Welcome back to Scoring for Films by Vito Lo Re and Fabrizio Campanelli. So, today we are talking about a very important and also quite complex topic because we will analyze - through the images and sound of the film "Arrival" - a series of aspects that composers often have to deal with: the relationship between the soundtrack and sound design, mixing, sound editing... So, not only aspects purely related to the relationship between music and image. We decided to analyze a score written by the lamented Jóhannsson. When Fabrizio suggested this score to me, I was a bit skeptical. Then I went to listen to it and I said: damn, this is some serious stuff...

Those who saw "Jóhannsson" on the end credtits may think that the entire score is by Jóhannsson. The original music is, but the parts more related to emotion - at the beginning and end of the film - are from pre-existing music by Max Richter: "On The Nature Of Daylight." Something that costed Jóhannsson his Oscar nomination. However, the soundtrack did receive a BAFTA nomination. it's not the emotional aspect of these pieces what we are interested in, we want to see how they were created, how they were produced... why today a composer should create certain sounds "in-house" instead of choosing the easier option: using a library with thousands of sounds, listening and picking. Why should we create these sounds "in-house"?

You would be more qualified to answer than me, but I'm happy to answer myself. We should create these sounds in-house because the added value of something that was not taken from a library is artistically, intrinsically, and undeniably superior. Now, I know very well that young composers always have big budget and time constraints. But these operations are not necessarily expensive or time-consuming, right? No, they require creativity, and tools help creativity... Creativity is a fundamental part of sound research and one's own language; this is the strongest point of this film, which we will now look at in the first scene with the helicopter, where we see a stunning, breathtaking aerial view.

The film is by Villeneuve. Villeneuve has always worked with Jóhannsson, creating a truly original world, which is part of the signature style, not only of the composer but also of the director. The director - by helping the composer in the search for a precise and specific language for his film - helps himself. From Jóhannsson’s “school” emerged Hildur Guðnadóttir who today is highly celebrated and awarded. In fact, you’ll see Guðnadóttir listed as a cello player in the film’s credits. Let's now understand why we love this scene so much.

This film, more than others, should really be listened to with headphones to fully appreciate the work done by the sound designers as well as the composer. So, what work was done here? They themselves have said that they treated the scene as if it were some kind of dreamlike bubble. The protagonist, faced with such a disruptive event, feels detached, outside of the ordinary. Here, the spaceship appears, and we hear processed voices. And these voices - which literally transport us to another world - are placed on a drone.

The sound drone is formed by a layering of unique sounds, which we will explore shortly. The muffled sound world of this dreamlike bubble gradually becomes - as the helicopter lands at the base - increasingly open to the sounds of the scene: foley sounds emerge, ambient sounds emerge, military noises emerge, and so from the dream bubble, we descend back to Earth, and here we finally hear the sounds fully opened. We talked about the relationship between composer and foley; also in Blade Runner because Vangelis had created part of the sound. So, something advantageous happened for the composer: the sound designers came in after the music had already been written. This has a great advantage and a small problem. The advantage is that obviously the two elements don’t clash: it often happens that our music might collide in some way with the work done by the sound designer.

In this case, it didn’t happen because the sound designers adapted to what Jóhannsson had done. On the other hand, the boundary between the score and sound design is very thin, and it’s not always easy to tell what contribution came from one and what came from the other. Exactly. If anything, the best result is NOT knowing who contributed what. Now, let’s look at how the drone was created on the piano. Let's go see it over there.

So, here we are, ready to record the piano in a less traditional, not quite orthodox way. We compose this particular sound starting from a piano note: the lowest C we have. We heard the attack, and then we hear the slow decay of the sound. That's what will particularly interest us when we start manipulating the sound. Then, we go to the C just above it. Then the G.

C. E, G, and B-flat. It vaguely resembles the natural harmonic series. And now it's time to take everything we've recorded and manipulate it. We've recorded our piano chord. Jóhannsson used a tape.

He used a multi-track and made the tape loop infinitely. By doing so, he overlaid the notes as the tape kept looping. We recorded the notes separately because our Cubase, in this case, acts as an infinite tape. To make it infinite, we used the infinite delay plugin: Timeless. Our piano notes, all played together, sound like this... with their normal attack.

