIREMENTS
The
re are both similarities
and differences between
the musical forms of
films and video games.
Probably the biggest
similarity is that in
both cases music has to
fit and enhance the
graphic visuals. Film
music and video game
music both emerged as
separate individual music
genres, however they can
contain absolutely every
style of
music.
The
biggest difference is
that video game is an
interactive experience
and a movie is not. That
means that in a movie
you've heard a theme or a
tune once and you might
never hear it again
during the movie. In a
computer game the music
and sounds change
according to your
actions. So, in a subtle
way, you are the
controller of the music
and the sounds. In a
computer game the tunes
and melodies are
repetitive loops. How
long you will be hearing
them will depend only on
how fast you'll be able
to enter the next level.
Usually the loop is being
repeated every 2-3
minutes.
Wagner'
s idea of
"Leitmotif" is
common in both cases. It
is special musical theme
that expresses certain
persons character, a
certain place or a
certain
idea.
Early
computer game music was
much influenced by the
culture of their
producers, and that time
the vast majority of them
were japanese.It was a
very weird situation
" in which eastern
musicians, greatly
influenced by western
music, compose music for
an eastern audience,
which is later sold back
to the west"(
Matthew Bielke,
"video game music:
not just kid stuff",
1999).
One of
the main differences
regarding musical
creativity between video
game and film music is
that video game composers
created musical forms
which would be possible
to apply with technology
they had. For example,
back in those days when
they had only four
channels in computer
game, in order to achieve
a feeling of four voice
chord, they assigned very
fast arpeggios on one
voice. Only nowadays the
limitations on form of
applying audio to the
game are nearly gone.
Film composers didn't
face that problem,
because in most cases
they were and are working
with live
Instrumentation. They
didn't have problems of
applying even the most
difficult musical forms
to the picture. Due to
this situation, video
game music composers had
to be much more creative
and solve much more
complicated musical
tasks.
Although
probably all of the
existing musical styles
were heard in these two
environments, computer
games are much more
flexible in terms musical
style. Despite the
recent tendency to copy
and to convey the feeling
of a movie in video
games, video game
composers can create and
apply any style of music,
while film composers are
trying to stay within the
boundaries of classical
music. Most often when we
face any style of pop
music in a movie, usually
it was already created by
other band or artist and
just picked by producers
or director of a movie as
a soundtrack to a
particular scene. In
video games it doesn't
matter what kind of music
you're hearing, you can
always know for sure that
this music was created by
the video game composer
and only for this
particular game.
"some games have
soundtracks so creative
they pretty much invent
their own style."(
Matthew Bielke,
"video game music:
not just kid stuff",
1999).
CONCLUSIONS
Aft
er over-viewing the main
principals and approaches
used and applied to film
music and computer game
music, the restraints on
their musical forms and
other factors, the
essential differences
become obvious. However
they're the same
according to their core
objectives which is
creating sound for
picture.
As I've
mentioned earlier they've
both emerged into
separate musical genres
with huge audiences of
listeners and fans. There
are loads of internet
based fan communities of
film music and of video
game music as well.People
listen, criticize,
exchange and even remix
their favorite tunes from
a movie or from a video
game.
The most
fascinating thing about
these two as musical
genres is that they can
include any other musical
style inside them and
still would be recognized
as "film music"
or "video game
music". The name of
the style is imposed by
their direct purpose and
not the musical forms or
musical influences within
them. Another great thing
is that film or video
game music can reveal the
beauty and ideas of a
particular musical style
to a person who is not
familiar with that style
or usually is not
listening to it. Not all
people like classical
music, but they enjoy a
classical tune with the
emotions they receive
from a cinema screen.
Similarly , people who
don't like electronic
music are feeling quite
inspired by 16-bit
melodies from older
computer
games.
The
co-existance and
interdependence of films
with music or video games
with music is one of the
most interesting, most
creative and most
entertaining turns in
history of music and and
whole
media.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ht
tp://en.wikipedia.org/wik
i/Film_music;
http://en.wikipedia.o
rg/wiki/Video_game_music;
htt
p://www.gamessound.com/gl
ossary.htm;
http://en.wik
ipedia.org/wiki/Video_gam
e_music_culture;
http://www.jameshanniga
n.co.uk/changing.htm;
http://www.jameshanni
gan.co.uk/hotandcold.htm;
http://www.jameshanniga
n.co.uk/business.htm;
http://vg
music.com/vgpaper.shtml;
http://everything2.c
om/index.pl?node_id=92557
0;
Application
s of music in the media
classroom notes
;
Sound for
picture classroom notes ;
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| kps | 2008-04-24 19:04:14 |
| Kur studijuoji?
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| dxginger | 2008-04-25 07:47:01 |
| KTU Garso ir vaizdo menų
technologijas man regis;)
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| sauliusziogelis | 2008-04-29 17:24:20 |
| Studijuoju Anglijoje. Kam
angliskai rasyceu jie
Lietuvoj toki darba
tureciau atlikt? : )
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| dxginger | 2008-04-30 08:19:58 |
| aa matai kaip..sorry:)
papasakok placiau apie
savo studijas, tikrai
butu idomu:)
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| TTS | 2008-04-30 20:39:37 |
Nice work, You've
passed:)
O jei
rimčiau, tai ką
studijuoji???
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