In the 70´s before John Williams took over(?) the scene in film scoring, there had been a decade with lots of experimentation with other kinds of music; rock, electronic, folk. For the last 40 year orchestras has been taking a part in almost every, at least major, release.
Nowadays more and more synth music has taken over, an orchestral music has become more "bland" and "underscory".
What do you feel about your own projects? When does orchestral music fit in, or does it? At all?
That is not true. mission impossible fallout and crazy rich asians hired composers and a full orchestra ensemble.
The creatives in charge will decide
Full orchestra is for big budget films. anything below 10m needs licensed or canned music because you cannot afford to record and produce that music.
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May I recommend a powerful documentary called "Score." It addresses the changes in film scoring today and features many of the great film composers. I agree, there is no substitute for live strings and brass etc on a sound stage. However, I am using a new sound engine called Omnisphere 2 which comes close in many of the onboard instrument and vocal samples. What else can an Indie film maker do if they only have one or two thousand dollars for music?
I used Omnisphere 2 on 90 percent of this short iPad video shot in Israel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSurf6vPgQE&feature=youtu.be
I still hear a great deal of orchestral music but I do wonder (as Willen said above) if some of the trend away from it is the difficulty of producing authentic sounding orchestral music from 'the box'. I'd like to think it's also about being creative with sound, creating new sound palettes, and developing different ways to add colour and emotion to scores...
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The trend in film music, it seems, is mixing orchestral elements with synths and sound design. Some forecast that the use of electronics, also when it comes to the orchestral parts, will be more common.
I myself spend a lot of time doing mock-ups, mostly because that´s the affordable way to try out different orchestral ideas.
Some directors/producers, even high-end ones, have been presented with such mockups and don´t see the reason to put in extra cash for recording a real orchestra. But if they hear a piece with midi-mockup followed by a real recording of the same piece they certainly hear, or more important -feel- the difference, and often go for it.
Budget wise there are cheaper ways of getting that feel, and that is by using smaller ensembles. String quartets, accompanied woodwinds and such. Yes, full orchestras demand a higher budget but there are many things in between that and "canned music".
Of course, it depends on the scene, but isn´t art people speaking to other people? Meaning music performed by people, not computers, comes through in a stronger way.
Apart from budgeting, will orchestral music (or ensemble music with traditional instruments) still have a place in film music, and for how long?
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The simple answer is no.