Film scoring/Butchering Midi

Interesting examples by FIREborn: Fear.ogg ---- Sad.ogg ---- Tired.ogg ---- Surprise.ogg ---- Joy.ogg ---- Fast like the wind.ogg.

This school is:: Narrative film production - Wikiversity Film School and School of Music - Wikiversity Film School

This course is:: Film scoring

The pages in the course is:

Introduction to film scoring

Create the sound of fear from a single note

Create other moods from a single note

Create the sound of joy using a delicate rhythm

Create other moods from delicate rhythms

Quiz: Music which tells a story

Create a mood with a melody

Create a story with a melody

Quiz: The Spy Story - Who is who?

DVD-Video: Scoring your first scene - The Promotion

Create four motifs - Mama, papa, baby, and Goldie

Create continuity with a single motif

Foreground / Background music - soft vs. loud

Quiz: Watch a short movie - George Lucas In Love

DVD-Video: What is a "Spotting Session"? - Only A Dream

DVD-Video: Write two musical cues for Home Wrecker

More musical theory

Butchering Midi - The starwars theme ← You are here!

DVD-Video: How would you score Green Tea Smoothie ?

DVD-Video: Write a film score for Blindman's Bluff

Write a film score for Seduced by the Dark Side!

Locate the midi file

Step 1 - Locate the file on the Internet

There are a large number of midi files on the Internet. I want you to work with a midi file from Starwars. I am specially interested in the music from the first Starwars movie. The name of this file is "swtheme.midi". Use Google to find this file and download it to your computer. One URL is http://www.galaxyfaraway.com/Sounds/swtheme.mid.

Using GarageBand?

If you are using GarageBand, before you start, open the MIDI file ("swtheme.midi") in Movie Player of QuickTime Pro. Then export the MIDI file as a MIDI file. (Yes, that seems a bit dumb but it cleans up the file for GarageBand.)

Find the file with Google

One URL is http://www.galaxyfaraway.com/Sounds/swtheme.mid.

If you have any problem, I can email a copy of the file to you.

Extract three moods

Step 2 - Extract moods

Give me three files

A mood from a single chord.
A mood from delicate rhythm
A mood from a melody.

Stealing: All you do is steal the notes and maybe smooth them out. Basically, all you are doing is thinning the file down to only a few notes.

I will add more instructions later. For now, try it then email me.

GarageBand with the midi file

click on picture to enlarge

Listen to these examples

Musical mood: Fanfare mystery.ogg
Musical mood: Ending short.ogg
Musical mood: Short bang.ogg
Musical mood: Tension.ogg
Musical mood: Long drama.ogg
Musical mood: Bold 2.ogg
Musical mood: Bold.ogg
Musical mood: Mystery.ogg
Musical mood: Awakening.ogg
Musical mood: Ending long.ogg
Musical mood: Bang long.ogg
Musical mood: Attention long.ogg
Musical mood: Attention.ogg

These are OGG files which is a type of audio file. If you need help setting up your computer to play OGG files, go to Wikipedia:Media help (OGG)

Completed Homework Assignments - The lesson on creating film cues by borrowing from Midi files.

Examples of musical cues ripped from Midi files
for the course on film scoring for musicians

Ben Henderson (Cubinoid) has created musical cues by extracting notes from midi files - 17 March 2008 - 10 points

A melody (Ogg file)

A delicate rhythm (Ogg file)

A chord (Ogg file)

The single chord mood is a fanfare - the beginning or ending of something important. I stripped some of the notes out, because they were forming a rhythm within the chord that didn't need to be there.

The rhythm is very delicate. I stripped a flute melody away from it to reveal it more fully.

The melody is very obviously Star Wars, but it has a slightly subdued feel to it, the feeling of continuing a struggle against oppression - it has quite a bit of movement and feeling to it.

Instructor's Suggestion: The instructor has created the same musical cues but with fewer notes. Fewer notes are better in some cases. What do you think?