Home Movies (1954)

A Home Movies Travelogue per day including breakfast or from 175/ $24.50) to 250/ $57.40) per week on the inclusive basis, again adding service. Other hotels cost from 12/6 ($1.75) to 30/ ($4.20) per day, including breakfast. Your main source of transportation around Dublin is conveniently handled by the public services, and of course, your own two feet. The buses *se DUBLIN on Page 16 I n 4 I * t"" m 1 ■ Campanile of Trinity College Christ's Church in Dublin The Dublin Bank O'Connor Street looking north Last month we discussed basic musical forms and analyzed them briefly from the standpoint of their inherent functional characteristics. We also learned that in the functional application of music to a motion picture, the determining factor for making our choice is the dominant emotional character of the scene and the degree of its emotional quality. To clarify a statement made in last month's article where I said that neutral music often takes on the emotional qualities of the pictorail material, or vice versa, may I point out that if music without character is applied to pictorial material without character, such a double negative adds nothing to either the pictorial or musical character. BEFORE taking up the practical application of music to motion pictures, I wish to call attention to the two basic techniques that are used in the professional field. The first is what is known as "Mickey Mouse" scoring. As the name implies, this type of scoring has its fullest application in cartoon subjects. Cartoon stories are developed mainly through action and have little inherent emotional character. Due to this fact, there is no emotional quality upon which musical development can be based. Therefore, the composer has only pictorial action upon which to estblish his musical development. Hence, if the composer is to establish any character in his score, his only recourse is to 'tie' the music to the action of the picture. Thus the technique of musically cueing nearly every action of the characters has come into being. In 'live action' pictures we find that emotional characteristics are the dominant factor, as a rule. Therefore, most musical scoring of 'live action' pictures is done in free style or over all mood music. In this technique, the musical cueing of action is also used By DOW GARLOCK (Port III) to some degree, but this 'action cueing' is usually done for dramatic effect and not necesarily just to be following the action. Mickey Mouse scoring does appear quite often in pictures of lighter dramatic quality, particularly with comedy situations where the musical cueing is done strictly for comedy effect. So here are the two basic techniques of musical scoring . . . Mickey Mouse and Free Style. Since the amateur s primary source of musical material is records, I would like to suggest two methods that I have found helpful in locating particular musical material in a record. Where critical 'spotting' is not required, like when dubbing from records onto magnetic tape for subsequent editing and critical cutting, you will find the 'marker', illustrated in Figure 1. helpful in relocating a previously selected strain. Cut a piece of cardboard as illustrated so that the end extends about two inches beyond the edge of a 12 inch record. Make calibration along the edge of the 'marker' 1/16 of an inch apart and number them as shown. Then the location of a particular musical strain can be noted on your musical sequence breakdown in some such manner as, — Rachmaniniff, Svmphony No. 2. Side 2. Marker 884. To relocate a predetermined spot critically, play the record down to the desired strain, stop the record (by hand) exactly 'at' the desired starting place. Leaving the needle on the record, back up the record by hand to the equivalent of one second. (Approximately II/3 turns for 78 RPM records). Affix a piece of splicing tape (for splicing magnetic tape ) to the record right up against the needle, as shown in Figure 2. The splicing tape offers two advantages, — 1st, the adhesive will not come off on the record when the tape is removed and 2nd, since the tape has a smooth surface, the needle can be placed down on the tape and care• See MUSIC on Page 30 13