Your Stage : Real composer stories from working in the field. by Irv Johnson

https://vimeo.com/293914490

This is the opening title sequence for Soul To Keep, an indie horror I film scored recently and who had its world premiere at Shriekfest18. This sequence was added after film lock and just before I was finished with the score. After some test screenings, the directors decided to add this sequence in, coming in right after a flash forward set up. They wanted to implement a dark "historical" context to the demon in this film, Beezlebub (Lord of the Flies), using drawn illustrations and music. Originally, they were going to license a death metal track as they felt it expressed the darkness they wanted to evoke, while propelling the story forward, underneath moving images.

When I got the new film and heard the licensed track, I thought that the themes I discovered while scoring the film, would function better than the licensed track. Not that the death metal track wasn't dark enough, it was more that underscore tends to give more room and context under picture (hence underscore) rather than licensed music. As a fixed static piece, a licensed track has a particular structure to it: meter, tonality, melody and refrain that draws attention to itself to inspire the listener to like it, whereas underscore is an emotional language that frames a larger story, using music and moments that help to put an emotional connection to what we see, hear and learn. As always, the director is the law when it comes to score and film and so I had to win them over with what I wrote as opposed to explaining with words. The link is what the result was (after a few revisions).

Curious if any directors, producers, art directors or other composers have some thoughts on my composition and opinion about this? Thanks!!