Research: Composers

Murray Gold:

Murray Gold served as writer and composer of music for Doctor Who from 2005 to 2017. This meant a departure from the earlier incarnation's synthesizer heavy themes. Instead, this was dropped in favour for more orchestral scores. This change in direction arguably made the modern show feel like it had more presence as the scores could very easily have been made and included in high budget films. This helps to elevate the show and keep consistent to the more grand scale that the writing of the show has catered to during this time (with arguable success).

A significant composition from Murray Gold is called 'I Am The Doctor'. This first appeared in 2010 for the episode 'The Eleventh Hour' which introduced viewers to the Eleventh Doctor. The composition was utilised as a heroic theme for this incarnation of the Doctor. The piece starts with a quiet string section which steadily builds into a crescendo which usually signifies that the character is doing something heroic. The theme also utilises several rock instruments such as an electric guitar as well as utilising a choir which gives an almost fairytale-like feel to the music.

I feel this type of music can be utilised in order to create the illusion of the project having a somewhat grander scale than what was originally intended. Particularly, I feel that including sections using a choir might help to achieve this. However, I feel that I would need to restrict this aspect somewhat as there is a danger of the music becoming unsuitable for the existing footage.

Other media Murray Gold has worked on are as follows:
-Kiss of Life
-Death at a Funeral
-Mischief Night
-Casanova
-The Muskateers


Jerry Goldsmith:

For this I will be focusing on Jerry Goldsmith's work on the 1979 sci-fi/horror film 'Alien' (Scott, 1979). This film heavily emphasises the aesthetics of a horror film and thus needed a score to help further realise this. Jerry Goldsmith's score is unconventionally quiet, especially at the time. Where certain other horror films at the time would have chosen to use a more bombastic score to heighten the effect of what is being shown on screen, the score for alien instead chooses to be restrained, slow and often methodical. This allows for the creation of tension.

The opening theme starts with a low rumbling howl which introduces the viewer to the cold emptiness of outer space. Very quite string and wind sections then fade in as we move through space and the titles slowly forms. We are then taken inside the 'Nostromo', a spaceship that acts as the film's setting, and given a brief tour of the dark corridors. The score throughout these scenes create tension the it's almost relaxed nature. There is this feeling of being unprepared if something was to suddenly appear from the shadows and prey on the characters in the film. The music perfectly encapsulates the emptiness that is being portrayed on screen.

This is something I would want to utilise within my own music. I feel that the music itself should be a reflection and exploration of what is being shown to the viewer on shown. I hope to emulate this style several times during my project, particularly during the opening sequence which opens in a very similar way to that of 'Alien'.

Other notable scores Jerry Goldsmith is known for are as follows:
-Planet of The Apes
-The Omen
-Star Trek: The Motion Picture
-First Blood
-Total Recall

Creating The Sound Effects

The first thing I set work on for this transition project was creating the sound effects that I wish to use during the final edit.

These sound effects would include:
-Switches and buttons being pressed.
-Steam pipes from hissing (from inside a spaceship)
-Various electronic devices buzzing and beeping.
-Low hums of machinery.
-Sounds of knocking

To start with, I decided that I would use the program called GarageBand in oder to see if I could emulate these types of sound through various instruments available. Luckily there were a wide collection of synthetic noises that could be used both on their own as well as put in to sequence for the desired effect. Other instances meant that I needed to create a melody out of certain instruments to obtain the sound that I needed. This was most notable where I used an electric keyboard to emulate the sound of an electronic device counting down.

There was one instance where I needed to carefully watch the sequence of events where a character is flicking and pressing various switches and buttons. This meant that I needed to sequence various sounds so that they matched the timing of the button presses. These were created, again, through an electric piano and through an electric drum kit.

Some sound required a little more tweaking, however. GarageBand very helpfully also contains a mode in which I was allowed to play and experiment with various different types of amplifiers for different effects. Some made the sounds feel as if they were playing through an old machine while others gave more experimental results such as a rolling echo filter that gave great ambience for diegetic use. The most use I got out of these was when creating the sound of steam and various other electronic noises, adding an echo filter which drifted from both sound channels which allowed to create diegetic atmosphere and sound scape, particularly in the setting of a space station.

I used my own synthesizer to do some voice-over work. These mainly consisted of voices coming from a machine like from an intercom system. I decided that these should be somewhat robotic as if they were automated which also helps to create a futuristic feel in keeping with the show's themes. This was also done to disguise my own voice which I am not particularly fond of. I first tried using a Vocoder which is often used for music acts, most notably from Daft Punk and Electric Light Orchestra. This would have me speaking into a microphone while pressing on piano keys where my voice would be heard in the tone of the note I was playing in a robot voice. However, the end result sounded too 'sing-song' and lacked the realistic feel that I was trying to create. I then resorted to speaking plainly into the microphone and thus changing the settings through the synthesizer to distort my voice. This work a lot better and I was happy with the end result.

