Film Music Composition in 5 Examples

Nearly every short film we create contains a musical score. The focus of each short is almost never on the music, but each film would simply fail to function without it. Many people don’t notice the significance of the score, because if the music is doing its job properly, it won’t draw much attention to itself, but rather serve to enhance the story and characters.

After writing more than 80 musical cues for dozens of shorts under the Make-Believe Machines moniker, I’ve decided to take time to highlight five projects in which the music was especially significant. For each film, I’ve stripped out the dialogue and sound effects and rendered a music-only version, which you can watch to see how the score interacts with different moments in the story. (Clicking a film’s title will take you to the normally-mixed version.) Below each of these, I’ve written some commentary about the musical challenges each project posed and the decisions I made in response. Each musical cue is separately embedded alongside the commentary, so you can listen to them individually if you’d like.

This is my first score for a dramatic (non-comedy) film, and I really enjoyed working on it. There were three key pieces written for this film — one for the opening sequence, one for the credits, and the largest piece for the chase-centered bulk of the film. Note to Self is, in some ways, an action movie, but one with a tragic emotional core. The music needed to reflect both of these aspects — the main piece is centered around a rapid pizzicato rhythm that reflects and builds the tension and urgency of the story, while the chords played by the strings and organ emphasize the main character’s emotions. As the story intensifies and it becomes known that the female lead may be in danger, piano is added atop the pizzicato rhythm and distorted drums mark the beginning of each string swell.