Moments in the scene where the music will change.

What motivates a change in music?

• Character

  • Change in mood
  • Change in perspective
  • Comprehension/Realization
  • Discovers something about the world, themselves, or someone else

• Camera

  • Change in perspective - wide angle, zooming in, change of focus
  • Revealing something new

• Drama/Story

  • New characters appear
  • Characters reveal their secret plans, motivations, desires, etc
  • Moment of impact - literal of figurative - something happens externally in the world (the bomb hits the target, the couple shares their first kiss)
  • Something is said that can’t be taken back

Types of Sync Points

1. Hard — directly hits an edit
2. Soft — more of a shift where the timing may be a bit more nebulous

<aside> 💡

Be mindful of having too many action-oriented sync points. Think, instead, about using reactions to the action as the moment to change the music!

</aside>

Syncing your DAW to the Scene:

1. Adjust the tempo - either on a micro or macro level.
2. Add/remove beats (or sub-beats) - we tend to not notice when the meter varies - especially when adding beats to a phrase to hit a sync point. In fact, this extension of phrases often enhances the musicality of the cue.
3. Rubato (play freely, in reaction to picture). I do not recommend this for beginning film composers as it can prevent you from learning the essential skills in techniques 1 and 2. It also creates problems in recording musicians or editing the piece that require more advanced skills to rectify.

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