With these sound effects ready to edit, I should hopefully be able to create a good sound-scape for each location.

What is Shada?

'Shada' is an un-broadcast serial of the British TV show 'Doctor Who' from 1979. The serial was written by Douglas Adams who often worked as script editor on 'Doctor Who during the late 1970s and would later find fame after writing 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy', the radio show, the book and its many sequels.

The story revolves around an alien genius known as Skagra (Christopher Neame) who has taken control of an orb that can drain people's minds. He uses the orb in order to find an ancient book in the possession of an old man who is accompanied by the Doctor (Tom Baker) and the companion at the time, Romana (Lalla Ward). The book itself hold information on accessing an intergalactic prison where Skagra hopes to free one of the most powerful criminals in time and space.

The story was only partly filmed due to strikes that occurred at the time, meaning that the story has never been fully completed through live-action.

Since 1979, there have been multiple home releases. First was a VHS release which was later transferred onto DVD. It featured Tom Baker standing in and narrating the parts of the serial that had not been completed. This is the version of which I have taken my footage from for this project.

Another is a Blu-Ray/DVD release from late 2017 which featured animation to fill in the missing parts with all surviving cast members providing new material as voice actors for these parts as well as upscaled and re-edited versions of the live action footage.

Planning Sheet

This is a rough plan that I had made before creating the sound effects and score:

Transitions Proposal Presentation (Reblog)

Here is my presentation for the Transitions project outlining what I am hoping to do and achieve during my Transitions project:

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Studio Production Final Evaluation

My overall thoughts on the Studio Production part of this cause is mostly positive. I found many aspects of this section was a success yet I do feel that some aspects of my own role in particular could have had more involvement thus have a greater impact on the production as a whole.

Firstly, the live show itself was a major success. After watching a rough edit of the final show, I found that the production ran smoothly and everyone involved performed their roles to the best of their abilities. The overall emotional weight behind the show was very positive and everyone, myself included, appeared very satisfied with the production after it had finished. I cannot fault the production itself at all.

I feel that I was lao able to perform my own roles to great effect as well. The majority of the work I was involved in was separate from the actual live show itself. Instead I was involved in the creation of Promotional Material and Behind The Scenes footage, serving as Camera Assistant and Sound Operator for both. 

During Promotions, my work as Assistant Camera was most effective. I had helped the Camera Operator to set up multiple shots and even advice on where the camera should be placed to gain the most effective shots and framing that we can. This shows in the final Promotional material where each shot and camera movement looks professional.

Working as sound operator seem superfluous, however, as we rarely even recorded any natural sound, as decided by the producers and director. This meant that I was just monitoring the sound levels on the camera's monitor rather than listening on the headphones. Even when we did record any natural sound, it was not used during the edit and does not feature in the final promotional material. However, for what I was able to do to contribute, I feel that I did it to the best of my ability.

On the other hand, my skills as sound operator were better utilised during the recording of the Behind The Scenes. As most of the recorded footage was unplanned, this meant that the recording process was a lot more scattered. Therefore we had set up the equipment very quickly and adapt the settings for both the camera and sound for multiple different shots. I had to change the settings for sound with every different shot, meaning that my skills were tested a lot more. It was a balancing act of trying to keep natural background noise, but then allowing whoever is being interviewed to be heard clearly without distortion. Despite this, however, I feel that I was very successful i this and the sound quality during the edited Behind The Scenes is very good and professional.

My last job, which was also successful, was creating and sourcing music for parts of the studio production. I had good feedback from the producers and directors on the music I had created and was easily able to work on what they thought should be changed. Unfortunately, the music I was living up to my own scrutiny and I eventually decided that I should source other music to edit. This gained positive feedback and thus I successfully delivered high quality pieces of music that were eventually used during the actual live show production.

Overall strengths:

- Working as a team.

- Assisting the Camera Operator.

- Delivering high quality sound on shoots.

- Acting as adviser during shoots.

- Creating, sourcing and editing high quality music for the live production.

Negatives:

- Not having all of my strengths properly utilised all of the time.

- Certain mistakes were made on behalf of the Camera Operator and I, meaning that we had to reshoot on of the Promotions.

Overall however, I do feel that the final culmination of the Promotional Work, Behind The Scenes, Music and the final 'As Live' Studio Production was a great success. Everyone had a professional attitude and all roles were performed to the highest standard.

Promotion Material: Final Edits

Here are the final edits of the Promotional Material:

Youtube:
The Teaser/ Title Sequence:

Found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrQauL5zzrM
(This is not the final version as it is not available on Youtube, the only difference from this compared to the final cut is the font for the titles).

Facebook:
Promotional Trailer:
https://youtu.be/kbAXA6qj_Nw