The attack mostly gives the sense of timbre, meaning that we know it's a piano because we hear the attack. If we remove the attack from a sound, it changes a lot... Here it is... You've got a drone ready for your next soundtrack, if you want... Now, let's add the delay... And so it becomes like this.

This is what I’d like to emphasize: with a relatively small amount of time and the right knowledge, we’ve created a sound that is ours... We didn't just take any drone or any loop. It’s something original, something we could even sing over... There’s a singer who then - filtered and processed - created those strange vocalizations that transport us into a completely alien world. The drone, or this kind of sound, gives the impression of something mechanical. But the moment we add the voice, you hear something alive...

You see the spaceship and perceive that inside, there is something alive... What would happen if we kept adding all the tracks we’ve recorded? We've created a small sonic world. This progression can suggest the idea of construction, of an opening... Many times, we jokingly said: "Don't try this at home!"... but in this case...

do it at home! This way of working between the director, the editor, and the composer allows us to go beyond the use of temp tracks. When a composer is lucky enough to have a director who gives him creative freedom and that freedom is used to create something truly unique, not just aesthetically, but also in terms of creativity, ingenuity, and innovation... when something so new is used by the editor as a temp track, the film gains personality; being able to provide the editor with all your sonic experiments contributes to creating that linguistic material of the film. There was an old saying: "Soundtracks are never finished, they're delivered." Don't get too caught up in perfectionism; in this early phase, when you need to provide the editor with a temp track, it's important to deliver it as soon as possible; obviously with a result that you find satisfactory, but don't overanalyze every tiny detail at this stage... of course, you'll need to refine it for the final product, but at this stage, the sooner, the better.

Here, we are dealing with something that is the complete opposite of John Williams’ approach... How do you think John Williams would have interpreted this?... In an epic, dramatic way... I hear a strong theme that would have been amazing, but it would have given a completely different meaning to the scene, and if we're being honest— you know I have a statue of John Williams at my house— objectively, this approach is original... Going back to the seamless connection between music and sound design, let’s look at the first introduction of the aliens inside the ship... The little bird in the cage signals that everything is fine...

Sounds of unease... The aliens are arriving... It's a lot to take in. It gives me goosebumps... Even this scene, surely, Williams would have interpreted in a completely different way, but we’re not saying it’s ineffective... Heard in a cinema, with an insane audio system...

It’s an effect that we can analyze from this portato... How was this sound created? Strings, brass, and electronics. What I found extraordinary about this sound is that it’s different from what we usually hear. So it really gives you the feeling of something coming from another world... And in film music, doing something original doesn’t exactly happen every day...

We are now used to and oversaturated with VRAMs, shock sounds, in the sense of surprise. Maestro Zimmer, I definitively disagree! In today’s sonic language, being able to have such an innovative element that plays with surprise at a sonic level is truly remarkable... So, being able to give me goosebumps using conventional material is something extraordinary. It’s intuition that surpasses budget. Sure, he had the budget, but that’s another discussion; even if he had a tenth or a hundredth of the budget, he would have applied the same principle.

Intelligence and intuition don’t follow the budget—you can even do it at home with a teaspoon and a cheese grater—but intuition is the same. This is what distinguishes a great composer from a mediocre one: the ability to invent. Now, be careful not to fall into the cliché of when we see a contemporary painting and say: "I could have done that too..." Don’t make the same mistake in music. Because when professionals listen to this and are impressed by it... we usually don’t get impressed easily by just anything, especially since we hear so much of it... But when you hear something like this, you say: "Damn, that’s an idea..." Those fundamental elements at the core of the idea must be grasped by the brain, and they must feel organic.

And we can recognize them, but we also recognize the ability to put together a new form. And that’s the point. Not just any form— just like in drawing, right?— is capable of evoking a complete sensation or a fully realized aesthetic appreciation. There must be elements that we recognize in sound as well. So please: experiment. Because experimentation is the foundation of developing your own musical language and sonic identity.

So ask yourself: what can be your unique contribution to the scene you are watching? It doesn’t necessarily have to be the most original thing ever right away, but give it a try. And we’ll see you in the next episode. Bye!