This past week has been very interesting as Fred has worked on the score for Saying Goodbye. Each day he composes music for several scenes and then sends them to us in the afternoon as a QuickTime file. We watch the scenes with the music (and sometimes Jocelyn cries – mission accomplished, Fred!), and then we let it sink in overnight. Each morning we have a conference call with Fred, which he affectionately calls “the Brian and Jocelyn show” (or at least we hope it’s affectionately) where we discuss our thoughts on the latest piece.
It’s a weird process, because Fred is so good at what he does that everything he creates sounds beautiful. But just because it’s beautiful to listen to doesn’t always mean it’s perfect for a particular scene. Fortunately, most of the time the music he creates captures the scene exactly like we imagined it in our heads. There have only been a few spots where we asked him to tweak things, and it can sometimes get a tad bizarre as we try to describe our reactions. For example, in one of the flashbacks we agreed we wanted the music to sound ethereal. But when Fred sent us the section, Brian thought the score sounded “too Asian” whereas Jocelyn thought it sounded “too sci-fi.” So now when we talk about this scene with Fred, we call it the Chinese spaceship scene. It’s a good thing Fred is able to wade through our crazy descriptions to fine tune the music.
We now have a “rough draft” of the score for the entire film. We’re taking some time to let it settle while Fred works on another project he had scheduled. Once we’re sure it’s true love with the score and not just a brief infatuation, Fred will bring in the live musicians. We can’t wait!
Want to hear how things are coming along? Listen to the sample below or play it on YouTube.