The Flanders International Film Festival is a meeting point for film music aficionados. Each year, the subject of the competitiion is the impact of music in film. This year around, “Cyclo” (a Vietnamese “Bicycle Thief”-like film) won first prize as best film and as best film score by Ton That Tiét.

Of the 28 films I saw at the Film Festival (I’ve still not recovered, and I didn’t see “Cyclo”), the two most interesting films were “When Night if Falling”, a brilliant Canadian film about a lesbian relationship, with music by Lesley Barber; and “The Daughter-In-Law” a Taiwanese film by Steve Wang with stunning music by Shih-Jei-Yong, a beautiful romantic score, aptly blending Chinese ethnic music and traditional western scoring with striking use of female choir.

There were several projections of silent films, including Fritz Lang’s “Frau im Mond”, with an avant-garde score by Denis Levaillant and “Rapdosia Satanica”, an Italian film from 1915 by Nino Oxilia with an original score by opera composer Pietro Mascagni. Equally interesting were the two lectures given on Sunday, 15 October by Bruce Broughton and Leonard Rosenman.

Broughton visited the Festival for the first time six years ago, conducting a short suite from Y”Young Sherlock Holmes”. It was nice seeing him again. He did not discuss his own career but talked about the use of music in an interactive environment: games, CD-ROM and theme parks.

The situation in the entertainment world is constantly changing. Composers are using synthesizers and computers instead of composing at the piano the way they used to. But even with all these new media (there are currently close to 50,000,000 CD-ROM players in the world), certain things never change; for example musical associations, for there is a certain type of music which we associate with westerns, thrillers, detective stories, comedies, and so on. Music can change the sense of the drama.

Broughton started with a clip from “The Rescuers Down Under”. Music in animation can create a different sense of timing, its use is much more realistic now (Menken’s scores for the Disney pictures are a good example) and has outgrown the mickey-mousing technique.

“Rescuers” is somewhere in-between. Broughton showed us the scene (with and without music) where the boy rescues the eagle and is then given a ride on its back. The music gives spirit to the animation. Events and speed are interpreted and show how you are supposed to feel in terms of dramatic context. (Menken’s scores are actually very simple and work along longer lines to give you the illusion it is happening in real time). “Rescuers” was not so successful because it didn’t rely on songs, like most Disney pictures, but on straight music.

Theme parks are a source of inspiration for film music composers, and several film composers are working for theme parks on a regular basis (e.g. Basil Poledouris).

Some of these shows are based on famous films, such as the “Star Tours” (based on “Star Wars”). At first it was felt the ride would be stimulating enough without the music, but soon a composer was hired to adapt Williams’s music.

Broughton has scored 2 shows: “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience” and “Circle Vision”. “Honey” is a 3-D presentation with life sized characters on film and the audience on a stage platform. Only two cues are underscore.

“Circle Vision” (for Euro-Disney) is a show which runs on nine screens simultaneously in a circular room. It’s a presentation of the environment with the help of two robots that interact with characters on the screen. This show was later transferred to Japan and the USA, where some scenes were changed to adapt to American audiences. The music had to be adapted also.

Several other shows were also produced, for example “Space Mountain” (music by Steven Bramson). He had to make the bumpy ride several times with a stopwatch in order to adapt the music to the show. For the “Indian Jones’ ride, Williams’s music was adapted by Richard Bellis.

Not only was original music written for the show, but also for the pre-show, while people are standing in line. This music is done with a series of loops (repeating the same music over and over again).

Electronic interactive media create even more different problems, especially in the field of edutainment and games. Prompt loops (i.e., instances when a player has to make a decision) are used and are usually scored for synth because of budget restrictions and memory space, and they are usually done not by real composers but by programmers or engineers. Sequences usually end with a button or a tail and are also done for synth. Also, the story portions are synth. These musical fragments are of minor interest. They are always in the same key and they don’t go anywhere.

Broughton showed us a clip from a CD-ROM game called “Heart of Darkness”. This game was scored by Broughton and is the very first game with an orchestral score. Broughton got the assignment after the makers had seen “Rescuers”. It’s the story of a boy who is afraid of the dark and who has to undergo several tests. The animation is computerized and there is almost half an hour of animated story with music. The game itself is actually a series of little pieces. It may take up two hours or a whole day before you get to the end. However, the risk is that children may prefer to skip the story and go directly to the game.

“Mist” is another game, soon to be scored by Mark Isham.

Composed for films and games can be a totally new kind of occupation. Even bad composers can become great by using the Performer program, marketing by Macintosh. Techniques that were never available before like ‘chunking’ (which means you can put musical pieces in any order you want) can make it much easier.

I felt that, in the end, orchestrators would no longer be necessary…

Rosenman’s lecture was of a more personal nature. He talked about his career (film music came about by accident), his aesthetics, and finally he showed two clips from “Cross Creek”.

The most important thing to remember about film music is that the score has to fit the film, but music and film are two different kinds of professions, and they both move in time with two kinds of psychology: a real psychology and an imaginative one, which is determined by sound, rhythm, color, orchestration, instruments, etc.

Film is always the primary element and music is its subsidiary. Film is a powerful stimulus. Music is an abstract element. Actually, one picture is worth a thousand words or a million notes.

“What is music supposed to do in film? Let’s illustrate it with a hypothetical example. Let’s have the image of a plane flying above a large city: there are two possibilities:

1) The music is busy like the city, crowded, noisy. The combination of music and realism gives us a natural sound; this is naturalism; or,

2) The music expresses something you can’t see or hear: we can use a solo sax, or a hobo or a flute to express the loneliness. The music will tell you a story: this is idealistic use of music.”

It’s important to understand that music unifies the film stylistically. This element is missing when several orchestrators actually write the music for a film. Two clips from “Cross Creek” illustrated this theory.

“Cross Creek” is the story of bestselling author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, who became famous with her novel The Yearling (filmed in 1946 by Clarence Brown with Gregory Peck). After leaving her husband she moves to the Cross Creek backwoods in Florida to fulfill her childhood dreams of becoming a writer. Her manuscripts are always being rejected by her publisher. Becoming more and more frustrated, she is finally encouraged to try writing from personal experience instead of the Gothic romances that she has been writing all along. She will write about the simple people in Cross Creek and become successful with The Yearling.

1) We see some local people humming a tune. She gets her manuscript back. We hear the tune of the simple people and she starts to write. The music is illustrating what is going on and this segues into a counterpoint between her theme and the tune of the simple folk.

2) She has to make a decision: either stay or go back to New York (actually admitting her defeat). Intending to return to New York, she starts rowing a boat, but falls asleep. In the end, she decides to row back. In order to show the audience that she made a decision before she decided to turn back, the music has to aim for a certain chord. Finally, the music ends with the creative theme.

Full marks to the Ghent Film Festival for a smooth, well-run organization and sincere dedication. Jerry Goldsmith may be a long-awaited guest next year…