Trailer music

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Trailer music describes the background music for trailers for movies , television series or computer games . It is designed to attract the interest and attention of the viewer or listener in a short time . Often melancholy or epic sound elements determine the music.

Problem

In a trailer, for example for a movie, selected scenes or excerpts from scenes are presented that represent different moods and feelings. The composer of the trailer music has to respond to these often abrupt changes and adapt the music. This can be minimal modifications, such as changing individual musical parameters , but also integrating a completely new melody with a different timbre .

A separate background music ( score ) is produced for the actual main film . This can usually not be reused for a trailer because it is designed to provide background for longer film scenes.

The music in the trailers should grab the audience's attention, but not be too much in the foreground. The trailers are often produced before the film is even finished; In this case, the composer usually only receives the cut of the trailer without the narrative voice. This makes it difficult to coordinate individual musical parameters, such as volume.

resources

Trailer music can come from a variety of sources, including:

Producers

Some producers produce mostly or even exclusively trailer music, including the composer John Beal , whose works have been used in trailers for more than 2000 films (including Forrest Gump , Star Wars , Matrix and True Lies ).

Many composers also create entire collections of trailer music that are sold as a complete work.

There are also some music libraries or production music labels that specialize in trailer music, with the music often being contributed by a larger group of different composers. The best-known producers include X-Ray Dog , Two Steps From Hell , Immediate Music , Audiomachine , Position Music , Epic Score and Music Junkies. Music Junkies, which was founded in 1992 by music supervisor Ruben Nava, was the first music catalog to specialize purely in high-caliber, commercial trailer music, making it the first trailer music agency in the history of 'motion picture advertising'.

production

Composing and producing a piece can take several months. In the case of more complex productions, a live orchestra is often used for the recording. A lot of trailer music, however, is still made entirely on the computer. The combination of orchestral sounds or an orchestra with electronic elements is also popular nowadays (so-called "hybrid trailer music"). The thickening of live orchestra recordings with sample sounds is also common.

Increased fee claims from publishers for the licensing of existing pieces of music encouraged and encouraged the composing of their own trailer music. Some portals also have GEMA-free trailer music for which no royalties have to be paid.

Typing, marketing and sound samples

There are typical characteristics for trailer music, but one cannot always speak of a genre of its own. In the typing of trailer music, frequent caesuras (short pauses after "decadence") are noticeable, which make little sense from a purely musical point of view, but which make editing work much easier for the trailer producer. Similar to film music produced in Hollywood, the music is often made to sound with very large orchestras. In some productions, however, the music is created entirely in the DAW .

It is not uncommon for the music to be instrumental; The music is enriched with digital post-processing in the recording studio (editing, mixing, mastering) and digital and / or live overdubs in order to achieve the monumental 'Bigger Than Life Sound' typical of trailer music.

Often the releases, which are mostly only available digitally, are passed on to trailer producers on large hard disk drives, and are therefore often only indirectly addressed to the general public. Nevertheless, trailer music is now partly published as pure “enjoyment music”, and mainly distributed and consumed via streaming services. The music is often divided into sub-genres such as "Family Adventure", "Epic Hybrid", or "Dark Fantasy".

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Scoring Trailers. An interview with John Beal. 1993, accessed September 21, 2011 .
  2. Babylon AD Official Trailer on YouTube
  3. The Da Vinci Code official trailer on YouTube
  4. I Am Legend - Movie Trailer on YouTube
  5. Sunshine Trailer on YouTube
  6. ^ Valley Of Flowers trailer on YouTube
  7. variety.com: Razor-thin copyright line ( Memento of the original from August 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Approximating temp music for trailers is tricky business, accessed on September 21, 2011 (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.variety.com
  8. John Beal's website ( Memento of the original from February 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. References, accessed on September 21, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.composerjohnbeal.com
  9. Pagewizz.com: An Epic Trend - Trailer Music ( Memento of the original from June 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed September 21, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pagewizz.com
  10. The Story of Music Junkies by Ruben Nava - Trailer Music News. Retrieved September 24, 2018 (UK English).