Utalising Temp Music

So now the foley is in the project it is time for me to get going on the music. A recent thing I've started doing is using temp music. I used to just edit a piece then add music but now whilst I'm editing I will look for music that already exists to pop into the timeline and use just to get an idea for the flow of a section or to see which emotions to bring out. It really helps give the edit more of a focus and bring out an idea or feeling you want to express.

For this project it proved really helpful. A few times we were stuck on a direction to go or which shots to use particularly during the montage scene. We knew the general feeling we wanted to push for but often times adding temp music to fit that sound made us realise it was too full on and we often surprised ourselves with which songs we liked the most in each spot.

The montage scene was a funny one. We initially were set on the idea of a really ambient and floaty track with no recognisable instruments or traditional components. Something along the lines of The Album Leaf or Tycho. However, after putting them in they really didn't fit.

After that we looked at the soundtrack of The Signal and various other films. They all came across to grand and important or really strung out an emotion to the point of cliché. 

Then I quickly went to YouTube and downloaded the song Let It Go by James Bay. This song fit perfectly:

It mixed all the emotions we wanted to express perfectly. It was distant, haunting, foreboding and yet softly warm and loving. What's more it made us realise the music structure that we wanted. Rather than having anything sweepingly orchestral or authorial and ambient something far more focussed and small works immeasurably better. The song consists predominantly of just two guitar tracks.

This adds a real focus to the song and makes it so that the images are not detracted from and makes them seem more personal and immediate. This made the montage work amazingly well and also gave me a really strong direction for the music I was to compose. Something with this sort of structure of two guitar tracks with a simple melody with a minor feel.