Back during the first semester, as we were introduced to the idea of making these types of films, a common question was to do with the use of material produced by others, a key example being music. The response was that it was accepted and perhaps even expected in our first year projects, however in the second and third years it wouldn't be considered professional (not an exact quote but certainly the message they were trying to convey). Without going on a tangent of media law and the ins-and-outs of 'fair use policy', the use of copyright material isn't so straight-forward but these things are all very real aspects in the working world (most notable film and television production). Sure, the CC (Creative Commons) domain has a lot of good material, and even we used a Creative Commons licensed piano score for our first project, 'Watch Yourself!', however getting hold of such things generally involves searching through a Creative Commons archive and using trial and error to 'find the type of sound you're looking for' (whether it's music or sound effects, such as a door-slam or an explosion). In some situations these can be ideal, however one idea from a musician's perspective is 'why not create the sound you're looking for?'.
As a matter of fact, this idea has already arose in this year's groups. Paddy Johnson was able to write an original score for his group's semester 1 project, The Trouble with Maisie (a heavily-strummed duo guitar piece with some gypsy/jazz influence). It can work brilliantly when done well (more often than not with a proper condenser microphone) however Paddy's piece was most likely recorded from a mobile phone or laptop built-in microphone, with reverb and other sound effects added during the post-production. One could argue whether that is any more professional than just taking an artists song from the internet and using that, but nevertheless they made the best out of what they had which is what matters at this stage.
Because music is an extensive hobby of mine I wanted to invest in some reasonably good recording equipment - after 'working my way up' from a 20 quid omnidirectional mic to a slightly more dear multi-pattern one - the main component of which is a studio-quality mic from Sontronics (below:)
I'll spare you the technical specs, but do wish to show you how it sounds:
This is a piece I recorded using the mic, as well as my own Acoustic Guitar and Xylophone (both of which offer very good sound for the mic to pick up).
This is a photo of my 'workstation' when it comes to recording, me also trying to make the best of what I have on-hand every day (which is good whenever receiving a brief which needs to be further developed in just a single week.) It would be really nice to work with other members of the group, such as the director who might have a sound or style of music in mind which would work to echo the theme of the narrative or the mood at a certain time. The selection of instruments I've acquired over the years cover a variety of genres that may be considered for a production of ours, which is also useful. Of course, the mic can be used for all kinds of things, most notably to replicate non-diegetic sound (such as a character's own thoughts), phone calls or voice-overs.
The use of these resources will be subject to a few conditions. Of course, the first is that all members of the group are in favour and trust that myself (or whoever else steps forward to compose) will be able to deliver to the group's satisfaction. The second is that it's only used when desired and not forced into every project for the sake of it (i.e. it has to compliment the events on-screen). The third is that it would be in our interest to produce this type of original content as opposed to acquiring it by other means. Despite that it doesn't strictly fit into the categories of cinematography, screenwriting or directing - if no additional credit was given, then understandably, the whole creative process of writing an original score would simply be a waste of time by making more work for ourselves.
Anyway I'm gonna wrap this up because I think that's everything worth saying on the matter. I hope you enjoy my recording of '13.0.0.0.1' embedded above and perhaps even look forward to how we may use these resources in future. Peace!
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