Planning my trailer: cont 2 (Music)

{ November 26, 2010 @ 12:11 pm } · { A2 Work, Trailer Planning }
{ Tags: music }

The music I used in my trial trailer was (an edited version of) ‘Noir’ by Yuki Kajiura. It was edited in that I cut it down in length, and slowed it down to 90% normal speed. Slowing the speed also lowered the pitch slightly, which made it slightly more sinister, which was pleasing. It also made the music fit the timnig of the clips better.

Other options for music that I have found include:

• Rockabye Baby’s cover of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana.
  • The track is slow and melodic, but with a creepy feel. It begins quite calm (an eerie sort of calm) and gradually builds up, without becoming too dramatic. I would need certain clips to make it more scary, but it would certainly start to make a really good atmosphere for my trailer.
• ‘Haunted Music Box’ by Sirfinix.
  • This sounds more like a conventional music box tune than the Nirvana cover. That said, it is definitely a creepy music box tune. The clear rhythm of the ‘chimes’ would be useful in a trailer (with the timing of the clips, pace of the trailer, etc).
• The last few seconds of ‘What You Don’t Know’ by Jonatha Brooke
  • Although there’s only about 10 seconds of this, the chimes are very sweet and innocent. However, as they end they turn a little bit darker.

Non-music box:

• 3:23-3:40 of ‘Collide’ by Skillet
  • The piano tune isn’t exactly music box music, but is quite creepy (possibly because of the guitars left in the background). It still sounds quite dark because of the guitar, but the piano tune would (on its own) be quite innocent and nice.
• ‘Coming Undone’ by Korn
  • Particularly the chorus. There’s a good beat, and the way the chorus comes in (“Wait / I’m coming undone”) could be fitted with a sudden ‘action clip’. However, I don’t know how I’d make the transition from ‘music box tunes’ to a quite fast rock song. I’d have to see how it fit together in my storyboard.
• The opening of ‘So Cold’ by Breaking Bejamin.
  • It’s a slow, base-y opening, without any other instruments at first. It could be used for an opening shot, but again I don’t know how well it would fit with the music box tunes.
• ‘Prelude 12/21′ by AFI
  • It begins like the chimes similar to a music box tune. Other instruments then begin to come in, but it sounds quite creepy at the begining.
    • Note: I’ll have to go looking for an instrumental version (without vocals) to see if that is more like what I want.

Blending the two types:

Considering I want to use a mix of music box (MB) and non music box (NMB) I have considered how I want to blend them together. I have decided that the opening music will be an MB theme, to establish the creepy, distorted-innocence theme of the trailer. The NMB music will be used to emphasise a sudden, action shot. The NMB music may also be linked to another typical horror convention (e.g. a weapon, or an attack (linking to either the murder/death convention, or the blood/gore convention), etc.)