Adventures in Film Music: Scenes+Sessions 2024
- Chiron Farrimond
- Apr 8, 2024
- 3 min read
Recently, I had the pleasure of participating in a project in association with the University of Aberdeen. The project, 'Scenes+Sessions', is the second and more expansive iteration of a project envisioned and played out last year at the same university with the help of UoA's 'Development Trust'. Xavier Lo designed and organised last year's project with the help of Sam Griffiths and myself. This year was similarly developed and built by myself (technical and audio engineering), Sam Griffiths (film score inception), Xavier Lo (co-ordination, planning and conducting) and Jonathan Worsley (orchestration).
Scenes+Sessions aims to allow music students from the University of Aberdeen to have a piece of their compositions recorded with a professional ensemble with guidance from the four main organisers. This involved a series of workshops that eventually led to three main recording sessions on the 30th and 31st of March 2024. Each workshop covered a specific area of film music structure and composition. In essence: writing music with respect for the chosen ensemble, how to 'spot' (meaningfully synchronise time signature and tempo with film), and creating (and the standards of) sheet music as well as the technical specifics on how to generate orchestral templates, mock-ups and click tracks. Furthermore, two post-recording workshops are planned to cover basic mixing/mastering and insights into industry contracts and business customs. Workshops with Jonathan dealt with orchestration; Xavier with film music theory, notation/editing; Sam with DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)-based film scoring, contracts and business; and myself with DAW setup, templates, mixing/mastering.
The photo above is representative of the technical and instrumental setup used in 2023 brought forward for music students to be able to compose again for this year. Students were given clips of varying levels to choose from so that they could write music at a comfortable level. A 9-microphone setup captured all aspects of the instrument and room sound. This included close mic-ing the piano separately as a stereo pair (Rode NT1A) in 'player position', 3 spot mics for the strings (AKG P420 & MXL 770), ORTF overheads (Austria CC8) in the centre of the room aimed at the strings and finished off with Blumlein room/reverb mics (AKG P420) set far back inline with the overhead microphone. I was thoroughly impressed at the scores written this year and the students involved should be proud of what they have achieved.
The additional ensembles recorded this year were the UoA Orchestra conducted by Prof. Chris Collins (who performed the concert version of the 'Estelle' (2024, dir. Milli Lo) theme composed by Xavier Lo/Jonathan Worsley and orchestrated by Jonathan Worsley) and the UoA Spectrum Ensemble who graciously recorded contemporary film scores composed by Sam Griffiths, Xavier Lo, Jonathan Worsley and myself. All four of us scored the same film so students could see the different approaches that professional composers took from contrasting music industry routes. Sam, Jonathan and Xavier come from a mix of trailer-orchestral, traditional orchestral and Jazz beginnings whereas I come from a strong electronic background. The ensemble consisted of piano, classical guitar, violin, viola, 3 flautists, clarinet, 2 saxophonists, trumpet, tuba and 2 percussionists. A nice little twist on the traditional film scoring approach and great to be involved in.
The larger ensemble recording sessions used nearly double the amount of microphones of the string quartet session coming in at 14 microphones. The purpose here was to give the same mixing control through overhead, close and room microphones. The diagram below better shows the setup used during the UoA Spectrum Ensemble recordings.
Scenes+Sessions 2024 was an absolute blast to be a part of this year and I hope myself and the rest of the team will be able to build upon the great work realised this year again for 2025. Links to those involved can be found below. Thanks to all involved.
Organisers
Sam Griffiths - https://www.samgriffithsmusic.com
Xavier Lo - https://www.xavierlomusic.com
Jonathan Worsley - https://www.jonathanworsley.co.uk
Chiron Farrimond - https://www.chirontobiasfarrimond.com
Performing Ensembles
Prof. Chris Collins (UoA Orchestra) - https://www.abdn.ac.uk/sll/people/profiles/chris.collins
UoA Spectrum Ensemble - https://www.abdn.ac.uk/music/contemporary-music-group-132.php
Piano & String Quartet
Lliam Paterson, Piano - https://www.instagram.com/legrandpianist/ Aaron McGregor, 1st Violin - https://aaronmcgregor.com
Aden Mazur, 2nd Violin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aden-mazur-56719a84/
Ewa Bartmann, Viola
Alison MacDonald, Cellist - https://twitter.com/alisonmacdonal7
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